And the Autumn Moon is Bright: Werewolves in Comics

Recently, I read a column where someone asked the writer a question about werewolves in superhero comics, and the writer identified himself as a vampire fan more than a werewolf fan. Well, I like vampires fine, and I know zombies are the monster du jour in the public zeitgeist right now, but for me? It's all about the werewolf. I feel like werewolves are about the internal struggle of humanity between its better nature and its baser instincts, and since the person is not always he monster, it allows an incite into the person who is the monster, whether they fight the monster or embrace it. Also, you get to turn into a giant wolf or wolfman. How cool is that?

So, I spent the past couple weeks digging through my collection to pull out some of the best werewolf comics I could find. I'm avoiding a couple of the more obvious ones that are either not full on werewolf stories but more superhero stories (the infamous "Capwolf" story where Captain America becomes a werewolf, for instance, or the excellent Batman #255, "Moon of the Wolf," which was also adapted into a great episode of Batman: The Animated Series), although I am going to hit a couple of those, but mostly I'm sticking to horror and comedy versions, because there are a couple of really good werewolf comedy stories. So, if you want to check out some interesting werewolf stories, read on.

The Astounding Wolf-Man

So, not everything Robert Kirkman writes is Walking Dead or Invincible, these massively long running series, but that's not to say they aren't great comics. The Astounding Wolf-Man, which ran for twenty-five issues, was co-created by Kirkman and Jason Howard, who went on to work with Kirkman on Super Dinosaur and is now the artist on Warren Ellis's Trees,  is the story of Gary Hampton, a wealthy family fan who, while on vacation, is attacked by a werewolf and decides that he wants to use his powers to become a superhero. I know I said above I was avoiding superhero stories, and while Kirkman's story has a lot of superhero in it,there is a hart of horror to it, both because Gary's archfoe is a vampire, Zechariah (this won't be the last werewolf vs. vampire story on this list), but because much of Gary's struggle is with the beast within. Because while he can transform pretty much at will any night, when the full moon rises he becomes an out of control monster, and much of the series has to do with the ramifications of what Gary has done in werewolf form. There's a whole series of events involving another elder werewolf, plus a lot of action and superheroics. Kikman wrapped up most of the plot threads of the series, which is collected and available in four trade paperbacks, and Wolf-Man does occasionally pop up as a supporting or background hero in various books in the Invincible family.

Curse

A four issue mini-series from Boom Studios from a couple years back, Curse asks the question of how far someone will go to save someone they love. Michael Moreci and Tim Daniel write the story of Laney Griffin, a former football star who has fallen on hard times, not just financially but also in that his son is dying of an illness he can barely afford to pay the hospital to treat. But when a series of savage killings occur, and a price is placed on the head of man or animal that is committing them, Laney goes on the hunt. And he finds the killer is a bit of both, a werewolf who has lived for centuries. And so Laney captures the werewolf and spends time considering if the curse could be the salvation of his son, while others hunt the monster and Laney is caught up in other peoples plans. It's a solid story, but the art is what really gabs you. Colin Lorimer draws the lion's share, but Riley Rossmo, whose work on many other great horror comics makes him a  modern master, creates a rangy, long limbed terror in his werewolf design that is unique to the series and makes it a standout.

Riven

Bo Hampton and Robert Tinnel craft a story of one young woman's horror in Riven. Opening in Romania, readers see an American couple desperate to find a baby to adopt, and they are given Katya, a seemingly normal young girl, but the orphanage is... off. Flash forward ten years to a teen Katya, now Katy, who after an accident enters a coma where once a month, tied to the full moon, she has strange spike in brain activity. Waking from the coma after five years, Katy recovers from years of inactivity faster than anyone expected, yet still, once a month, has fits where she now can tell people she sees horrors. Katy watches a werewolf killing, and she soon realizes that the killings are getting closer. Katy is another example of someone who seems to be fighting with her own urges, although within Katy they seem less violent and more about her own awakening sexuality, which is another aspect often linked to werewolfism, especially in women (the film Ginger Snaps is a great example of this). But after she is attacked by a stalker, Katy is aided by someone who has come from Romania to help her. From here the story becomes an international chase as Katy returns to Romania to find the truth about her family, the werewolf, and what it all means to her. Followed by her adoptive family and her friends, the stage is set for a bloody confrontation with her biological family. Hampton draws the story as well as co-writing it, and his painted art is beautiful and terrifying. His werewolf is traditional, a monstrous, huge wolfman who dwarfs all around him or her. An original graphic novel, the book is still available from Dark Horse Comics.

Scary Godmother: Wild About Harry

Looking for a werewolf story that's a little more friendly to the young ones? Well, try Scary Godmother: Wild about Harry. Scary Godmother was created by Jill Thompson, an artist best known for these books and her work with Neil Gaiman on The Sandman, and is about Hannah Marie, a little girl who discovers that monsters aren't as scary as she thinks when she meets the Scary Godmother, a witch, and her monster friends. Harry is the resident werewolf, whose both a geek who lives in his gypsy mother's basement and a glutton. But when Harry's mom gets sick of him mooching, she throws him out, and the mini-series follows Harry's (failed) attempts to survive in the world. This isn't a scary story, but a very funny one, as all he Scary Godmother stories are, and is good all ages fare. It is collected in the Scary Godmother Comics Stories volume. Also, as we talk about Jill Thompson books, you should check out Beasts of Burden: Animal Rites, the first collection of Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson's stories of a group of animals who defend their town against evil spirits and monsters. It features a story of a dog and his werewolf-boy that is touching and sad, and everything else in it is just as good.

Werewolf By Night

Comicdoms most famous werewolf is Jack Russell, the seventies horror hero known as Werewolf By Night. Yes you could probably argue Wolfsbane of the X-titles has larger fan base, but she's a mutant, not a supernatural werewolf, so for a Halloween post she doesn't really count. While admittedly not as strong a title as Marvel's horror masterpiece Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night is still a great series. It follows jack Russell as he searches for a cure for his lycanthropy, while doing his best to control his feral form on the three nights a month he changes; picture the Incredible Hulk TV series if Banner was a werewolf and fought a lot of monsters. He is supported by Topaz, an empath and mystic who was a love interest as well as ally. Russell would meet and crossover with Dracula, finding ties between his history and that of the count. After first appearing in issues two through four of Marvel Spotlight, Russell's own series ran a respectable forty-three issues. One of the series most lasting legacies is that issue thirty-two introduced Moon Knight, while Marvel Spotlight #4 introduced the concept of the Darkhold, the Mavel Universe's answer to the Necronomicon, a book that has popped up in nearly all of Marvel's horror and supernatural series at one point or another. Werewolf by Night continues to appear semi-regularly throughout the Marvel line, most recently in Mark Waid's Daredevil run, proving you can't keep a good werewolf down.

Werewolves On the Moon Versus Vampires

Again, welcome to a more comedic take on the werewolf. This is a very funny story about three werewolf buddies, Ted, Jeff, and Stan, who figure that if they only change when the moon is full, if they're ON the moon, they'll be in wolf form all the time. And while they're right, there are a few things they didn't count on: one is Maggie Pilgrim, a Moon Patrol captain. The other is a nest of vampires. A fun three issue mini-series, the werewolves are likable, if a bit dim, and the stakes are high despite the comic being a comedy. Alas it is out of print in trade, and the promised sequel Werewolves on the Moon: Moon Mummy Madness has never materialized either, but I would sure read that.

Wolf Moon

Cullen Bunn and Jeremy Haun crafted this year's Vertigo mini-series Wolf Moon around the concept that the werewolf curse doesn't just reshape flesh, I reshapes lives. Not he curse in the way we're used to seeing it, the werewolf in Wolf Moon jumps to a new host every month, destroying everything around them and then leaving them to pick up the pieces. Dillon Chase is a former host of the wolf, who has allied himself with others o try to track it down and kill it. But he's not the only one hunting the wolf, and as he nears another hunter who may or may not be a serial killer murdering former hosts, Dillon has to make some choices about his life and how he can reshape it. Vertigo has been the home of so many great horror comics, it's nice that they were able to add a werewolf series to their catalog, and Wolf Moon is an interesting take on the classic werewolf myth.

The Wolves of Saint August

"The Wolves of Saint August," originally presented in Dark Horse Presents, then reprinted as a prestige format, and currently in Hellboy Vol. 3: The Chained Coffin, is Hellboy's biggest encounter with werewolves, as he goes to investigate a murdered priest and a haunted chapel, only to find a story of a long lasing curse. I'm calling this out for two reasons, despite it being a much shorter work then the longer works I've featured here. One is it's the first appearance of Kate Corrigan, my favorite of the B.P.R.D. cast members. And secondly, you've got Mike Mignola drawing werewolves! How cool is that?

This is just scratching the surface (bad pun not intended but absolutely embraced) of werewolves in comics. There are two series I skipped because I plan to feature them in the future: Joe Kelly's Bad Dog and Art and Franco's Patrick the Wolf Boy that are as different as night and day from each other but are two great comics with a werewolf in the lead.

And that's it for this year's Halloween posts. Enjoy the holiday tomorrow, and we'll see you again. If you survive... ooooOOOOoooo. Ok, you'll all survive, so just have a great time.

Recommended Reading for 10/16: Tales of the Multiverse- Batman: Vampire

Batman can trace  his literary roots back to a lot of different sources. The pulps are a major source, especially The Shadow and Zorro. But going deeper in, there are two Victorian characters who are hugely influential: Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. I discussed Batman's meeting with Holmes nearly three years ago to this very day. And Batman has met Dracula as well, in the fist of a trio of original graphic novels we'll be discussing today.

The three volumes, Batman/Dracula: Red Rain, Batman: Bloodstorm, and Batman: Crimson Mist were all written by then Batman writer Doug Moench, with art by Kelly Jones, who had been doing covers for Batman for some time, and during the years the trilogy would be released over, would spend some time as regular penciler on the title. It's a tale of horror and superheroics mixed and about the downfall of a good man to the curse of the vampire, as we watch Batman fall into the trap Nietzsche laid out, about those who fight  monsters being careful to not become monsters in the process.

The Batman: Vampire trilogy came out at the height of Elseworlds, DC's tales of heroes in unfamiliar circumstances, and is by far one of the most popular and successful, having spawned one of the 52 Earths of the current DC Multiverse. And while these stories take place in a Gotham nearer to the one we're familiar with in monthly comics, one not as removed as the Victorian Gotham of Gotham By Gaslight or the church-ruled one of Holy Terror, it is a Gotham of even darker corners, and of a constant red rain falling from the sky, pollution run rampant that now portends the coming evil.

Batman/Dracula: Red Rain, the first in the series, seemed to be written to be a stand alone novel. In it, Batman finds Gotham's homeless being murdered, and their throats slashed, and learns that the cut throats are to mask the telltale vampire bites. He comes into conflict with the hordes of the undead and their leader, Dracula, and is aided by a group of reformed vampires, those who drink a serum that satisfies their bloodlust, led by the beautiful Tanya, who had been turned by Dracula himself and after years of being his consort, realized the horror of what she was doing and vowed to stop him. Tanya gifted Batman with her blood, giving him vampire powers without the weaknesses, but at the story's end, Dracula's bite finishes the transformation, and a vampire Batman is born. 

The story is itself a wonderful horror yarn, with the vampires mostly monstrous bloodsucking creatures with no mind or soul, with the traditional weaknesses to sunlight, stakes, crosses, etc. Batman is himself at a loss at the beginning of the story, outmatched by the vampires' powers, and only through becoming more like them is he finally able to stop them. It's a gorgeously gothic landscape as only Kelly Jones could craft, but I'll spend more time on the art later.

The world of this book is interesting in the slight differences between it and the Gotham we are accustomed to. There seems to be no Robin or other superheroes of any kind in the world, making it a world of a more lonely Batman. This is a Batman who, as committed to his principles as he is, is somewhat darker, not having that grounding in his humanity. While Alfred and Jim Gordon are still there, this Batman seems less emotionally involved with either of them, but whether that is his nature or a part of his vampiric transformation remains a question left to the reader.

Moench's Dracula isn't the cape and amulet wearing Bela Lugosi version, or sympathetic either. His Dracula is a mad, monstrous creature who knows nothing but his hunger for blood. Not as mindless as his spawn, his goal is simply to build an army of vampires and feed. While there aren't a lot of levels there, it works very well with Dracula as a character; he is bloodlust incarnate. Tanya is a character with an... interesting design. No traditional vampire wife of Dracula, she's in a one piece purple bathing suit with knee-high purple boots for much of the story; how very '90s. But she's a sympathetic character; she is completely driven to destroy Dracula, even at the cost of her own life, but does it to prevent anyone else from falling to his curse, making her an interesting parallel to Batman, who reacts the same way to his traumatic experience; he is willing to sacrifice himself to stop crime in the same way she is to stop vampirism.

Red Rain also spends some of its time pursuing far more real world issues than either of its successors. The fact that he victims are all homeless, and that the mayor actively tells Gordon to keep a lid on it because he doesn't want to start a panic and who cares about these people anyway is an indictment on society in general's treatment of the homeless. Also, signs throughout the issue in the background of scenes are for vaccinations, and so the idea of vampirism as a disease is eased out; published in 1991, at the beginning of the time when AIDS was coming into the forefront of social consciousness, it's not hard to link vampirism and blood borne illness either, and also to hear Dracula ant about how mankind has poisoned its blood with disease and drugs adds to this elemen.

Bloodstorm, the second volume of the trilogy, begins bringing in figures from the established Batman mythos, as the Joker uses his wiles to become leader of the remaining vampires and begins a war to take over Gotham's mobs. Batman, now a full vampire, must fight the call to drink blood, instead subsisting on Tanya's blood substitute formula as the hunger increases. But his mind is put at ease when he meets Selina Kyle, in this reality a were-cat after being bitten by Creach, Joker's right hand vampire who was in a wolf form at the time, and he two hunt together until Joker kills Catwoman, and Batman finally breaks, killing Joker and drinking his blood, leaving it up to Gordon and Alfred to do what must be done, giving us one of the book's indelible images, of them driving a stake through Batman's heart, reciting the mantra Tanya introduced in volume one, "To death... in peace."

While the plot seems very similar to the first volume, with Joker taking Dracula's place and Selina taking Tanya's, they are very different stories. Most importantly, this story is not about Batman discovering and coming to terms with the existence of vampires, and about being haunted by visions of Tanya until he realizes the truth, but about him fighting the beast inside him. Much of Batman's internal narrative is about how hard it is to resist the urge to drink blood. It shows Batman's strength of will, and more how insidious the vampire disease/curse is, and makes it all the more tragic when he finally submits to it.

Joker and Catwoman work well as deepening the connection between this world and the prime DCU while also pointing out how different they are. Joker is, well, pretty much Joker, mad and cunning, using the vampires to turn mobsters instead of the homeless, while still staying human. It's interesting that Joker does not seem to desire the immortality of the vampire, but instead simply uses them as a means to an end. Keeping him human establishes him even more as a counterpoint to the vampiric Batman. Meanwhile, the Selina Kyle of this world seems to bear little resemblance to her traditional counterpart, other than her affection for cats. There is no indication that she is a thief, but instead just a woman who wound up on the wrong side of a vampire. She is also tremendously noble, often addressed as an innocent woman, since it is the love of an innocent woman that is said to hold off the curse. More than that, it is her nobility that leads to her downfall, as she takes a crossbow bolt meant for Batman.

This second volume takes the horror of the first volume and amps it up to eleven. There's almost a black comedy vibe, appropriate for a Joker story, as the vampire deaths and murders seem more grotesque, from Creah tearing himself open to expose his internal organs to a mobster before tearing ones face off with his fangs (that vampire is later seen with his face stitched on) to a vampire who was shot in the head before being turned having a small Band-Aid to cover up the wound. Also, Batman gets a new weapon that is just so cool I have to call it out, these silver-cored wooden throwing knives with bat-tooled hilts; even when he's slaying vampires, Batman does it in style.

You'd think that being staked would put an end to Batman's problems, but you would be wrong. In this vampire mythos, a stake just immobilizes a vampire, and only beheading or sunlight seems to make he undead permanently dead. And when the costumed criminals of Gotham run completely amok, Alfred makes the hard decision and pulls the stake. Batman rises from the dead, more monstrous than ever, and begins to hunt down and slay Gotham's criminals unrepentantly, but still enough of himself to behead each one to not spawn more vampires. Finally, after a series of atrocities, it comes down to an unholy alliance between Jim Gordon, Alfred, Two-Face, and Killer Croc to put an end to the vampire Batman. And in a final battle with a body count straight out of a Shakespearean tragedy, Batman is given his final rest, along with everyone else.

By this point in the series, the vampire Batman has become nearly entirely a monster. He hangs onto his humanity by barely a thread, and its only there in that he only kills the guilty, but he is constantly tempted to give in and just drink from anyone else he runs across. Still, the haunting narration has Batman almost as a passenger in a body driven by his hunger. I say almost because even he acknowledges that it's still him in there, just with the hunger pushing him. One of the major differences between this volume and the former two is that Batman is the only vampire in the story, and while not the only monster, he is by far the scariest.

The other monsters in the story are pretty much all of Batman's remaining major rogues, who pop up to mostly be victims of Batman's insatiable thirst. Some appear as they traditionally have: Penguin, Poison Ivy, Black Mask, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, and Two-Face all look like you'd expect. Riddler, though, gets a creepy resdesign, with question marks etched into his face and chest with stitching. I also seems that the timeline is different than what we're used to, as both Two-Face and Scarecrow are just being introduced to the world, with no previous history with Batman. It's Two-Face who is the most used of the villains, as most fall pretty quickly. Two-Face, with Croc as his henchman, is the one planning on finding a way to eliminate Batman and ascend o king of Gotham, and its a Two-Face similar to the one Moench wrote when he was writing Batman, whose personality is far more split than he's often portrayed, referring to himself as "we."

This volume also spends considerably more time developing both Jim Gordon and Alfred's character arcs. While both have had parts in the first two volumes, it is here they not only come into their own, but in the final battle show their defining characteristics. Alfred sacrifices himself to Batman's thirst after Batman is struck by a crossbow bolt so Batman can stop Two-Face from killing Gordon, showing his intense loyalty, and Gordon finally hits a detonator that opens to cavern ceiling above the Batcave, showing his resolve by being willing to not only kill his one-time friend but in the end dying to stop him. The last page, spotlighting the three fallen friends and heroes, is another one of the series highlights.

While Moench's story is excellent and haunting, I don't think this story would stick out as one of the greatest Batman Elseworlds stories if not for the art by Kelly Jones. Jones is a master of horror, his art very stylized and exaggerated to almost the point of the grotesque, with many great horror comics in his past, one of the most notable being the legendary Sandman: A Season of Mists. Gotham, though, seems to be a place he was meant to draw. His Gotham is one of the most haunting versions out there, with gargoyles and creepy buildings at every turn. The red rain and he general atmosphere gives the already horror filled story an extra edge.

And even if Gotham wasn't at it's darkest, Batman most assuredly is. Jones is most famous for how he portrays Batman's cape, competing with Todd Macfarlane for artist who draws the biggest, most billowy, most almost alive cape award, but here he adds Batman's slow descent into monsterdom; it is perfectly shown in the art. Batman starts out looking exactly like you're used to seeing him, and over the course of the first volume, he changes slowly, but even at the end he's pretty much the same, only with wings and fangs. By the second, he is slightly more grotesque, broader and more haunted looking, with he fangs ever evident. By volume three, Batman is a revenant, basically a walking corpse, with ribs evident, his vertebrae appearing almost as spikes down his back, sallow skin, and regularly shifting into a form similar to Man-Bat and to the titular crimson mist. It's Batman as the biggest, scariest monster in the series, and that makes it all the worse, as he is the guy you want to root for now transformed into the terror of the night.

Of the other monsters and villains, the designs are similarly spectacular. The were-cat Selina is lithe and sexy, while still being a terrifying monster when she is in combat. The various vampires are all hideous and scary, and I really like the design for Creach as a werewolf; he's a massive hulking brute. Oh, and the Joker has crazy long hair, almost pushing mullet levels. Nowhere else will you see a mullet Joker.

Before I close up, I want to toss in a few other interesting Batman Elsworlds and vampire stories. Sadly not as well known or in print as these ones, Moench and Jones did another Elseworld Batman original graphic novel, Dark Joker: The Wild, set in a fantasy world with Joker as an evil sorcerer. Also, for a very different take on Baman fighting Dracula, there's the direct to DVD Batman Vs. Dracula, the one feature length animated film from the continuity of the oft-forgotten animated Batman series, The Batman. Its probably the best part of that series, with some really atmospheric moments, and is well worth watching if you have the time.

Elseworlds stories range from the sublime to the, well, the stuff I don't talk about on this blog, and as there were more Batman Elseworlds than any other character, you would expect a mix of both. The Batman: Vampire trilogy falls in the sublime category, mixing the elements of Batman with some great horror elements to create a vision of Batman like no other.

All three books in the Batman: Vampire series are in print and available as one volume, whose name I used for the title of this post, Tales of the Multiverse: Batman-Vampire.

October Horrors Week 1: Best on the Racks Right Now

It's October again, my favorite month of the year, and not just because my birthday and wedding anniversary fall in it. It's because October is the spookiest of all months, where ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night are everywhere. I've usually tried to focus October recommended readings and some other posts on horror comics in the past, and hope to do some more of those over the next few weeks, but this week I'm in a time crunch thanks to real life, so I'm going to do a spotlight on the best horror comics I'm reading right now in single issues. I'm not making this a blanket statement, as there are plenty of horror comic I don't read, but if you're in the mood for something spooky, these are a great place to start. So, in no particular order, here we go, and you might want to read this with the lights on.

Afterlife With Archie

If you had said a couple years ago that two of the best horror comics currently being published (if published infrequently) would be coming from modern bastion of wholesome comics Archie Publishing, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. But now, in 2015? Wow, but Archie knows how to do a scary comic. Afterlife With Archie is a zombie comic, where a failed attempt to resurrect Hot Dog, Jughead's dog, leads to a zombie plague ravaging Riverdale and possibly the world. I started reading it for the amazingly gorgeous art from Francesco Francavilla, and while that is as great as I would have expected, it's Robert Aguirre-Sacasa's  story that really keeps you coming back. After an initial heart rending arc where Archie and the gang watch many of their friends turned into flesh eating monsters, the series current second arc is much quieter in some respects. It's a very character focused story, where we see Betty's history through her journals, where Archie talks his problems out with the ghost of Jughead in a hotel suspiciously similar to the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, where Cheryl Blossom has secrets that are way more terrifying than whatever plan she might have had to steal Archie away from Betty and Veronica. There is still some of the classic Archie soap opera, as Veronica is angry a the fact that Archie has chosen Betty, and Mr. Lodge is still the imperious jerk he ever was, and I love that; the comic is still an Archie comic, even with the zombies tearing up Riverdale. I also love the various ties to folklore and literature that Aguirre-Sacasa works in, from the aforementioned Shining scenes, to pacts with the devil, and great Cthulhu himself. Zombies may be the monster du jour right now, in the same way that vampires were in the '90s, but it's the best zombie stories hat are about the people who are trying to survive, who thy really are and how they interact, and not just he people looking to kill the zombies (this is why The Walking Dead has become such a cross media sensation, and is still a title deserving of a look, although I'm not spotlighting it here because it's The Walking Dead and it doesn't need my recommendation). When you add in the fact that you're not only dealing with those themes and using characters like Archie, who have such a rich history, you get a scary comic that really has you invested in who these characters are from page one.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

The companion title to Afterlife With Archie, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is also written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and exists in its own continuity and takes the classic Sabrina the Teenage Witch character and her supporting cast and sets them in a world where witches are far closer to the classic horror icons they are, and he devil is right around the corner. Set in the 1960's, the comic has the feel of some of the classic horror movies of the time, Rosemary's Baby coming particularly to mind. Sabina is coming in to her own as a witch as the story begins, and has to choose between life as a mortal and life as a witch. There's a lot of the classic metaphor of teen angst/life as horror intrinsic in setting the book as a character is coming of age. Sabrina herself is a nice girl who just happens to worship Satan, and has no problem using witchcraft to make the boy she likes like her back. Her aunts, usually played for laughs, are here powerful witches in their own right who we see flashes behind their mortal guises to their true forms which are monstrous in their own right. And while Sabrina is navigating high school and trying to be a normal girl while deciding if she wants to be a normal girl, Madame Satan is looking to destroy her. Madame Satan is Sabrina's dad's old flame who recently escaped imprisonment in hell and finding the man she blames for her fate dead, she decides to take the revenge on the daughter. We get an elaborate plan from Madame Satan, as she makes her way into Sabrina's life as a teacher, and does everything she can to mess with Sabrina's life from behind the scenes. The most recent issue dealt with Harvey, Sabrina's boyfriend, wandering into the black mass in the woods where Sabrina was being confirmed as a bride of Satan, his death, and the ramifications of it all. It's slow burn horror, with moments of truly monstrous terror spaced out between the events that fallout from it, or are simply quiet, making those horror moments all the darker. Robert Hack, artist on the title, has a great style, at times very realistic, at times truly horrific, and that juxtaposition works very well. I don't know how much research he has done, but the book looks and feels authentically '60s. If you've tried Afterlife and haven't given Sabrina a shot, it's well worth your time, and if you are a fan of classic horror, Sabrina is a book that will work for you.

Colder: Toss the Bones

I wrote a full recommended reading on the original Colder in October a couple years ago, and as the final mini-series in the trilogy debuted this past Wednesday, I thought I'd toss it in here, even though I haven't read the first issue of Toss the Bones yet, on the strength of the original and its sequel, Bad Seed. Colder is the story of Declan and Rese, a couple with a most unusual met cute. You see Reese is a nurse, and Declan was a patient in a waking coma of sorts that she took care of, whose body temperature was unusually cold. Only eventually, Declan woke up, pursued by various evil entities hat feed on or grow or embrace madness, and Declan has to escape them, often by going into a supernatural world parallel our own called the Hungry World, where the things that people afflicted with mental illness's delusions are made real, or possible the world where what they see really exists. The main monsters of Colder, Nimble Jack from he first mini-series and Swivel from the second, aren't traditional monsters of any sort, unless you can view them as vampires of a kind, feeding on something that people produce. Jack is a vicious and cruel trickster figure, with a mad laugh, while Swivel looks like a farmer, and views the madness he sows in a similar way. There is a real hear o the series, as Declan and Reese have a wonderful relationship. But I ill say, as great as Paul Tobin's scripts are, it's Juan Ferreyra who steals the show over and over. While he can absolutely draw people looking like people and doing normal people things, he's a master of creatures and at things being just a bit off. Nimble Jack looks human, but the way he rests his body is a times just a bit off, making him look unsettling. The Hungry World is full of terrifying creatures, all of which I would call beautiful in design and execution if they weren't so hideous. The mythology and world building has been phenomenal, creating this fascinating world of madness unlike anything I've ever seen, and with the final mini-series having just started, it's a great time to catch up and be there for the finale.

Harrow County

The quiet country town is often the site of a murder mystery, where the town keeps its secrets. While urban horror is now more prevalent than country horror (except for the cabin in the woods kind, which is an old chestnut that never goes away), Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook's Harrow County is a country horror story in the grand tradition. Emmy is a girl who lives out on a remote farm with her father. But shortly after she reaches he age she is considered an adult (there's growing up and horror linked again), Emmy begins to display powers, and the local townsfolk start showing up with pitchforks and torches, and I'm not talking metaphorically. Soon, Emmy learns secrets of Harrow County, secrets involving witches, artificial people made real, all the "haints" that occupy the town and its surroundings, and her own origins, which are nothing like she expected. Cullen Bunn, who became a favorite writer of mine with his weird Western The Sixth Gun and Tyler Crook, whose work on B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth is some of the best Mignolaverse art not by Mignola himself, craft a moody story of skeletons, skinless bodies whose skin is still psychically connected to it, a good witch, and with the new arc, another witch who I have a feeling is not so good. When you add in some fun backmatter, like Bunn's tales of supernatural experiences in early letter columns, and a one page back up in most issues that tells another scary story of the supernatural in Harrow County, Harrow County is one of he best looking and best written new series of 2015.

Gotham by Midinght

A lot of comics mash up two genres: the weird Western is a good example, and a lot of times, superhero comics take on aspects of some other genre. But Gotham by Midnight finds a way to mash up three genres, superhero, horror, and police procedural, in a way that not only works, but works really well. Headlined by Jim Corrigan, better known as the human host for he wrathful angel called The Spectre, Gotham by Midnight follows the Midnight Shift, a group of police officers and related professionals brought together by Jim Gordon when he was commissioner to deal with Gotham's supernatural elements. The rest of the squad include Det. Lisa Drake, who is part fairy and has the abilities of a banshee to know when death is near, Dr. Szandor Tarr, forensics and a bit of a mad scientist, Sister Justine, who encountered rue demonic evil and now does her best to help stop it, and their commanding officer, Lt. Weaver. The cases the Midnight Shift have encountered have led them into Slaughter Swamp, to a pair of news pundits who made a deal with the devil, a haunting at Powers Coporation, and a powerful demon that has been working its claws into Gotham for a long time. The police aspect comes into play as Sgt. Rook from Internal Affairs arrives. Rook starts out in issue one as  the way in for the readers, meeting the different members of the Midnight Shift, and encountering the weird. But instead of becoming an ally, as this sort of thing usually goes in fiction, Internal Affairs comes down harder on he Midnight Shift after Rook's investigation, meaning another player is brought in, a lawyer to help the Shift, Kate Spencer, who was the final hero to bar the name Manhunter before Flashpoint, a favorite character of mine, who I'm excited to see back. The most recent issue, issue nine, has cast some doubts on what the Spectre is, and was a great jumping on point, filling you in on what you might not know while also setting up the series final issues, as it has sadly been caught in DC's most recent purge. The art has been great, starting out with Ben Templesmith and his utterly surreal, expressionistic style, and then followed up by Juan Ferreyra, whose work here is as impressive as his work on Colder is. Gotham City has always had a spooky side, and Gotham by Midnight shines a spotlight on those darker corners.

Outcast

Now, I mentioned The Walking Dead before, and everyone out there has at least hard of it. What fewer people have heard of, at least for the moment, is Outcast, Robert Kirkman's other horror comic, this one with artist Paul Azaceta. Outcast is he story of Kyle Barnes, a man plagued by demons. Literally plagued by demons. His mother was possessed, his wife was possessed, and he demons have destroyed his life. At the beginning of the series he's living by himself as a virtual shut in when Reverend Anderson, the pastor who once tried to help Kyle's mother, comes to him for help. Because Anderson believes that Kyle has the power to cast out demons. And once Kyle starts, things begin to spin. Whether demons have been as prevalent in the world up til now, or if Kyle's presence is drawing them out, and exactly why they call him Outcast remain some of the series' mysteries. And then there's Sidney, better known as, well, the Devil. Sidney has entered Kyle's orbit, saving his niece, killing his neighbor and moving into the neighbor's house, and marking the Reverend with an inverted pentagram to scare him off, or at least slow him down. Again, Sidney's motivations are vague, but that's OK. One of the keys of Outcast is that mystery, something that Kirkman is slooooowly paying out. Twelve issues in, we know considerably more than what we did in issue one, but there's a lot left to learn. Kyle is a very sympathetic main character, someone who you feel for. He's a guy who not only can't see his daughter or ex-wife (she got a restraining order against him, since she can't remember being possessed and all she knows is she woke up bruised and beaten), and who fears for the people around him since most of the people he loves have been possessed. Kirkman has also spent time fleshing out the supporting cast, like Kyle's foster-sister, Megan, her husband, Mark, and their daughter, Holly, so you care about them too, and dread what you know is going to be the horrors coming their way. There are two kinds of horror, the kind where you root for the killer or monster and the kind where you fear for the victims. Outcast falls firmly in the latter, and I have a feeling there's only more dread to come.

Nailbiter

OK, I'm going to be up front. I really enjoy all the comics on this list. But if I had to choose a favorite horror comic currently being published, it would be Nailbiter, from Joshua Williamson and Mike Henderson. Nailbiter isn't supernatural horror like the other books on this list, but is in the model of the slasher film, although I wouldn't be surprised if something supernatural appears by the end. I've reviewed a bunch of issues of Nailbiter, so you can go check out those reviews, but here's the series in broad strokes. Buckaroo, Oregon has a particularly dubious claim to fame: over a dozen of is residents have become serial killers. And one of them, Edward Charles Warren, called the Nailbiter for his choice of victims being people who bite their nails, is found not guilty and returns home. But while Warren's return serves as the inciting incident of the series, it's when Agent Carroll of the FBI, the man who brought in Warren, calls his old friend Finch of army intelligence to tell him that he's fond the secret to Buckaroo's propensity for spawning murderers that he series begins. Finch arrives to find Carroll missing, and strikes up an alliance with local sheriff, Shannon Crane, to find his friend and maybe the secret of Buckaroo along the way. The entire cast are well written and varied, from Alice, an outsider girl who feels she's destined to be the next Buckaroo Butcher, to Reverend Fairgold, the local man of God who has his own set of issues, to Warren himself, who is one of those slick, charismatic killers. The characters and the story are phenomenal, and it's paced to perfection. Williamson and Henderson know how to lay out a sequence to absolutely ramp up the tension. Issue nine has a sequence in Crane's house that is so absolutely perfect, so perfectly laid out, that I can think of few scenes in a comic that sent more chills up my spine. The third arc of Nailbiter wrapped up a couple months ago, an arc that answered some questions about Buckaroo while opening up a bunch of others, and the new one starts this month, so there are three trades waiting to be read just in time or Halloween.


Oh, and before I go, something truly scary... This week is Banned Books Week. I'm a supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and any other organization that champions free speech. Every idea may not be right for everyone, but everyone should have the right to share their ideas, and books, be they novels, comics, or anything else, are still my favorite way to dive into an idea. Comics are being banned constantly, partially because people don't understand that comics are for everyone, and partially because people generally like to ban things they themselves don't understandthis link over the CBLDF website. and come back here next week for more horror comics that I'm sure have been banned somewhere.

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 12/3

Detective Comics #37
Story & Art: Brian Buccellato & Francis Manapul

Regular creative team Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul return to Detective Comics after a two part fill-in story to introduce Anarky to the New 52. I like Anarky as a character, always have, despite some overuse in the late 90s, and I think in a world where government gridlock and income inequality are in the news every night, a character who is against the wealthy and the government seems to fit a certain zeitgeist. Hints were dropped to Anarky in issue 34, and Harvey Bullock and his not-partner-but-sort-of-partner Detective Margaret Yip are looking into the mysterious A symbols. We get a nice scene with Bullock and Yip talking about how they view Christmas and the New Year, how one sees it as a chance to start fresh, and the other sees it as a year where every open case goes down as unsolved, and how Bullock sees his cases and the GCPD as his life; Buccellato and Manpul are writing a great Harvey Bullock, and I'm glad to see him getting a spotlight. This is shown in comparison to Batman and Alfred, with Alfred taking Bruce on a walk on the grounds of Wayne Manor with Titus, Damian's dog, and Alfred insisting Batman have some, "Bruce time," something Bruce doesn't like the phrasing of, since he feels it makes him sound like he has multiple personalities. The primary action of the book involves Anarky killing a crooked Wayne Enterprises employee (one who was introduced in the previous arc, making it look like the creators are playing a long game with lots on interconnected plots, which I like), and then hacking Wayne Enterprises and setting everything networked to the system to blow. Batman, Bullock, and Yip, with a hand from Lucius Fox, attempt to evacuate the building, seemingly to no avail. I was pleased to see the creators using Anarky's established hacking skills, and not just changing him to be some murderous thug with a chip on his shoulder. I also want to throw credit to Manapul for drawing the CREEPIEST Mad Hatter ever in a scene at the beginning of the issue where Batman fights ol' Jervis Tetch. When he reappeared in  Batman: The Dark Knight, Ethan Van Sciver drew him in grotesque detail to the point he felt a little too realistic for a character who is so outside the norm. Manapul's style captures that madness and the creepiness of the Hatter perfectly, with some very clear influence from the original John Tenniel illustrations in Through the Looking Glass. There are a lot of questions left with the return of Anarky, and I'm looking forward to seeing the answers from Buccellato and Manapul.

Fight Like a Girl #1
Story: David Pinckney
Art: Soo Lee

Action Lab Entertainment publishes one of the best all ages comics on the racks, Princeless, a book that tosses fairy tale tropes on their ear and has a heroine who is tougher than any Disney princess, and I accept the blasphemy of  saying anyone is better than a character from Frozen gladly. This week, Action Lab released a number one of  a new series, Fight Like a Girl, which looks to capture the same magic. And while Princeless is still in a league of its own, the first issue of Fight Like a Girl is a solid introduction to its protagonist and its world. Amarosa has a brother who is dying, and since no doctor can save him, she goes before a council of gods from a mixture of pantheons, and asks to take a series of nine trials, which if she succeeds, the gods will cure her brother. It's a classic conceit, and it's presented well. We see a little on Amarosa's life outside the mystical realm, but mostly this issue is letting us understand the stakes. We get to see the fairy that is Amarosa's gods' provided sidekick, and we do get to see the first trial, where Amarosa confronts a shapeshifter who attacks her in the form of a T-Rex. So girl with a bat versus T-Rex doesn't seem too fair, but when the bat turns into a chainsaw, I feel like we're entering Scott Pilgrim territory, with that blend of realism and fantasy, which is a sweet spot I'd be happy to live in. But what grabbed me, and elevated this to something I'd like to talk about is that fact that the shapeshifter isn't s ravening monster. When we first see her, she's a in the form of a young woman. And while she's clearly a monster (she has to absorb other living things to enable her shapeshifting), she doesn't just attack Amarosa; she gives her a chance to walk away, and only takes action when Amarosa makes it clear she isn't going anywhere. And in the end, the shapeshifter points out to Amarosa how proud her family must be of her for killing someone who was willing to just let things go. I hope that thread, that idea of how far you're willing to go to do what you feel you need to, and at what point do you become something worse than what you're trying to kill/stop, is explored further. It's heady stuff for an all ages comic, but I feel we don't give kids enough credit for deep thought. So if, like me, you're feeling some Princeless withdrawal, I'd snag Fight Like a Girl.

Nailbiter #8
Story: Joshua Williamson
Art: Mike Henderson

OK, I feel guilty. Nailbiter is one of the best horror comics on the racks, and I've only reviewed it once. Last month's issue featured a guest appearance by Brian Michael Bendis, and it was a great issue, but I skipped reviews that week, but I'm reviewing this week, and so I have to hit Nailbiter. This issue begins the second major arc in earnest (after two stellar one off issues), and we get to spend some time with each member of the cast. Disgraced NSA agent Nicholas Finch continues to follow the trail left by his friend, FBI Agent Carroll, to try to find out not only who kidnapped and beat Carroll into a coma, but the secret of Buckaroo, the town that spawns more serial killers than any other. And his investigation leads him to a small farm that keeps bees. I am not really phobic when it comes to bugs of any kind (rats, on the other hand...), but Mike Henderson has made this book atmospheric from page one, and watching what is going on with the bees, and the sing song of the man in the basement, might make me reconsider that, because even if the bees aren't creeping me out, everything around them is. Meanwhile, the town preacher is ranting against the sins of the town that have brought this curse upon them, and cost him the life of his son, the bully who was killed at the serial killer super store in the first arc. He confronts Sheriff Crane, who was the childhood sweetheart of Buckaroo's celebrity serial killer, Edward Warren aka The Nailbiter, and talks about how prayer is going to stop these horrors. While Finch is usually the center of the action, I think Crane, as well as high school outcast Alice (who also stands up to the preacher), are my favorite characters in the book, and I think the introduction of a local rival with the preacher is going to give Crane more time to shine. And of course, Warren, the titular Nailbiter, gets his moment to shine, in a scene with a reporter that would make The Joker nod in approval. Nailbiter is a study in character and atmosphere, with each issue pulling you deeper into the terrifying town of Buckaroo, and this second arc looks to give us some answers. Or maybe not; with horror, who knows if what you'll get is what you want. Oh, and as an aside, the third issue of Williamson's fantasy series, Birthright was released this week, another book that continues to twist genre and move at breakneck speed, so I'd check that out too, if you aren't.

Secret Six #1
Story: Gail Simone
Art: Ken Lashley

It's baaaaAAAAck! Yes, Gail Simone's team of supervillains make their triumphant New 52 debut in an issue that is different from the old series, but still has enough of the familiar that it's clear we're in for the same insane ride. Gail Simone's trademark mix of humor and violence is well on display in this issue, as we're introduced to the new members of the team that will become the Secret Six: two old members (Catman and Black Alice), two characters from Simone's run on Batgirl (Strix and the Ventriloquist), and two new characters (Porcelain and Big Shot). The point of view character for this issue is Catman, which shouldn't surprise anyone, as Simone clearly loved that character. Catman is a slightly different character in his new incarnation. He seems, if not quicker to anger, far less strategic; when fake law enforcement come to pick him up, he simply starts attacking them with not much of a plan. Still, he tough and a complete badass, which keeps the original Catman formula in place. It's also interesting to see him with some more cat-like behaviors; if you've ever seen a cat shut in a room, you can see that reflected when he's trapped. And that's where he meets the rest of the team, trapped in a room with a big monitor and a voice telling them one will be killed if they don't discover the secret. The dynamic between each member of the team is already starting to build, and each character is distinct: Strix is quiet and haunted, Black Alice is distant and damaged. Big Shot seems to be the one trying to make things work, Ventriloquist is completely insane, and Porcelain seems the most together, which means, if I know Gail Simone, she's the most screwed up of the bunch. Ken Lashley's art is good for the book, dark and violent. His fight scenes are great to watch, as the action is clear, and his Catman has a cocky look to him, although when he realizes he's trapped, the terror bleeds off the page. While I'm going to miss Bane and Scandal, and the bromance between Catman and Deadshot, Gail Simone has proven she can take a concept she has done before and breathe a very different life into it, so I'm excited to see where Secret Six goes.

Wolf Moon #1
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Jeremy Haun

I think I've said this before, but in case I haven't, I love werewolves. Whether it's the classic movie versions like Larry Talbot from The Wolfman, Joe Kelly's haunted one from Bad Dog, the terrifying one from An American Werewolf in London, or the cute ones like Patrick the Wolf Boy. So, I was interested to see what Cullen Bunn, a writer whose horror and weird tales have always appealed to me, would do with the werewolf myth for Vertigo. And Wolf Moon is a very interesting take. Dillon Chase is a man who is haunted by the wolf, and now he hunts it. His girlfriend is similarly damaged, and she doesn't want him to go, but he must find it and stop it. But what Bunn does that is different is that this is not a werewolf that is transmitted by bite, as is usually the way. No, this wolf possesses someone for the three nights of the full moon and then leaves them, and their life, in shambles. What this does is making hunting the beast all the harder, as Dillon realizes when he has the werewolf in his sights; the person the wolf is riding ill be free soon, and has done nothing wrong. That doesn't mean they don't know what's going on. We do see some of the wolf's previous hosts, and the horror of knowing what they did. "The wolf," says Dillon, "doesn't just reshape flesh and bone... it reshapes lives." This issue is a number one, and so it spends much of its time introducing concept and character, but we still get a brutal attack from the werewolf in a fast food restaurant, drawn by Jeremy Haun. I've been a fan of Haun since Battle Hymn, and while I enjoyed his recent run on Batwoman, I'm glad to see him on Wolf Moon. His wolf is huge, menacing, and looks like it could swallow you whole. There is more going on here, a mysterious someone else hunting, and Bunn has built enough of a mystery to add another layer to his horror. With The Sixth Gun, Bunn's weird Western, wrapping up in a few months, it's good to see he has some more supernatural stories lined up to keep his fans coming back for more.

A Halloween Visit to the Darker Corners of the Marvel Universe

Happy Halloween, everybody! Instead of a normal recommended reading, or a post of the kind you normally see, I thought I'd do something different. After thinking about Doctor Strange, I realized that while most corners of the Marvel Universe have been reawakened and retooled in recent years, the supernatural corner remains dormant. So, Dan and I sat down and came up with some ideas for ways for Marvel to do some new supernatural titles! It's a fun little trip into our brains, so don't get too scared!

Doctor Strange

As I stated when I talked about Doctor Strange earlier this week, Strange has had any number of reboots and new series, so coming at him from a new angle was tricky. But I got to thinking about the Ancient One, Strange's master, and the numerous apprentices Strange has taken over the years. So, what happened if Strange learned that, through some magical confluence, thirteen children were born, each with a different magical gift, and the balance of all magic would rest on whether or not they chose light or dark magic? With the kids now teenagers, Strange must race across the globe, gathering these kids and then training them, all the while competing with someone else, let's say Baron Mordo, to keep them on the side of the light. It's got a similar vibe to classic X-Men stories, only told from Xavier's point of view instead of the students, or Harry Potter from Dumbledore's perspective, clearly with Strange in the Xavier or Dumbledore role. It would introduce a group of new magical characters, characters who could be from any country, of any race, religion, or sexual orientation, meaning it works with so much of what Marvel has been doing to diversify their line. And Strange can team up with various other magical characters, like Doctor Voodoo, to help teach the kids different disciplines. Extra points for a convenient crossover with Uncanny X-Men, when one of Strange's team turns out to not only be magically gifted but a mutant, and Strange must work with his ex-apprentice, Magik, and team his kids up with the kids from the New Xavier School.

MI-13

OK, I know, I know. I'm a sucker for Pete Wisdom, and I would probably try to pitch a new book featuring Wisdom to Marvel in any way I could. But bear with me. Nearly all stories of MI-13 and Wisdom have had some magical angle, so we give the British spooky intel agency a new specific mission. With S.H.I.E.L.D. overwhelmed with all the supercriminals and terrorists, international magical items trafficking has skyrocketed, and Maria Hill goes to the experts: Pete Wisdom and MI-13. Now MI-13's goal is to shut down an international cartel that is selling, and in some cases handing out, magical items of incredible dark power. What exactly is their angle? And exactly who is the mastermind behind it? With a core team of Pete Wisdom, Spitfire, Black Knight, Union Jack, and Excalibur, there could be any number of supernatural heroes who could guest star. Blade's a little busy over in Mighty Avengers, but he could come back, as could Captain Britain and Megann, but I think Elsa Bloodstone, who is free since the end of Fearless Defenders, would make a good replacement for Blade as monster hunter extraordinaire. I'd also like to keep Alistair Stuart around, and reintroduce the original version of Romany Wisdom, the hippy magic user version, as she is both Pete's sister and Union Jack's ex, as the support team for the unit.

Dracula and the Legion of Monsters

When Mark Waid brought the Legion of Monsters back in Daredevil, he gave them a mission: track down and contain the dispersed pages of the Darkhold, the most evil books of magic in existence; picture the Marvel Universe version of the Necronomicon and you get the idea. So, when team leader Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night, discovers a page of the book that allows the possessor to control vampires, Jack and team hunt down the vampire of vampires, Dracula. And this is the Dracula of Tomb of Dracula, Doctor Strange, classic X-Men, and Captain Britiain and MI-13, the one designed by Gene Colan. He's no longer wearing red armor and wearing his hair all long and white; nope this Dracula has style. Russell uses the page, and Drac is now under his control. Well, sort of. Dracula can't turn on Russell and his team, but whatever they ask him to do, he can do in whatever way he sees fit, so it's a classic monkey's paw situation: use Dracula to track down more pages, but say one false word and he'll massacre everyone between him and the page. And Dracula is always scheming to come up with a way to get the page from Russell so he can be free and exact his revenge, giving a constant sense of tension to every issue.

Midnight Sons of Anarchy (working title only) 

Marvel relaunched Ghost Rider earlier this year with a new host for the Spirit of Vengeance, Robbie Reyes, who drives a black muscle car instead of a motorcycle. Frankly, I see a missed opportunity here. Because you know what’s cooler than one Ghost Rider? A gang of them. A Spirits of Vengeance series ran from 1992 to 1994, teaming up original-recipe Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze with Crystal Pepsi Ghost Rider Danny Ketch. I say revisit the series, uniting Blaze, Ketch, Reyes and the Alejandra and Vengeance characters, along with some new recruits, as a team of demon-possessed hotheads riding together, righting wrongs and whipping people with hellfire-covered chains. Yes, it would be a blatant rip-off of the popular FX series Sons of Anarchy, but that fruit’s hanging low for a reason.

Resurrect Gail Simone’s Night Nurse MAX series 

Years ago, Simone and artist Jill Thompson were developing a mature-readers series featuring the Night Nurse, a superhero health care worker and the sometimes girlfriend of Dr. Strange. The series was shelved in early 2002, and Simone went on to write Deadpool/Agent X. Brian Michael Bendis made the Night Nurse one of his pet quasi-Avengers in the 2000s, patching up anti-registration heroes in the pages of New Avengers as well as Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker’s Immortal Iron Fist. If nothing else, should a new Dr. Strange book comes out in time for the movie in 2016, I’d love for the Nurse to be a part of it.

House of Z 

Pretty sure this one hasn’t been leaked along with the kajillion other crossover redux teasers for next summer’s Secret Wars. Zombie Wanda Maximoff grunts “No more zombies” to avoid having her brains eaten by her brother, Zombie Pietro, and magically undoes the zombie virus for all but 198 of them. A restored humanity led by some of the company’s best supporting characters – Thunderbolt Ross, Pepper Potts, J. Jonah Jameson, Dum Dum Dugan, Foggy Nelson, etc. – must figure out how to live in a world destroyed by zombies. In so doing, humans become the hunters, and the zombies are chased across the country onto an island in the San Francisco Bay that the humans nuke without a second thought, because, as Ross tells Nelson, “Can’t destroy a world that’s already been destroyed.” In promotional materials, Marvel will act like they’re finally getting rid of all the zombies, as a red herring to distract those who’ve said Marvel’s done too many zombie stories. But the blast actually radiates the zombie virus and makes it airborne, creating a whole new batch. This sets up House of Z 2, in which the remaining humans scour the globe searching for Zombie Wanda, whom they failed to round up the first time around. 


Now, go out and enjoy Halloween!

Reviews of Comics from Wednesday 10/22

It's Halloween week, folks, and so for this week I'm going to review some comics with tales of horror and the supernatural this week. Plenty of other great books hit this week, including a double dose of Greg Rucka in Lazarus and Stumptown, a  new She-Hulk from Charles Soule, a delightfully funny issue of The Delinquents, and the debut of an interesting new direction for Catwoman, but for this week? Horror reigns in the Matt Signal reviews.

Colder: The Bad Seed #1
Story: Paul Tobin
Art: Juan Ferreyra

I did a recommendation for the original Colder mini-series on Friday, and so I'm happy to say I can review and recommend the first issue of the second series, The Bad Seed, today. Since the defeat of Nimble Jack, Declan and Reece have been living happily together. Reece is working again, and Declan is using his powers to help the insane recover; she even brings him to work to meet her coworkers and to let him help some of the patients. This bit of idyllic life isn't going to last. There is a hint that Reece is still effected by the events of the first series, as she asks him if, with Jack dead, they are safe from the Hungry World, the world of the insane, and Declan assures her they are safe, although there is a hint he is unsure. And he is quickly proven right. A new monster appears, one who has a hunger for fingers, and who is using them for some macabre planting, walking around with a clay pot and planning for something to grow. He also shows a fascination with Declan, whose fingers he "feeds." Whatever this monster has in mind, it's not going to end well for our protagonists. The plot of the issue is simple, and sets up the new series, but since it's been quite a while since the last series, I can see why. It also establishes the powers and creep factor of our new monster, which is high. He doesn't seem to have the same macabre madness as Jack, but is more focused on his planting and harvesting, which is somehow more disturbing; planting is associated with growth and nature, so to see something using it in an evil way seems wrong on so many levels. Juan Ferreyra's monster designs continue to impress, as we see the madness of the people Declan is looking in on embodied by horrors surrounding them, and of course our new lead monster is, as you can see from the cover, made out of fingers. Again, there is something particularly unnatural about that, something off kilter that just made my skin crawl. It's good to be back in the world of Colder, but beware, as its a world where something dark waits around every corner.

Five Ghosts #13
Story: Frank J. Barbiere
Art: Chris Mooneyham

Five Ghosts is back, and just in time for Halloween. While the first arc of the series, about treasure hunter Fabian Grey, who has five ghosts of great literary figures/archetypes in him, was an Indiana Jones-style pulp adventure, and the next was a pirates/shipwrecked adventure, this third arc is cemented deeply in the horror genre. Set in Romania, the story opens with Fabian saving a young boy from what seem to be vampires, and finds out the boy is bringing medicine to the nearest village, where a plague has set in. Arriving in a village, we find that Fabian is following a clue to his the whereabouts of his best friend, kidnapped at the end of the last issue. When the village elder sees the symbol that is the clue, we hear a tale of the rich family who once lived in a nearby manor, a story that is gothic and horrible, with sickness, death, and elder gods. Fabian has dreams where he must confront one of his ghosts, the Vampire, who is being brought out by being in its native, for want of a better word, genre, and though Fabian wins, the Vampire has always been the most insistent of the ghosts and I wonder if Fabian will be able to hold him back forever. Finally, we see a man in a wagon dressed as a plague doctor, you know, with the creepy bird mask, and we learn that he is not curing the plague, but spreading it, and is creating more of the vampire/zombies from the beginning of the issue. Five Ghosts is a comic that has the best kind of pulp vibe, taking all the tropes of classic adventure genres and mixing them together. It's take on horror is atmospheric, both from writer Frank Barbiere's script, full of portent and mystery, and artist Chris Mooneyham's moody, dark art working to add to the sense of gloom. The vampire/zombie monsters are threatening and wreak of evil, and there's something I've always found unsettling about plague doctors, and Mooneyham makes this one all the more unsettling. With mystery, monsters, and heroics, the new arc of Five Ghosts looks to be another exciting adventure of Fabian Grey.

The Unwritten: Apocalypse #10
Story: Mike Carey
Art: Peter Gross

The final arc of The Unwritten, "Annals of Comparative Literature," begins with Tom Taylor, the man whose father sewed his life into the life of his fictional character, and his band of allies preparing to make one final attempt to stop the evil Pullman from wiping out existence. Meanwhile, Pullman and his allies are attempting to, well, wipe out existence. But it works for neither of them. The Unwritten is a story about stories and their power, so everyone quickly realizes that tools of power from a story have no power out of that context, so a race is on, as the story ends with Tommy coming face-to-wand with his fictional counterpart, boy wizard Tommy Taylor. The action of this issue is a lot of talking and planing, so it gives the characters time to have some great moments, especially Pauly Bruckner. When Bruckner was originally introduced, he was a comedic figure, a hitman trapped in a Winnie-the-Pooh type story where he was in the body of an  anthropomorphic rabbit. But as the series has continued, a character I thought was a one off gag has grown in depth, filled with anger at his fate, and now a more pathetic figure, just wanting to get back to the story. Having betrayed Tom to Pullman, he now abandons Pullman to warn Tom. That evolution of Pauly is one of the things that makes The Unwritten great, taking something so minor and making it so deep. There's also a wonderful moment between Tom and Lizzy, his romantic interest. I've been rooting for these kids to get and stay together for years, so seeing that they are now really a couple is nice. In the world of Tommy Taylor, Pullman's messenger encounters Count Ambrosio, Tommy's arch nemesis, who has appeared in our world a few times, possessing people, but to see him in his full vampiric power (see, vampires, bringing it back around to horror) makes him seem a more daunting foe. And of course, in the background, the literal puppet master, Madam Rausch, plays the two sides against each other. I'm wondering if the story with Pullman will be wrapped up next issue, leaving Tom to deal with Rausch in the very end, or if the final battler will have three sides. One way or the other, this issue starts what should be a grand climax to The Unwritten.

Recommended Reading for 10/24: Colder

It's October, and I usually spend my favorite month doing recommended readings for one of my favorite genres: horror comics. I've fallen behind on that this month, but I'm hoping to remedy that today.

"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad," wrote Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This quote could be attributed as accurately to Colder, the horror series written by Paul Tobin and drawn by Juan Ferreyra. It's a tale of madness, compassion, love, hunger, and cold.

When I first read solicitation copy for Colder, I was surprised. I really like Paul Tobin as a writer, but I was familiar with his writing almost exclusively as all ages work, including the Eisner nominated Bandette, the charming Banana Sunday, both with Colleen Coover, and Marvel's late and lamented all ages "Marvel Adventures" line. But if Mark Millar's best work can be on Superman Adventures, than a writer known for all ages comics can write horror. And mixing in the lavish and horrific art from Juan Ferreyra, it seemed a no brainer to sample it, and it was well worth it.

One of the thing that immediately grabbed my attention about Colder was the fact that it's a horror comic that isn't depending on any of the classic monster tropes. I don't have anything against classic monsters; far from it. I love The Walking Dead, Tomb of Dracula, and any number of other monster themed comics. But I'm impressed when someone thinks outside the box. The monster that Paul Tobin creates for this series is Nimble Jack, who is an invisible psychic vampire of sorts. He feeds off of, and inspires, insanity. So not only do we have a monster who can move hidden through the world and views people as just food, but one who can do one of the things that any thinking person dreads; he can push you to lose your mind. There's something terrifying about being lost in your own mind, and Tobin played with that fear in a way that made my skin crawl.

A great villain/monster isn't the heart of a horror comic, though. If you don't have leads that you care about, then the comic is nothing more than an exercise in how much gore or terror you can squeeze between the pages (there is also the Tales from the Crypt model, where you often are looking for the lead to get their comeuppance, but those work best in short pieces, I find). The people who are the heart of the story are Declan and Reece. The first issue opens in an asylum in 1941, some seventy years earlier than the rest of the story, and we see Declan infected with... something by Jack as the asylum burns around them. Flash forward to the present, where Reece is a nurse who is taking care of mysterious patient, Declan, who has been in a waking coma for as long as anyone can remember. After the care facility he was in closed, Reece actually took Declan in, a Declan who does not seem to have aged a day since the 40s, and one whose body temperature is preternaturally cold.

Reece is tough, resourceful, and has her feet planted firmly in a rational world. All that changes when Jack returns, speaks briefly to Declan and leaves. Declan then speaks to Reece for the first time, which is understandably shocking to Reece. Declan takes her out, and tries to explain everything that has happened to him that he can remember, but is disturbed by Jack, who he knows he must avoid. because Jack has been basically aging Declan like a fine wine for eighty years, waiting for the feats of all feasts. To escape, Declan takes Reece into another world, or gives her a new perspective on this world, the one shared by those who aren't in touch with reality as we all understand it. One way or the other, it's a dark world full of monsters and weirdness, and Reece does not take well to it. Now both Reece and Declan smell of insanity, a smell that attracts Jack, and it's a race against time to save Reece before Declan's body temperature drops even lower and kills him.

The coldness that the title refers to is Declan's, but it's more than just a way to preserve Declan. Declan's memory of his time before Jack infected him is limited, and he doesn't want to remember, because he's fairly sure that he did horrible things. He also has a gift, sort of the mirror image of Jack's. While Jack feeds on madness, driving people insane and eventually to suicide, Declan can reverse madness as well as increase it, but only at the cost of precious degrees of body temperature. Every time he steps into the realm of madness or helps someone,it moves him closer to death or to being Jack's frozen prey. It's a great set up, since there's now a ticking clock on top of the supernatural predator hunting our heroes and Reece's own increasing separation from reality.

Tobin ratchets the tension up throughout the series using all these elements, building to a battle between Declan and Jack for Reece. And it's a deeply personal battle for Declan, as it's fairly clear that he has fallen in love with Reece during his time with her. He's been aware of everything that happened to him, and he sees what a good person Reece is. The addition of the love story might seem like a bit too much, but it folds so nicely into everything else going on. The fact that Reece is completely unsure of what to make of Declan and isn't sure what she feels about him adds a dimension to the relationship, making it not a simple girl-meets-boy-with-a-supernatural-affliction and falls in love with him story, which let's be fair, is a genre trope that has been done a lot in recent years as well.

The series has an air of mystery to it that adds to the sense of unease. Exactly what Jack is and how he feeds is parsed out gradually, and I haven't revealed all the details of that. And Declan's mysterious past, exactly why he was in the asylum, what the doctors there were doing to him and the other patients, and what exactly his capabilities are, is teased out, keeping the reader on their toes and just a bit off balance, not letting him or her get comfortable enough to settle in. That's what the best horror stories do, keep you looking over your shoulder, metaphorically and, let's be frank, sometimes literally.

I don't want to talk details about how the series ends, but I do want to say just how perfectly in tone the ending is. The best kind of horror stories, ones like The Exorcist and The Stand, end with at least a touch of ambiguity. It might be a black and white world, with monsters in it, but even when white wins, black is still out there and it's fingers are still creeping into the world. The release of a sequel tells you at least one of the protagonists survives, but the condition either of them might be in? Well read the book and find out.

The series would have been a good read with any artist, but artist Juan Ferreyra takes the work up to an entirely different level. I love an artist who can draw very expressive and distinctive faces, and Ferreyra hits that one out of the park. The various looks of madness and hunger in Jack, the confusion in Reece, and the lost looks of Declan are perfect. And the way he draws Jack's body, contorting in unnatural ways adds to the wrongness of everything about him.

Those skills are important for any artist, but for an artist on a horror comic, there's a skill that is just as important: monsters. And Ferreyra shines there even brighter. The time spent in the world of the insane is a time filled with monsters. Flayed giants, hellhounds, things made of bones, and the deformed perceptions of the mad as to what they look like themselves ooze all over the page. The world itself is a rundown, haunted looking city that feels like menace waits around every corner, and it does.

I've heard it said about colorists that if you notice their work, they're doing something wrong, which is a statement I couldn't disagree with more, and I want to draw special attention to Ferreyra and Eduardo Ferreyra and Laura Binaghi, who are credited with color assist on the series. The difference in colors between the real world and the world of the insane is part of what makes that world so disturbing. And the slow shift in Declan's color, as he gets colder, is a great visual cue to his state; without it, the pressure of Declan's situation would not be as palpable.

Horror is a genre that is well suited to comics. It combines the visceral, of the still panel and the image, with the imagination, as you craft the flow of the action. A well done horror comic will draw you in and leave you unsettled. Colder is one such comic, one that leaves you wondering just how tenuous our hold on the world is, and what exactly might be waiting in the dark corners of our own minds. It's a great read, but if I might make one suggestion before you pick it up: Make sure you have a warm blanket to curl up under once you start. You'll need it.

Oh, and in case you needed any other incentive, in one panel, Jack turns into a werewolf, and Declan punches him out.

Pretty sweet, huh?

Colder is available in a trade paperback from Dark Horse Comics at comic shops and on-line. The first issue of the sequel, Colder: The Bad Seed, was released this past Wednesday. The creators are also currently collaborating on Prometheus: Fire & Stone, part of the Prometheus/Aliens/Predator crossover, also from Dark Horse.