Nightmares Illustrated 042 The Many Uses of the Space Age Wonder Vinyl

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Top Five Picks…Buy These Right Now.

1. Spawn #231 (Image).

2. Iron Sky (IDW).

3. Wonderland: Down The Rabbit Hole (Zenescope).

4. Hunters: The Shadowlands #1 (Zenescope).

5. Vampirella #29 (Dynamite).

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Game is the new novel by Jack Cadillac and Jimmy Eldorado, available now in print and digital editions at Amazon.com and elsewhere. Not a graphic novel, a “regular” novel. Please note this is shameless self-promotion – I have a stake in the outcome here. This is the first book in a horror/science fiction trilogy. It is a quick, peppy read. Perfect for the beach. Or the beach house, if it is raining. Or an airplane if you are on your way to the beach from your beachless hometown. Train? Sure. Train too. But not a bus. If you are traveling by bus you should take an anti-anxiety pill and hope for the best. And when you get off the bus, whip your Kindle out and buy a copy of the book to read during your recovery.

Here endeth the advertisement.

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Joe Schreiber’s Chasing The Dead (IDW). So, Joe Schreiber wrote this novel, Chasing The Dead, a few years ago to a rousing reception from fans and critics. Then Matthew Scott and Tim Westland adapted the work into a comic book series illustrated by Dietrich Smith. And now IDW has collected the issues into a hand carry-all saving you the trouble of locating all four individual pieces. The basic story is a woman’s child is kidnapped, and the kidnapper makes her (the woman) do all sorts of unsavory things as part of a supernatural quest in order to get her kid back. The premise, then, is a fairly standard horror situation. What sets this story apart, and especially the adaptation work, is that the creepy factor has been dialed way up. To take one example, there are several scenes of animated corpses with gouged out eyes. If you read horror or watch horror movies then you have seen/read this before more than once. In Chasing The Dead, the framing and presentation of these scenes builds a claustrophobia in the reader that does not rely on close-ups and excessive gore. You get a real feeling of being in the ghastly enterprise yourself, and that is an experience you do not often have as a reader. It is worth a look. Recommended.

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Grimm Fairy Tales #85 (Zenescope). Part 2 of the Unleashed crossover happens here. There is a lot going on. The printed recap: “As the all-powerful Being unleashes hordes of monsters onto the Earth, Sela and her old friend Liesel Van Helsing team up to fight them off. Unable to withstand the […] immense power of the Being, Sela and Helsing are saved in the last moment by an unexpected ally…Belinda! And while Sela, Belinda, and Helsing regroup, the Being sets up a base in the Antarctic for his most trusted ally, the vampire queen Samira, to build her army…” So you need to be reading this for any review of the middle books to make much sense. The big thing in this issue is the appearance of Samira. The pages that bring her into the fold are exquisite. The bigness of the big event is a little too big, of course, as usual, but as I wrote last time, Zenescope is handling this crossover goat dance better than any other comics publisher has in the past several years—since Blackest Night, say. I am enjoying Unleashed almost as much as I enjoyed that last great Green Lantern epic before DC crawled up its own ass (I could not pass up the opportunity to dump on the NFT). Part Three of Unleashed appears soon as the 2013 Grimm Fairy Tales Annual. Plan your shopping accordingly.

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Grave Tales #7 (Cemetery Dance Publications). This long-running book is a tantalizing collection of horror bits and bobs in the tradition of Eerie and Creepy. The black and white interior draws increased scrutiny to the inker because you can see more sharply the contrast between the extremes of the blank page and the pen stroke. There are two illustrated stories and one flash fiction dollop. The dollop is “Tub,” by Ray Garton. Tub as in hot tub. Evil hot tub. The illustrated stories are better. The first, “Rustle,” by Joe Hill with art by Jake Allen, is an adaptation of a Peter Crowther story. It is a nice little creeper about a mystical door hungry for victims. “The Jungle” is adapted and illustrated by William Renfro from the Ed Gorman story. It is about a fella living amongst the hobos, riding the rails, searching for a beast. It has a quaint twist at the end that made me smile. Overall this issue is a casual affair best suited to readers who already like traditional, old-fashioned horror stories illustrated in black and white. I don’t think it will convert many color-addicted gore fiends. It is fun if you are into it.

I contacted CD Publications to try and get back issues of this book for a more in-depth look at the title. They are all sold out on every issue. To be on the safe side, you should grab a copy quick if you are thinking you might want one. Better yet, subscribe so you will be at the top of the list for each new release.

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Eight.

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Buy These Too…

True Blood #13 (IDW). Longtime readers of this column know I am not a big advocate of this book, but #13 was a fine cut above. Grand scale violence and mud monsters galore! It makes me want to read the next one.

Fables (Vertigo). Just in general, ladies and gentlemen, if you are not reading this book then your life is not complete. After #129, I do not know what to think about the world anymore.

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Bargain Bin…

Thump’n Guts #1 (Kitchen Sink Press, 1993). This wonderful little dose of oddness puts me in mind, style-wise, of Orc Stain. Thump’n Guts is a horror comic with a science fiction storyline. Irreverent, splashy, lumpy. A quarter’s worth times two. At least.

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