The best comic horror anthology returns this week with Epitaphs From the Abyss #11. It’s sad to think it wraps up with issue #12, but we can’t let that stop us from enjoying three solid stories and a great full-page splash by Dustin Weaver. It’s another significant issue with a good mix of tales of witchcraft, drunkenness, and gardening.
Kicking things off is “Pruning Lessons” by Greg Pak and Dan McDaid. It’s a story about a florist who does good work, but gets no respect from her customers. They complain about everything from the number of flowers to delivering on time. Oddly, she accepts very little for the flowers, just a few coins, which plays into her dark choice to seek revenge.
McDaid captures the supernatural element of this story well. You may not think of fingers the same way after seeing what the main character does to them.
The second tale is “Ill Temperance” by Jay Stephens and David Rubin. The story opens with a drunkard returning to the same bar he left the night before. A note is left for him, and it seems he can’t recall what happened after he blacked out. The dark twist to end the story is clever and will definitely catch you off guard.
Credit: Oni Press
The art by Rubin is stellar, with a good use of color to capture the dark murder by the end. The rendering of the character’s eyes is particularly well done. At times, it’s as if he’s hungover; at others, it’s as if he’s evil.
Last but not least is “She Consorted with Devils” by Stephanie Phillips and Christopher Mitten. It’s a story about a woman who’s about to be burned at the stake. The captions reveal she’s calm but has become too successful for her own good. The men in the community can’t handle her success, and in a series of flashbacks, we learn that even when she did good things for everyone, they couldn’t handle it.
Mitten is the perfect artist, capturing the earlier time and location. The flame effects to end the story are pretty and creepy at the same time.
Epitaphs From the Abyss #11 continues the anthology’s streak of stylish, sharp, and surprising horror tales. Each story offers its own flavor—vengeance, regret, and persecution—brought to life by a trio of top-tier creative teams. With memorable visuals and quietly unsettling narratives, this penultimate issue proves the series is going out strong.
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