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Hello kiddies and welcome back to this site!

I’m going to break from tradition today and talk about something I have never spoken of before on this blog. Some times whether or not a specific comic falls into the horror category is a judgment call. Just because it says horror on the cover doesn’t mean it’s actually horror. And just because it does not say horror doesn’t mean it’s not. Case in point, the lovely comic I am holding right now.

I really want to crank out this post in a hurry to give you an idea of what I consider a good comic to be. I have done a lot of kvetching and moaning on this blog, and pretty much called Dark Horse a bunch of cock-suckers, and I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.

Some people might read a few of my posts and think I just bitch about everything. Au contraire! I only bitch about things that piss me off or that absolutely require being bitched about. But this comic needs to be raved about. It’s written by Alan Moore, with Brian Boland and John Higgins, and it is titled Batman: The Killing Joke.

I believe the original publication date on this thing was 1988. The copy that I hold in my grubby paws is a reprint and has soft covers in the style of a trade paperback. The ink work in this thing is astounding. The writing is Alan Moore, what else need I say. The colorist in this case, is John Higgins. I don’t think he has any relation to the ink (Higgins Ink., get it?),  he may be; I don’t know.

This comic is so classic and so beloved (and sell’s so many copies) that it’s been reprinted several times. Not only in collections of many stories, but in this one shot that I hold in my hand right now. Shortly after buying the one  I discovered an updated version of it, where they had repainted every frame in the book. It is absolutely freaking gorgeous. It also includes the original script in the back.  (for those of us who are REALLY into that sort of thing)

When I read fiction. I love being drawn into a story,  completely enveloped in the artificial world created by the talented author. When this happens correctly, you vanish from the world of the mundane and are transported to an alternate realm of existence. Even if it’s just for a short time.

The comic form is not as easy as a lot of people think  to create, and do well. Most comics blow it in the writing department. Many comics have shabby art. The most common mistake that I see in comics is a lack of focus. Each panel should have a clear point of focus. And the page layout should have a nice flow. A little digression, the one thing that irritates me more than anything else in comics is when people get so creative with the “layout” of the page that it becomes almost impossible to read the panels in the correct order.

This book makes none of those mistakes. Even in the more primitive painted form that I have the artwork still dazzles. It clearly focuses, you know exactly what you’re looking at in any specific frame and even with what amounts to essentially flat colors, there is a dynamic pacing to the art and a beautiful mood created. All the panels seemed to be timed at just the right point for the part of the story they’re telling focused on just the right thing. These panels seemed to breathe, they seem to move, they seem to be alive and not just static shots  taken from a moving sequence. Each one. incorporates movement within it.

If you’ve never seen a good comic in your life. Absolutely. Right now, buy The Killing Joke. You can get the newer version with the better painting, and I think it also has the original script included with those who really want to study it, which by the way I am going to be doing. But you owe it to yourself to get this comic book.

A while ago I said I wasn’t going to say kiddies on the blog anymore. I lied.

Comeback soon and see what happens to Dark Horse’s Creepy issue 3. And keep an eye out for the special announcement about the premiere issue of the Nasty Horror Newsletter and how you can get your own copy for less than the price of a small car.

Editor’s Note: This blog post was adapted from a longer peice appearing on TechLand. Though not a Horror blog, this appealed to me. I have left many of the links intact; Feel free to go there and explore.

By Allie Townsend on March 23, 2010

Dark Horse is a strange name for a publishing company, don’t you think? I’ve always assumed that they took this name to proclaim their outsider status. Their maverick stance, publishing things that set them apart from the mainstream. They produce edgy comics, perhaps not acceptable to the greater masses. I have since changed my mind. I now believe that they took the name Dark Horse, because it most closely describes the type of cock they suck.

When the first issue of Dark Horse’s Creepy, hit the stands, someone should have torn them a “new one” right then and there. I should have! Instead, I pulled my punches. I gave them the benefit of the doubt, because an ongoing anthology horror comic appealed to me, in concept anyway. It didn’t matter if the publisher was Dark Horse or Marvel or Image or some idiot with a letterpress in his father’s garage.

I rushed to buy the first issue; It sucked. But I didn’t say that in my review. I mentioned a few flaws but remained optimistic. Later, I did reviews of the individual stories in the magazine. Not because it deserved more coverage, but to clear my soul of the karmic dreck resulting from not venting it properly the first time. By separating out the parts, I hoped to write more accurately about the shitty parts without condemning the whole thing. I also read other reviews, many of which raved about the stories that I considered to be the worst. So I doubted myself. No one had come down on it as hard as I wanted to. (including me) I had buffered my opinion with the opinions of others.

Fuck ‘em!

I do my loyal fan a disservice by watering-down my opinions. People don’t read this blog for other peoples’ opinions. They read it for mine. I completely whored myself out when I said the magazine merely blew. Saying this magazine blows is like saying that a face-full of skunk-spray smells a little funny.

When somebody produces a complete piece of crap, like the first issue of Dark Horse’s Creepy, it can really knock a reviewer off-balance, leaving him confused and disoriented. One finds oneself looking around and wondering if others are seeing this too, unable to fathom how this shit could have slid past an editor, feeling an incredible sense of revulsion and betrayal at having forked-out $5.00 to get the most disappointing thing since Star Wars: Episode One.

Am I the only person left who knows what good horror is, or what an anthology series can be? Is it just me and my lamp, wandering from comic shop to comic shop, like a desperate Diogenes seeking one good horror comic?

Perhaps you suspect where this is going. You might think I’ve been disappointed with Dark Horse’s latest issue. (which came out two months after it was scheduled to) I don’t know where you got that idea, but I will be reviewing issue 3 eventually. I’ve waited a couple of weeks. And there is no hurry. If I fucked around for another six months the review would probably still come out before the next issue of the comic does. Which judging by the way Dark Horse is publishing these things, won’t come out until the fall of 2012! (I guess another reason for their maverick status is there bold policy of never hitting a fucking deadline.) It’s important that I get this next review exactly right, because there likely will not be a review of Creepy four, assuming there will be an issue four.

I don’t want to turn this post into a long rambling bitch about the first issue of Creepy (too late!). I just wanted to get a post up to fill the dead time, while I’m trying to write a proper review of Creepy #3.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had enough. If anyone out there finds any good comics, let me know.

American Vampire is a new and exciting horror comic, which simply by looking at the cover seems as though it’s a vampire story set in the American old West. The contributing talent to this book includes Scott Snyder Raffael Albuquerque and Stephen King. Inside the book, Scott Snyder is listed as the writer. Rafael Albuquerque is listed as the artist. And then the miscellaneous credits include Dave McCaig- coloring and Steve Wands did the lettering. Rafael Albuquerque cover art editor Mark Doyle. American vampire created by Scott Snyder. All of which makes me wonder how Stephen King fits into all this.

After the story, which runs the usual 24 pages. There is an editorial by Scott Snyder, entitled On The Ledge There is also a list of other comic books, and titles available from Vertigo. Vertigo is the publisher of American Vampire. And this one I hold in my hands is issue number one. The date on it is May 10 with a cover price of $3.99 as you can see from the picture, the cover art is pretty. The inside art is a bit quirky, and I like it. It has good use of color and highlight. The ads in the magazine break it up at just the right points. Overall it has a good look and feel, very solid and very well done.

I haven’t read the whole thing yet. This isn’t a review of the story. It’s a review of the comic itself. I would absolutely recommend anybody buy it. (this assumes you like vampire comics) You can do it by clicking on any mention of the title in this post.

Stay tuned in a soon-to-be future post. I will do a review of the actual story(s) and/or a more in-depth study of the art stylings and such. It also has a preview of Area 10 as a bonus. That looks cool.  I will have to get it. If it’s any good I will let you know.

That’s all for today. If anyone has anything to add, feel free. (or feel freely, whichever makes you happier)

PS-Actually this thing is into multiple printings now. So I’m guessing it’s fairly popular.

PPS-And I have been told that Mr. King created the storyline. If anyone actually knows, tell ME about it will you? Thanks.

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)

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,(Dark Horse Creepy Issue #1) they screwed the pooch on this last one. I had read through a mediocre magazine and the last story in it, a reprint from a classic era of this magazine, was a science fiction, not  horror. It was very disappointing to all concerned. Someone at Dark Horse is actually reading my blog.  Or (more likely) 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 opening story is titled  Human Nature and a character named Walter fancies himself a great judge of character.  He stands in a crowded area looking at one person after another and imagines  their stories. 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 afterward, 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 that the artwork and the writing 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.

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. I couldn’t tell 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 also hope it will be the last one.

The second last piece is 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 these stories 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. (but given the Horse’s tendency to miss deadlines, I’m sure I will be waiting quite a while)

…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.