iSteve
10-31-2007, 07:19 PM
Dirk Manning’s Top Ten Suggested Horror Comics You Should Be Reading This Year!
1) THE WALKING DEAD
I’m going to get the first two really obvious choices out of the way early, so if you’re impatient skip ahead to #3, OK? Now, for the rest of you still reading this paragraph, is there any room for debate that Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is one of the best horror comics currently on the shelves? With this title writer Kirkman and artist Tony Moore (who was replaced by the excellent Charlie Adlard after the first six issues) prompted seemingly ever comicbook hopeful out there to begin creating their own zombie-based comics, but the bottom line is that no one has yet been able to capture lightning in a bottle the way this book has – due largely to the fact that Kirkman’s fine ear for dialogue and sociologically-based approach to looking at life after a zombie epidemic.
Sure, the book has peaks and valleys here and there (just like real-life – what a concept!), but with the new “No One is Safe” storyline now taking place and the dramatic return of a major character, it seems as if the cast and the readers of The Walking Dead are in for a massive shake-up… again. If you like horror (or even merely strongly-character-driven) comics and aren’t reading The Walking Dead by now… dang… what the heck are you waiting for?
2) THE GOON
Who woulda thunk that a one-time self-published comic featuring a poo-flinging and mentally handicapped supporting character named Peaches Valentine would become – in just a few short years to boot –a critical darling/Eisner Award winning feather in the hat of Dark Horse Comics, eh? Equally creepy, funny and emotive – oftentimes all in the same issue – writer/artist Eric Powell’s The Goon has created one heck of a universe for himself and his bizarre cast of social deviants where seemingly anything – and everything – can happen (and usually does) happen as the Zombie Priest attempts to use his legion of the undead to take over Lonely Street.
Perhaps central to the books success (or at least second to Powell’s amazing art) is the lead character himself, a simple and stoic thug who will evokes laughter one minute and sympathy the next as he – with his oftentimes show-stealing companion Frankie –creatures ranging from Chupacabras to campy sci-fi robots… all while also shaking down civilians and mobsters alike, of course. Now, with The Goon: Chinatown hardcover due in stores any week now (in which readers will finally learn the remaining bits of The Goon’s “origin” – including how he became to hideously scarred), there’s no better time than now to give this title a chance and see what all of the (well-deserved) hype is about.
3) FALL OF CTHULHU
OK… I’m going to be honest here and tell you all a little secret: as a fan of the 1930’s pulp-horror author H.P. Lovecraft, I was prepared to hate this book. After all, every time some creator or another tries to do a comic that’s based in the “Cthulhu Mythos” it usually blows. Hard.
So, considering this, imagine my surprise when I (begrudgingly) picked-up Boom Studios Fall of Cthulhu only to finally – FINALLY – find a comic book that’s getting it right!
Creepy, suspenseful, macabre and – perhaps most importantly – truly horrifying, these guys just Michael Alan Nelson has found a way to incorporate terror at the core of Lovecraft’s stories into a modern-day setting while also giving these same elements a very exciting and engaging facelift – all the while staying extremely faithful to the original material while not (for the most part, anyways) requiring new readers to be Lovecraft-o-philes to understand and enjoy the story as it slowly and methodically unfolds.
Above all others, Fall of Cthulhu is easily the comicbook that has excited me the most over the past year, and based on the first two issues of this second story-arc I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
For what it’s worth, I give my strongest recommendation to horror comic fans everywhere to order the first collected edition (Fall of Cthulhu: The Fugue) and then get onboard with the new story. Truly, folks, this is cerebral modern-day horror at its best.
4) UZUMAKI: SPIRAL INTO HORROR
Finally, after being out of print for way too long, Junji Ito’s classic horror trilogy Uzumaki is back in print for Westerns everywhere to enjoy. Thanks, Viz Media!
Yes, Uzumaki is Manga, and yes, that means you’ll have to read it “backwards”… and those of you who aren’t willing to give this first (of three) graphic novels a chance are going to miss out on a horror comic that’s considered a modern classic.
Both cerebral and maddeningly creepy, the story focuses on a small Japanese town whose residents are all slowly being taken over by an obsession with spirals… be them in the clouds in the sky, on the snails in the garden, the swirls on their fingertips… etc.
Sure, some of you out there may lack the imagination to envision the potential in this horrifying gestalt/”Legion”/Invasion of the Body Snatchers situation… but I assure you, those of you willing to step outside the mainstream a bit and give this series a chance are not only unlikely to regret it, but also unlikely to look at the world around you the same way again.
As with the previous entry, Uzumaki gets my highest recommendations… and I’m already anxiously awaiting the new printings of the other two-thirds of this mesmerizing and horrifying story.
5) THE EXTERMINATORS
I like this book.
A lot.
While the main overall story seems to be about the impending war between humankind and a strain of semi-sentient uber-bugs, it’s not so much this premise that attracts me to The Exterminators as much as it is the way the story’s being told.
Paced more like a novel than a traditional comicbook, thus far in the series we readers haven’t seen nearly as much of the “bug uprising” as one might expect. Rather, it’s being hinted at, discussed in conversations or largely happening off-panel as out protagonists are slowly coming to grips with the chilling reality unfolding around them as all of the pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place.
After all, even though bugs (and other assorted “vermin” outnumber humans something along the lines of, oh, say… a few million-to-one… the bugs’ preparation for a full-blown assault has been a covert and largely secret one – and this exercise in restraint from writer Simon Oliver is a refreshing way to read a story such as this one.
Rather than having the bugs attack us in full-force at the end of the first story-arc, Oliver (and several artistic cohorts, including former Walking Dead illustrator Tony Moore as well as Phillip Bond) are teasing out the events and letting them unfold at their own creepy-crawly pace.
As with the case with several of the titles published by Vertigo, I buy this series only as the trade paperback collections are released – but none the less this is quickly becoming one of the books I’m looking forward to the most.
With a strong three-dimensional cast and a wonderful sense of pacing that lets the presence of the bug-based threat grow organically throughout the book until it threatens to all but consume you, The Exterminators is my pick for the most unorthodox comic on the shelves fans of intelligent and non-formulaic storytelling should be reading… and yes, incase you couldn’t tell, that’s a helluva compliment.
1) THE WALKING DEAD
I’m going to get the first two really obvious choices out of the way early, so if you’re impatient skip ahead to #3, OK? Now, for the rest of you still reading this paragraph, is there any room for debate that Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead is one of the best horror comics currently on the shelves? With this title writer Kirkman and artist Tony Moore (who was replaced by the excellent Charlie Adlard after the first six issues) prompted seemingly ever comicbook hopeful out there to begin creating their own zombie-based comics, but the bottom line is that no one has yet been able to capture lightning in a bottle the way this book has – due largely to the fact that Kirkman’s fine ear for dialogue and sociologically-based approach to looking at life after a zombie epidemic.
Sure, the book has peaks and valleys here and there (just like real-life – what a concept!), but with the new “No One is Safe” storyline now taking place and the dramatic return of a major character, it seems as if the cast and the readers of The Walking Dead are in for a massive shake-up… again. If you like horror (or even merely strongly-character-driven) comics and aren’t reading The Walking Dead by now… dang… what the heck are you waiting for?
2) THE GOON
Who woulda thunk that a one-time self-published comic featuring a poo-flinging and mentally handicapped supporting character named Peaches Valentine would become – in just a few short years to boot –a critical darling/Eisner Award winning feather in the hat of Dark Horse Comics, eh? Equally creepy, funny and emotive – oftentimes all in the same issue – writer/artist Eric Powell’s The Goon has created one heck of a universe for himself and his bizarre cast of social deviants where seemingly anything – and everything – can happen (and usually does) happen as the Zombie Priest attempts to use his legion of the undead to take over Lonely Street.
Perhaps central to the books success (or at least second to Powell’s amazing art) is the lead character himself, a simple and stoic thug who will evokes laughter one minute and sympathy the next as he – with his oftentimes show-stealing companion Frankie –creatures ranging from Chupacabras to campy sci-fi robots… all while also shaking down civilians and mobsters alike, of course. Now, with The Goon: Chinatown hardcover due in stores any week now (in which readers will finally learn the remaining bits of The Goon’s “origin” – including how he became to hideously scarred), there’s no better time than now to give this title a chance and see what all of the (well-deserved) hype is about.
3) FALL OF CTHULHU
OK… I’m going to be honest here and tell you all a little secret: as a fan of the 1930’s pulp-horror author H.P. Lovecraft, I was prepared to hate this book. After all, every time some creator or another tries to do a comic that’s based in the “Cthulhu Mythos” it usually blows. Hard.
So, considering this, imagine my surprise when I (begrudgingly) picked-up Boom Studios Fall of Cthulhu only to finally – FINALLY – find a comic book that’s getting it right!
Creepy, suspenseful, macabre and – perhaps most importantly – truly horrifying, these guys just Michael Alan Nelson has found a way to incorporate terror at the core of Lovecraft’s stories into a modern-day setting while also giving these same elements a very exciting and engaging facelift – all the while staying extremely faithful to the original material while not (for the most part, anyways) requiring new readers to be Lovecraft-o-philes to understand and enjoy the story as it slowly and methodically unfolds.
Above all others, Fall of Cthulhu is easily the comicbook that has excited me the most over the past year, and based on the first two issues of this second story-arc I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
For what it’s worth, I give my strongest recommendation to horror comic fans everywhere to order the first collected edition (Fall of Cthulhu: The Fugue) and then get onboard with the new story. Truly, folks, this is cerebral modern-day horror at its best.
4) UZUMAKI: SPIRAL INTO HORROR
Finally, after being out of print for way too long, Junji Ito’s classic horror trilogy Uzumaki is back in print for Westerns everywhere to enjoy. Thanks, Viz Media!
Yes, Uzumaki is Manga, and yes, that means you’ll have to read it “backwards”… and those of you who aren’t willing to give this first (of three) graphic novels a chance are going to miss out on a horror comic that’s considered a modern classic.
Both cerebral and maddeningly creepy, the story focuses on a small Japanese town whose residents are all slowly being taken over by an obsession with spirals… be them in the clouds in the sky, on the snails in the garden, the swirls on their fingertips… etc.
Sure, some of you out there may lack the imagination to envision the potential in this horrifying gestalt/”Legion”/Invasion of the Body Snatchers situation… but I assure you, those of you willing to step outside the mainstream a bit and give this series a chance are not only unlikely to regret it, but also unlikely to look at the world around you the same way again.
As with the previous entry, Uzumaki gets my highest recommendations… and I’m already anxiously awaiting the new printings of the other two-thirds of this mesmerizing and horrifying story.
5) THE EXTERMINATORS
I like this book.
A lot.
While the main overall story seems to be about the impending war between humankind and a strain of semi-sentient uber-bugs, it’s not so much this premise that attracts me to The Exterminators as much as it is the way the story’s being told.
Paced more like a novel than a traditional comicbook, thus far in the series we readers haven’t seen nearly as much of the “bug uprising” as one might expect. Rather, it’s being hinted at, discussed in conversations or largely happening off-panel as out protagonists are slowly coming to grips with the chilling reality unfolding around them as all of the pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place.
After all, even though bugs (and other assorted “vermin” outnumber humans something along the lines of, oh, say… a few million-to-one… the bugs’ preparation for a full-blown assault has been a covert and largely secret one – and this exercise in restraint from writer Simon Oliver is a refreshing way to read a story such as this one.
Rather than having the bugs attack us in full-force at the end of the first story-arc, Oliver (and several artistic cohorts, including former Walking Dead illustrator Tony Moore as well as Phillip Bond) are teasing out the events and letting them unfold at their own creepy-crawly pace.
As with the case with several of the titles published by Vertigo, I buy this series only as the trade paperback collections are released – but none the less this is quickly becoming one of the books I’m looking forward to the most.
With a strong three-dimensional cast and a wonderful sense of pacing that lets the presence of the bug-based threat grow organically throughout the book until it threatens to all but consume you, The Exterminators is my pick for the most unorthodox comic on the shelves fans of intelligent and non-formulaic storytelling should be reading… and yes, incase you couldn’t tell, that’s a helluva compliment.