Archive for June, 2010
Alan Moore: The Killing Joke
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.
Bible More Harmful to Children Than Horror Comics? (Bet on it)
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
In Glasgow, Scotland 1954, hundreds of children (some as young as four years old) poured into a local cemetery brandishing knives and stakes. The armed kiddie mob was in a panic and after the local vampire. According to local stories, the 7-ft. tall, iron-fanged vampire was responsible for the disappearances of two children, spurring school-age kids to set out on their own, Van Helsing style.
Next week, BBC Radio 4 will air the story of the hunt for the Gorbals Vampire and the moral backlash aimed at comic books after the hunts were dissembled by police and scared parents. Blame for the vampire panic run-a-muck was laid on American horror comics, with the likes of Tales From The Crypt, The Haunt of Fear and The Vault of Horror becoming main targets. Word of the hunt only fueled the war against horror comics in the U.S., which the newly created Comics Code Authority had already pegged as potentially dangerous to the well being of children everywhere. All three titles were canceled in 1954, with the last issue of the original run of Tales From the Crypt printed in February, 1955.
(More on Techland: Twilight Fan: The Wolfman Gives Werewolves ‘A Bad Name’)
Horror comics were pegged for an increase in juvenile deliquency in the same way the graphic games of today are blamed for teenage acts of violence. But were they really to blame? Probably not, and the show will work to displace the blame. Academics are giving the Gorbals Vampire incident a second glance and claiming that it might be the Bible, not comics, that was to blame for the vampire hysteria. A monster with iron teeth is seen in the Bible, and according to the story’s sources, in a poem that was taught to children in school at the time.
“After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns.” – Daniel 7:7 (New International Version)
Not convinced?
Interviews with two of the kiddie mob members suggest that most children, themselves included, had never read a horror comic or seen a horror film, not to mention the fact that American horror comics were pretty tough to lay your hands on as a British school kid in the first place.
But will horror comics finally be vindicated for their role in Glasgow’s kiddie vamp hunt? I doubt it. Call me crazy, but I can’t see the blame shifting from an easy scapegoat like the entertainment industry to the good book.[Just because people won't admit something, doesn't mean it isn't true.]
Listen to the The Gorbals Vampire on BBC Radio 4 at 11 p.m. GMT (7 p.m. ET) on Tuesday, March 30, or listen on the BBC iPlayer.
Dark Horse’s Darkest Secret
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.
