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Top Five Picks…Buy These Right Now.
1. The Sandman Overture #1 (Vertigo).
2. The Witching Hour (Vertigo).
3. Forever Evil #2 (DC).
4. Hinterkind #1 (Vertigo).
5. Dark Brain Quarterly #7 (Dark Brain).
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“Can I get a witness?”
I need … something. It is one of those situations where there are so many things wrong it is hard to pin down which wrongness is causing which bad result. None of these things is likely to be the death of me, but something has to be done, ladies and gentlemen. So I am going to have to take a little breather from Nightmares Illustrated. #50 will be the last for a few months. During this period, I will be searching for solutions. Trying to find a way. Right now, it is all adding up to something that just ain’t right. And that’s got to change.
Looking for a witness.
For now, though, this minute, we have number forty eight.
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I have been reading Dark Brain publications for a few years now, and I get a kick out of them. There is a lot of innovation and a lot of interesting story-telling going on over there. I roundly applaud the Dark Brain Quarterly publication, which is targeted strictly at adults and contains pornographic images. As an on-going publication, DBQ is without a doubt the best in this category – a comic willing to illustrate penetration shots. I have complained in the past about an excessive presentation of rape themes and while there are fewer now than in the past, they are still present. Lookit: this comic is for adults. The fact of violence and rape and subjugation of weaker people by the more powerful cannot be denied. If you do not want to read stories about these subjects, well, it is easy enough to avoid them. That is of course true for me, too. Nobody is making me read them. I read them because I want to read them. If you are interested in hardcore horror and sex, Dark Brain is the place for you. The new issue is number seven, and it is chock full of more exciting adult adventures. If this is what you are looking for, Dark Brain is the place to look.
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The Sandman Overture #1. Vertigo has gone berserk lately and issued a string of excellent books so I thought I would give them the nod they deserve. First up, Neil Gaiman is back in the game (I couldn’t resist) with Sandman. Everybody misses that old book so #1 of this title is guaranteed to sell big. How long the sales will last into the run is the big question. The story is filled with high-concept themes and the setting holds limitless potential. There are many creepy images that blink of Clive Barker or Joe Hill but resound with Neil Gaiman. The artwork by J. H. Williams III offers color in bright flashes, soft penciling, and a calamity of sharp edges both in alternating pulses and in overlapping miasma. This one is a keeper, ladies and gentlemen. I am encouraged by this first issue and possibly even a little excited.
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The Witching Hour is a one-shot horror anthology holding nine concise stories of the macabre. Even though this is longer than your average comic, cramming nine stories in between the covers implies they will be on the short side. They are. Mainly, you have a quick set up, an event, and a twist near the end. Times nine. On the bright side, there is a fantastic variety here – no real repeats, one story to the next. For the most part, the artwork is serviceable and pleasant to look at. The entire book puts you in a Halloween mood, although the stories themselves aren’t all set in October. It is a Creepshow vibe. In a good way. This is a nice comic to have in your back pocket when you board the crosstown bus.
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The selling point for Coffin Hill rests in the resume of the author, Caitlin Kittredge, who is best known as the author of a series of books called Nocturne City, as well as the series Black London. The ability to write novels that sell well does not necessarily translate into high quality comic scripting. So far so good for this book, though, as the first issue offers a nice introduction to a world and conflicts rich enough to provide ample avenues for twists and turns in the plots to come. The main character, Eva Coffin, suffers from a family curse rooted in past crimes of intolerance against magical ladies. After a particularly precarious event in Boston, Eva abandons the city for the old hometown in rural Massachusetts. Arriving there, she immediately becomes embroiled in bloody witchcraft. Inaki Miranda helps the story along with excellent line work. It is a good beginning.
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I plan to take a giant foul-mouthed dump on DC and Marvel in the next two issues, but for now, with a few words remaining in my word limit, I am going to say something nice about the idiotic event, Forever Evil, currently (at this writing) being hawked by DC. I wonder if Geoff Johns, whose work I have admired for many years, is getting tired of writing the same stuff in different colors over and over again? That’s not nice, is it? I was going to say something nice. Well, there is always the artwork. Sometimes you can go on about it and try not to read the text. I am looking at issue two right now, titled “Rats.” David Fincher has done some excellent work here. No foolin’. The lines are delicate and beautiful, expertly enhanced by the pen of Richard Friend and colored with careful attention by Sonia Oback. In many cases, the artistic representations of the characters in this issue are far better (meaning more detailed, innovative, interesting) than in the books in which the characters regularly appear. There. That is something good. And I really mean it.
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Two.
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GAME, the new novel by Jack Cadillac and Jimmy Eldorado, is available now: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Jack-Cadillac/dp/1489508309/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369771572&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=game+cadillace
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- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 061 The real, the hidden, and the really hidden - December 5, 2015
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- NIGHTMARES ILLUMINATED. The column for horror evangelists. 059 The Pros and Cons of Treacle (or, Happy Halloween) - October 30, 2015
