Welcome back, kiddies. Time for some more horror comics — to shock your eyes and mind.
Colder #1 (Dark Horse)
Now, you might have already seen this cover on Brendan and Dave’s Comic Preview and what else is there to say about the cover they didn’t already bring up? It’s beautifully disgusting. The man is touching his own eye by sticking his hand through his mouth. I tell you, little kids around the globe will unwittingly see this cover on comic shops and have nightmares for weeks as a result. (By all means kids try what is going on in the image; we won’t even be mad atcha. We might be impressed, somewhat baffled — but most of all disappointed with humanity as we know it.) In the interest of letting you know the plot of this sucker, I picked it up.
Written by Paul Tobin, with art by Juan Ferreyra, Colder tells the tale of Declan Thomas, who used to live in the funny farm. Hey, it’s the 1940s in a loony bin in Massachusetts. Anywho, Declan’s body temp is dropping faster than a stripper on a busy night, due to a weird dude named Nimble Jack. There’s a fire at the ol’ insane-o asylum.
Cut to Boston in present day. I hast seen no Nimble Jack in Boston? Where is barefoot Nimble Jack? Show him to me, I’ll frequent the city more. Sadly, despite the intense cover, not a heck of a lot goes on in this issue. In fact, Declan is catatonic for most of the fucker. Best parts are the beginning, and then it’s expositional present day story time.
Nimble Jack is entertaining, but ultimately, this issue can’t surpass its cover.
30 Days of Night #11 (IDW)
Steve Niles is back with this, issue 11, of the current 30 Days of Night arc. This time around the story centers on Alice Blood, a woman convinced vampires exist. The art started with Sam Keith but now its duties fall to Christopher Mitten. This 30 Days run is great. I don’t want to spoil anything, but an old friend pops by from the very first story arc! Mitten’s art isn’t my favorite but he does have a really unnerving lack of pupils drawn onto his characters.
What’s worse than vampires? Vampires packing heat.
BPRD Hell on Earth: Return of the Master #3 (Dark Horse)
The BPRD must stop a crazed Russian scientist from releasing demons. I have to admit, I had to use a combination of Wiki-ing and going back and buying recent issues to get somewhat up to date with what’s going on with the BPRD lately. Pardon the pun, but it’s a hell of a lot.
Story by Mike Mignola (duh) and John Arcudi with art by Tyler Crook, this is a must-purchase for BPRD and Hellboy fans. And everyone’s favorite evil Russian from the first Hellboy story is back!
Hellblazer #296 (Vertigo)
Jebus, if I thought there was a lot to pick up on with BPRD, well…actually much the same with Hellblazer. This was published earlier in the month, but in the interest of catching up, let’s take a gander. Issue numbah 296 is written by Peter Milligan, with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli.
Man, have I been behind. Apparently Constantine got married, and lost his thumb! Currently, we follow Constantine as he confronts his adopted nephew Finn in Ireland about some sketchy actions, in an attempt to get his sister to leave Hell so his niece Gemma will stop screwing the gangster Julian, the father of John’s bride, Epiphany. Oh, and Julian is a Babylonian demon. Like I said, there’s a lot going on. Don’t expect to pick up or get this issue digitally without spending time to get up to speed. Or, if you are a faithful reader, just keep on going.
I really dig Camuncoli’s art style, and his use of shadows.
Fatale #9 (Image)
Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips. A nifty mixing of noir and Lovecraftian demon beasties. Only nine issues, so you don’t have to go nuts reading, oh say, a metric ass-ton of issues to see where the plot is now. She was a dame, with legs that wouldn’t quit, and also she was chased by weird men with tentacles and bowler hats.
Bedlam #1 (Image)
And the “holy shit comic of the week” goes to…
Written by Nick Spencer, with art by Riley Rossmo. The first few pages of this one are… man, clean up on aisle me, I think I pissed myself. Only problem is, the intro is so powerful that when we cut to our main character, James Franklin Tyse, even despite his creepy secret, it seems to lose a bit of steam. There is a superhero, but we don’t really hear much about him. It’s interesting to have the focus on the villain, and the hero in the background. That villain is Madder Red,who is much like the Joker, except much more of a serial killer/terrorist type. Although, with a much larger body count, with more of a penchant for serial killing. He kills a lot of people. Like, a whole lot. The use of color is very unique, sticking mainly to black and white, but having the red’s and other select colors in, well color. Very angular art by Rossmo, much like my favorite artist, Sir Templesmith. The color use reminds me of what Stuart Gordon did in season 2 of Masters of Horror, with his episode The Black Cat, about Edgar Allen Poe.
Sorry, did I just compare a comic to a horror TV show> My bad. I mean, when was there ever a horror comic turned into a TV show (that is on AMC right now)? I miss Tales From the Crypt. It’s worth a read, and I’m interested where it’s going, because it seems like it’ll be crazy (puns!) good. This issue is about fitty pages, so you get a lot of wacko for your buck.
Look, let me just show you how disturbing this comic can get. Nothing I can say is a better sell.
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