Nasty Horror

Another gorgeous cover from Eric Powell.

Welcome back kiddies!

Well, as some of you may remember. I did, not only a review of the original Creepy, but I revisited it several times and in doing so did a review of each and every tale  in Dark Horse’s resurrected classic Creepy, issue number one. This is a new imagining in the tradition of the old EC style comics, more specifically in the vein of a few lovely comics published throughout the 60s and 70s by Warren publishing,

Dark Horse has apparently gotten rights to a lot of the original Creepy and Eerie material . Eerie was a sister publication to Creepy. Creepy was published bimonthly and Eerie was published bimonthly as well. So that each one would come out the month that the other one did not. The end result being a monthly horror comic. Very clever idea.

The new Dark Horse’s Creepy is supposed to come out quarterly. The second issue took a month longer than it was supposed to get the stores. I am told by the personable and brilliant gentleman who runs the comic book store (who, by way of fact, has an almost encyclopedic knowledge of all things comic.) that Dark Horse, often runs late on publication dates. I never fault a company for having practical issues they have to deal with. It’s lateness originally annoyed me, but only because I was afraid it wouldn’t come out at all. Once it finally hit the stands. I bought it.

Like the first one, it has 48 pages, all black-and-white except for the cover, which is again illustrated by Eric Powell, who I believe I’ve praised heavily from the first issue. He does beautiful work and I’m interested in doing some reviews on his other works. Maybe even an interview with him about his pre-Creepy works. Comment heavily if you want interviews.

Issue number one had 48 fear filled pages, whereas, issue number two has 48 pages of bloodsoaked terror, I don’t know about you, but I vastly prefer bloodsoaked terror to fear filled pages.

I don’t intend to beat this particular horse. This publication, which I am holding in my hand right now as I’m writing this has a cohesiveness that the first one did not achieve. The first one looked like a bunch of random crap slapped together between two covers. This one looks like it was meant to be between these two covers, if it sounds to you like I’m leading up to a good review of number two. You have a good ear. (or eye, if you are not having this read to you)

If you wish to go back and reread the various scratchings in May about the original. Feel free to do so. The original review can be found here. This review was then followed by six other reviews, one for each story in the magazine. Those stories in order were The Curse, Hell Hound Blues, Chemical 13, All The Help You Need, Loathsome Lore, and a Creepy classic. You can quickly get to any of these by just clicking on any of the titles I just mentioned. And now let’s get to it, shall we.

Eric Powell did a beautiful job on the cover. I love it. The contents of this issue are six stories. Although one of them isn’t a story. It is a vignette about the history of horror. That’s the loathsome lore, and one of them was not made originally for this publication. It’s actually a reprint from the old Creepy Magazine, and this is something else that I have to talk about.

In the original, they kind of screwed the pooch on this last one. I had read through a mediocre at best magazine and the last story in it though a reprint from a classic era of this magazine was a science fiction story. Not a horror story. Very disappointing to all concerned. Well, I think somebody at Dark Horse is actually reading my blog, Or, at the very least.,my opinion reflects popular opinion. Therefore they heard a lot of people saying the same things as I.

	This guy is up to something.

The story that opens the magazine is called Human Nature and character named Walter fancies himself a great

judge of character in the opening scenes. He standing in a crowded area. He looks at one person after another and tries to imagine their story. What’s going on in their head, and so forth. He makes a judgment call on a person that turns out to be completely wrong and the consequences of how the story turns out afterwards at the very least, belong in this magazine.

The second story is a beautiful idea, everything about it is done really well. The the title is Muscle-car and involves a car that runs on meat. You can probably guess where this one goes, but you really have to see it get there. It’s done really well and in this particular case, the harsh black-and-white style works. Next one.

The third story in the book is called Drawn-out. This one is an absolute classic, instantly recognizable as the style and genre and the way these things are supposed to be. I can’t say enough about it. I may have to do another review just talking about how good this is and why.

Then we come to the one I was worried about part two of The Curse. longtime fans of me will remember the curse as being the single stinkiest story in the entire first issue. It stank on ice, and I said that at that time, Because both of the men involved usually do amazing work, it was weird that this sucked so hard.. Fortunately it wasn’t the first story in the magazine, this time. It was relegated to fourth place.

I also mentioned thatthe artwork and the writng were so bad that when they got to the “shocking” end panel you couldn’t tell if his mother was dead, or just ugly or rotted. Or if she died just at that moment or she’d been dead for hundreds of years. So, I must quote Uncle Creepy. “When we last saw poor Jude, his boring life had taken a terrible, twisting turn. Soon after discovering he had the power to manipulate reality and make people think something was real, that really wasn’t… he found out his mother had been manipulating his own reality all along. His mother was dead. He’d been living a lie. But then, that’s the way things go when you’re saddled with… the Curse part two.”

So they explained what wasn’t clear in the first episode. That helped.

So in the new one and the artwork isn’t anywhere near as annoying as it was in the first one. Some of the panels are actually good. The main character still has a slimy persona. We find out that he killed his mother and then hangs around some weird friends and toward the end he does some kind of perverted Justice on somebody. You can’t quite figure out if he was doing it to get his jollies by hurting someone. Or if he was actually saving someone from somebody else’s dark fantasy. Tough call, but at least it’s more interesting than the first one was now I see there will be a third one. So all I can hope is that we’ll also be interesting. I have no reason now to expect that it won’t be. But I also have no reason to expect that it will be well written.

The second last piece in the book is called loathsome lore and is just a little overview of some old torture devices with nice illustrations of people being tortured with such devices. This one is done by Angelo Torres. I love Angelo Torres art, but Hilary Barta did a much better job Although, that being said, this is still gorgeous. It’s not a matter of comparing a good artist or bad artist. It’s a matter of comparing an artist with one style to an artist with a different style and both good. I merely think that Hilary’s style worked better for this piece.

I don’t know if this caption really needs another caption, but I did it anyway.

Then we come to the shadow of the axe. This story is absolutely gorgeous. I don’t know what it was originally taken from, other than Creepy. The artwork is flawless, has a lot of really good lighting. Excellent use of onomatopoeia.

If any one of the stories in this magazine had been in issue number one. It would have made the entire issue worth the five bucks. Now imagine having all five of these in one magazine. They could charge $25 for this magazine, and it would be worth every penny. I don’t know about you, but I’m stoked. I’m chomping at the bit I can’t wait to get my hands on number three.

…one more thing.

I remember complaining about their choice of shiny stock in the first issue. It might be my imagination, although the stock in the new issue is as smooth and seems almost as thin. It does have a little bit more body, I’m not sure if they actually did use a slightly better paper. Or if this was a normal anomaly of manufacturing or if maybe the contents of the magazine impressed me so much it made me think it was better paper. In any case, I love love love this issue. If I can figure out any way to do it there will be a link here for you to be able to buy it. If not then go to your local comic book dealer and ask for it if you don’t see it. I am definitely on board for Creepy number three, which should be out sometime in late January or February.(If we’re lucky)

Please join me again tomorrow kiddies, when I will be talking about something other than Creepy. I’ve been finding a lot of good websites out on the net with some very nice horror related stuff. I also found new comic books with a lot of good horror stuff. I intend to get the hardcover books by Roman dirge of the collected Works of Lenore, which have now been colored (they were originally black and white, duh). I also have all four issues of the new Richard Corben Work, called Star: The Slayer.

I found this lovely site the other day.  It seems to have much info about various comics and other forms of horror art.  It is at comicmonsters.com.  Go check it out.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the comic book shop.

The second issue of Dark Horse’s Creepy will be in stores on Wednesday.  This week.  Tomorrow.

Short notice? Yes.  If you want it you probably already knew that anyway.

I will get it.  I will read it. And I will be Writing about it on this very blog.  But I am not as hopeful about it as I was before I saw the first one.  And the letter I got from Dark Horse made it clear that they would not be following any of my suggestions.  So, barring miracles, it will probably suck.

I hope it is great.  I would certainly love to be pleasantly surprised.  We shall see.

It does take me time to read and then think and then get around to typing and uploading, So I would be amazed if there is anything about this mag on Wednesday.  But soon thereafter.

see y’all then

PS-And what of all the comics I mentioned in the last post that I would be writing about?  Keep your shorts on.  I’ll get to them when I get to them.  If you were all that excited abut it, you would be leaving mounds of comments.  Since you are not I need to assume that either I am posting for air, or that those who read this don’t care enough to comment.  Either way I don’t feel any great mandate to be vigilant.

PPS-I believe that the local fauna may be watching me.

PPPS-No, really.  For the past four days, every morning when I go out the front door, there is a squirrel sitting dead center on a fence across the street looking right at me.  After a few seconds of me staring back at him, he leaves nonchalantly.

Since the great day is so agonizingly close now, I thought I might throw my big hat into the “best movies of all time” ring. The ones I will be picking are personal choices.

I could research and do big important all time choices, but this is not that kind of article. This is about the best movies to watch when you want to really have fun with horror. Such as at a Halloween party or slumber party or, in my case, a Christmas Party.

I will list them in reverse awesomeness order, starting with number ten.

10 Ghost Story–It seems a bit dated now, but then it seemed dated when it was new. It’s just that kind of set up. This has some of the scariest moments of any film I have ever seen. It blew me away in the theatre. It also made me try to read Peter Straub’s books. I have yet to finish one. Though I keep being told they are wonderful.

9 Halloween-- The original John Carpenter film. It is not number one on the list but obviously it is a necessary part of any Halloween movie festivities. Not 2 or 4 or H2O or anything made by Rob Zombie.

8 This position is split. The film here is “Village of the Damned“, the original made in 1960 and starring George Sands. It was film noir style and had lots of dark undertones. It was about a village that fell unconscious one day and a few weeks later they discovered that all the proper aged women had become pregnant that same day. As the film continues there are reasons to expect that these are not normal children and they may not even be human. I loved it for years But then John Carpenter remade it in 1995. It was in color and starred Christopher Reeve (Superman). It was definitely a different feel but worked really well. So no matter which version you get your hands on it is a must see.

7 Frank Langella’s Dracula. I have nothing further to say about it.

6 Hocus Pocus- What do you mean it’s not horror!?! Up yours! This is my damn list. I like it. I said this list was about fun and Halloween. This movie delivers both. Not to mention that Alison looks really good in a sweater.

5 Sometimes a movie is made badly, with a weak script, and stiff (or no) acting and yet somehow is enjoyable. And on even rarer occasions becomes iconic. It transcends all normal ways of judging things and becomes a total classic despite its faults. Which brings me to Phantasm. OMG. It is just re-watchable. I can tell you a thousand reasons why it’s a shitty film, and yet I love it. And not in that “it’s so bad it’s good” way. But in a full-on this film is so cool that it would have to be far worse to even begin to be bad. (I really like Phantasm)

4 Curse of the Demon–Flat out demonic fun. It was made long before everything in it became cliche, therefore it pulls no punches. There are no stupid “explanations” or ambiguities. Based on the short story Casting the Runes by M. R. James and brilliantly directed by Jacques Tourneur, this thing sizzles. I have lost or worn out many copies and always buy a new one. The mood is perfect and there are some scenes that will blow you away, as Harlan Ellison has said.

3 Creepshow--This thing simply rocks. It is flat out the best anthology horror film ever made. It is so good that it makes me like it’s sequel brain-deadly named Creepshow 2. While not a bad movie in it’s own right, 2 gets a big interest bump just by being associated with the original.

2 The Exorcist–Come on! You knew it would be here somewhere. I am still undecided about the special edition. I would recommend the original. Although the extended version actually deepens the story, it also introduces superfluous elements that detract from the gestalt of the original. Go with the original if you can.

1 You may have noticed that all these films are fairly old (as I am as well). So you may be surprised to see that my top choice for best horror film (on this list anyway) is Constantine. It stars Keanu reeves as the cynical chain-smoking fighter of evil from the Hellblazers series of graphic stories. It is a complete joy from 30 seconds in and never farts around or gets boring or stupid at any point.

That’s all for today kiddies.  Check back soon for three wonderful new comic reviews.  ( One of them is a brand new series by Richard Corbin!)