Horror meets superheroes in Super Creepshow, a new anthology series that’s three issues deep as of this week. In the latest issue, James Harren writes and draws a story of aliens and myth, while Brandon Thomas writes and Juann Cabal draws a story of a super wish. Both tales are wildly different, but possibly the most obtuse and strange of the series so far. Does that make them good?
Kicking things off is “Alone” by Harren, which is a delight in visual storytelling. The story opens with the Creep setting up a story of a strange, caped man digging up holes on a beach. In the hole, he drops a bag, and inside it is some kind of head. I think. It’s a bizarre series of events, drawn in an almost great detail style, ala Richard Corben. Once covered in soil, a purple crystal sprouts from the ground, its head peeking out.
The deeply weird story has a cadence that’s like a quiet nightmare, complete with an excellent creature design that is long dead, and cavemen who look on. It’s a story I had to read twice, because it didn’t quite add up by the end. That said, subtle visual work tells a story of doom and gloom, even if the story is one part mythical nightmare, and one part genocidal alien invasion. It’s a story you have to see to believe.
Very strange stuff in the James Harren story.
Credit: Skybound
Next up is “Wish You Well” by Thomas and Cabal, which opens with the Creep demanding you don’t spoil the story and jump ahead. He’s right, as a twist or two make the story stand out. It opens with an alien at the tail end of a fight, being asked to choose between his wife and his child to die. He then screams, “I wish,” and the story shifts to two hours earlier. We learn of a bargain that leads our main character to go full superhero mode, a la Invincible.
Cabal gets to bring the gore and violence as our main character kills superpowered people left and right. It adds up, leading to regret and an eventual major twist in the story. There’s some twisted horror imagery to cap off the tale, again well drawn by Cabal.
The second story does lose you, particularly when the protagonist insists he has to kill and kill again. It doesn’t really make sense. Does he have to kill because he has great power? Maybe it’s the curse of the wish. Either way, it leads to a twist that changes everything you knew.
Super Creepshow #3 leans hard into the strange and unsettling, delivering two stories that prioritize mood, imagery, and shock over clarity. James Harren’s “Alone” stands out for its haunting visual storytelling, while Brandon Thomas and Juann Cabal’s “Wish You Well” brings brutal action and a twist-driven narrative. The issue thrives when you let yourself get lost in its weirdness, though not every idea fully lands.
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