The “Frighty” Trade Reviews
Yes, we’re back! October is the month when the Mighty Reviewers convulse and transform during the full moon to take the hulking and disfigured forms of…The Frighty Reviewers! And, this week, we’ve got help from a guest reviewers!! But, before you run to your cottage homes, bolt your doors, and cover your windows with garlic and wolfs bane, be sure to read our frighty trade reviews this week and every week, all month long!!!
Protector2814’s Review
Vampire Tales Volume 1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Steve Gerber, Ron Goulart, Roy Thomas, Don McGregor, Gardner Fox, Gerry Conway
Drawn by: Pablo Marcos, Win Mortimer, Rich Buckler, Jesus Blasco, John Romita, Carlos Garzon, Esteban Maroto, Vincente Alcazar
Cover by: Pablo Marcox
When I first saw this reduced sized trade collection of the 1st three issues of the Curtis/Marvel, 70’s, B&W magazine of the same name, I grabbed my lcs’s only copy and gripped it in my weekly stack. This is Marvel 70’s gold as far as I’m concerned, and no one in my Wednesday circle was gonna get it before me. A little pricey at $19.99, and a commitment (after all this is only the 1st 3 issues), I feel it’s my duty as a Marvel Monster Fan to support any decision by Marvel to re-introduce this kind of quality Monster Madness to the masses, especially to those born after 1970. This is the grail stuff my monster fans….this is the Morbius/Dracula/Satana early stories that have fueled the imaginations of all writers & artists to tackle the characters through now.
Introduced by Curtis Magazines in 1973, Vampire Tales originally was sold for .75 cents had covers on it that would have caused any 70’s kid to be grounded for a week for even bringing into the house. They’re reproduced here, but they’re small and in b&w, so you’ll have to just take my word for it. Besides the Morbius, Dracula and Satana stories, Marvel precursor Atlas comic’s, pre-code vampire & horror comics were reproduced within the pages. Do these stories hold up? Well…. that’s entirely up to you. I believe they do but, then again, I LOVE 70’s horror comics and can easily turn-off a modern comics fan’s sensibilities, and loose myself in the time machine of whatever era I’m reading from. This is the key.
Part 1 – Kicks off wit a killer Morbius, The Living Vampire story written by Steve Gerber with art by 70’s b&w mag. Extraordinaire, Pablo Marcos. Morbius is in LA and gets caught up in a hippy vampire cult that doesn’t realize that they’re playing with fire. He feeds, they freak, it’s fun.A Killer Atlas Werewolf story follows that’s immensely satisfying as no modern horror comics are today. It’s self contained and monster-fun. A straight up, Roy Thomas vampire story follows that’s very Hammer inspired, but that makes sense, seeing as how Hammer Studios was grinding them out at the same time. Two very occult stories close the 1st issue of Tales out that I just loved.
Part 2 – Picks up with another BRUTAL Morbius tale. Honestly, this is not the Spiderman Morbius. This version kills, laps blood, butchers comrades and is left still asking those quintessential Marvel questions of character like why am I like this? & Did I really just do that?. The no-code, Curtis magazines took horrific liberties and it’s so appreciated.
The Son of Satan’s Sister, Satana makes her 1st ever comics appearance in issue 2. It’s just so cool and subtle. The story is just 4-pages long. A mugger makes the fatal mistake of following a hottie into an alley. Do the math. Satana reveals herself to us in the last panel and Bowen’s putting out a statue of her 40 years later.
Beautiful, pre-code Atlas Horror is sprinkled throughout this issue.
Part 3 – Kicks off with the 1st fully developed Satana story by Gerry Conway. Esteban Maroto’s art shows the Daughter of Satan at her all time sexiest. She happens upon a groovy, East Village Satan worshipers meeting and decides to hit it. Satana is invited in, attempts are made to control her. She sexually and seventies-style sucks the life forces out of everyone. The story is much more detailed and trapped in a time period which will rivet you. Rich Butler & Klaus Janson draw a final Morbius story which is a bit more grounded in the regular Marvel U than the 2 pervious. There’s a cult involved & a giant spider. Morbius holds his own. This final part contains an extra three occult tales, including an occult one written by Stan Lee himself called Don’t Try To Outsmart The Devil.
I love this stuff. I’m sure you can find this volume on Amazon for a few bucks less. I implore you as fellow comic book fans and fans of horror comics to turn off modern thinking and visit what us old timers cut our teeth on. These are the Universal and Hammer versions of horror comics; well worth a peek at. You won’t need to follow years long plots, you’ll just need to crack a cold beer or cider, and loose yourself in honest Vampire Tales during a night on the sofa.
Wktf’s Trade Reviews
Werewolf
Del Ray Books
Written by: Richard Corben
Drawn by: Richard Corben
To start, let me point out this book contains a disclaimer on it that reads, “Suggested for Mature Readers.”
Not really surprising, considering this is a collection of Richard Corben’s work. Corben may best be known for his fantasy stories in Heavy Metal where he created his famous character, Den, a muscleman of wildly exaggerated proportions who battled all kinds of extraterrestrial monsters and other crazy dangers while also mixing it up with women who, literally, can’t get enough of him. Words like “exaggerated,” “outrageous” and even “pornographic” (the latter is a term Corben, himself, rejects when talking about his work) tend to characterize Corben’s stories and art. His tamest work may well be Marvel’s “Cage” miniseries which suffered more for Brian Azzerrello’s writing rather than Corben’s art.
“Werewolf” was published in 2005 and contains seven different short werewolf stories published from 1979-1984 in various other titles including, I’m assuming from the appearance of Uncle Creepy in a few of the tales, Warren’s Creepy magazine. We’re given werewolves in all kinds of shapes, sizes and appearances. Nearly all the stories involve beautiful (and often naked) young women who either are brutally killed, otherwise, brutalized (one of the reasons for the MR rating), or are the villains themselves. Corben’s werewolves are huge, powerful, vicious, drooling, snarling monsters. Sometimes the werewolves are the heroes, still monsters, but delivering some much needed justice to evil humans. Other times the werewolves, in some unexpected twists, end up being the victims. One tale in particular, titled “Lycanklutz” and narrated by Uncle Creepy, uses some pretty creative tongue-in-cheek humor involving silver fanged fleas and a 30-day flea collar as plot devices to move its story along! To tie a bow around this book, its got an amazing cover image of a buxom blond, dressed in a white gown (or course), draped in a green cape and carrying a basket, alone in the woods at night (of course), with an enormous, open jawed and drooling black werewolf standing right behind her and, behind him, a full yellow moon. Classic Corben stuff.
So, just realize you’re getting some crazy, extremely bloody and violent stories rife with killing monsters and terrorized girls who don’t always come away at the end in one piece, and you should be fine. If that’s not to your liking then most definitely stay away from this book. And if you own it and have small kids, don’t keep it with your other trade paperbacks!
Essential Werewolf by Night vol. 1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Roy & Jean Thomas, Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Mike Friedrich, Tony Isabella, Doug Moench
Drawn by: Mike Ploog, Werner Roth, Tom Sutton, Gil Kane, Gene Colan, Don Perlin, Ross Andru
This Marvels Essential compendium contains Marvel Spotlight #2-4, Werewolf by Night #1-21, Tomb of Dracula #18, Giant-Size Creatures #1 and Marvel Team-Up #12. While frequently thought of as one of those silly Marvel monster 1970s series, the Werewolf by Night title and Jack Russell werewolf character both deserve a lot of respect. The title was the very first in Marvel’s more classic monster line (though the Morbius “living” vampire character preceded the werewolf and was Marvel’s first post-Comics Code Authority rule shift that tested the reader waters with monsters), paving the way for Tomb of Dracula and Monster of Frankenstein, among others. It also, according to an essay herein by Roy Thomas, was the first ongoing comic book series ever that featured a werewolf as a lead character rather than a guest villain or star of a one-shot story. In addition, this book introduced the Topaz (seen again in the recent “Witches” Marvel mini-series), Tigra the Were-Woman (also of West Coast Avengers fame) and Moon Knight (gotta dig his new series, scripted by famous TV writer Mike Benson). It also was artist Mike Ploog’s premier Marvel title.
But how does this volume hold up, thirty years later, by today’s standards? Sure, some of it’s pretty goofy. I mean, how long does it take a guy afflicted with lycanthropy to figure out when the full moon’s going to rise? Why does Jack always get caught off guard or find himself in awkward situations when he’s about to transform? Did the writers realize the lead character shares his name with a breed of dog? Some of the situation seem a bit of a stretch like, for instance, the conflict with the Hunchback of Notre Dame in WBN #16 when, as the werewolf, Jack develops empathy for the other monster “…and for the first time, a werewolf cried.” Pretty trite. And often the dialogue’s a bit cheesy and even bombastic at times.
But mostly this book was a lot of fun to read. Jack discovers he inherited his curse from his deceased father, a Transylvanian nobleman, when he turned 18 and that his beloved sister, Lissa, may inherit the same curse when she turns 18. Much of this volume hinges on Jack’s discovering his origins, solving the mystery of his mother’s death and his step-father’s involvement and, of course the various adventures he has as his alter ego. These adventures take him to Transylvania and into a two part cross-title conflict with Dracula, pit him against a malevolent organization called The Committee, bring him into a team-up with Spider-Man, lead him into a short romance with Topaz and even pit him against other vampires and werewolves. The revolving door status of the writers and artists make for some inconsistent story telling. Mike Ploog’s off beat art is fantastic, perfectly suited for these stories and the black-and-white Essentials format. Ploog is the best of the artists here, possibly with the exception of Gene Colan’s incredible work in the Tomb of Dracula crossover. Gerry Conway and Marv Wolfman offer the best stories as well. For the price, if you’re looking for a distracting read that offers up a lot of fun and offbeat stories, you can’t do much better than this. I still haven’t bought volume 2 yet but, regardless, I’m certainly glad I bought this one to accompany my Monster of Frankenstein and four Tomb of Dracula Essential volumes.
The Walking Dead TPB Volume 1: Days Gone Bye
Image Comics
Written by: Robert Kirkman
Drawn by: Tony Moore
As I’ve noted before, I’m a big horror fan. My tastes run toward the classic kinds of horror and monster stories and movies: vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein monsters, and mummies. But I also loves me a good zombie film, my favorites being George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead” and “Night of the Living Dead.” Man! What creepy movies! Zombies have been a more recent trend in comics, too, with the Marvel Zombies making a big splash in recent years. But a few years before that, maybe even the reason Marvel attempted their zombie move, Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead hit the stands to rave critical and fan reviews, not to mention strong sales. That said, I’d never picked it up and, if not for the strong recommendation of some comics fans, plus one person’s generously mailing a copy of the volume 1 trade (collecting the first six issues) to my house, I might never have picked it up. And that would have been my significant loss. This book was one hell of a ride!
As our story begins, Kentucky police officer Rick Grimes and his partner Shane are in the middle of a highway shootout that results in a hole being blasted through Rick’s body. A month long coma ensues out of which Rick wakes to find himself, seemingly, alone in the hospital. No one is around. When he leaves his bed and starts looking around he realizes, inexplicably, that hell has descended on Earth. Shambling, staggering, decomposing, flesh eating zombies now roam the deserted streets and Grimes finds himself in a minute-by-minute battle for his life. Nearly all human life is gone. Nearly. With the help of a small boy and his father, Rick manages to get his bearings and heads to Atlanta where he believes his wife and son have gone. It turns out that the government had urged people to congregate in big cities where they believed it’d be safer. The result? Massive food pantries for the living dead. Atlanta has become a crazed chaos of zombie overpopulation. Fortunately for the despairing Rick, he finds a human encampment outside of Atlanta where, miraculously, his wife and son are staying. But, despite the camaraderie and community he finds there, his problems really only worsen from that point on as Rick and his family get reacquainted and the group of humans interact with each other. The very end of this trade, involving no zombies at all, is one of the single most shocking scenes in the book.
In his introduction, Kirkman insists this is NOT a horror comic. Rather, it’s an ongoing story about the human condition, to discover what people are capable of doing over the long haul when facing incredible, impossible odds. Well, first of all, there are zombies around every corner and surprising you when you least expect it. For a black and white comic, the gore is extreme and the killings are brutal. So, yeah, this IS a horror comic and, most definitely, Kirkman knows this. But, beyond that, he’s absolutely right. You could even say this is a zombie tale that’s actually not about the zombies. It’s a riveting story of the human condition. Think “The Island of Dr. Moreau” or maybe even “The Fugitive,” stories of ordinary people whose worlds are completely turned upside down, the reality they once knew is completely gone, and they must run like hell and adapt in order to save their own lives.
Kirkman is pretty well known to me as the author of Battle Pope, The Invincibles and various Marvel titles like the now defunct Marvel Team-Up and the new Irredeemable Ant-Man. With The Walking Dead he’s set out to create a story of human endurance and perseverance and has promised to be in it for the long term. It’s Tony Moore who’s the new discovery for me. His artwork is fantastic and fits this story perfectly. He captures the harsh, bleak surroundings as well as the full spectrum of emotion on his characters’ faces. His backgrounds and settings are gorgeous while, at the same time, horrifying. Looking at the covers of the next few trade volumes I see Moore is replaced by Charlie Adlard. But, for this volume, Kirkman and Moore rightly deserve all the praise they’ve garnered for kicking off this innovative and captivating seat-of-your-pants series.
The Walking Dead HC Volume 4
Image Comics
Written by: Robert Kirkman
Drawn by: Charlie Adlard
I’ve been reading The Walking Dead primarily in its collected HC releases, though, as noted above, I did review the first tpb a while ago. Certainly, this series and Robert Kirkman have earned the reputation it’s garnered. The story of the world overrun by a zombie apocalypse has never been told with so much heart and so much gut wrenching realism. But this particular volume, collecting The Walking Dead issues 37 – 48, simply has to be the most painful and paradigm shifting installment of all. Up until this point Rick, the cop who awoke from his bullet-induced coma to find the world overrun by zombies, has pretty much successful lead our main community of humans so a safe haven, a fortified prison that effectively keeps the zombies at bay. Rick’s wife, Lori, is extremely pregnant with what may or may not be his child based on a brief affair she had with Rick’s partner after the zombie outbreak happened. And there are a series of other primary characters who’ve joined this group along the way who are all learning how to live together as a community with Rick as their clear and welcome leader.
Volume 3, however, brought Rick and two others, a young man named Glen and a sword wielding warrior woman named Michonne, into contact with another community led by a sadistic man who likes to call himself Governor. He’d kept order in his own community by providing gladiatorial sport among the populace and, generally, ruling through fear. Rick and Michonne are brutalized in ways this review won’t spoil but, suffice it to say, both are horrific. All three did manage to escape but not before Michonne took some righteous revenge on The Governor himself. And Volume 4 begins after the three return to their familiar prison barracks. But, in The Walking Dead, dangerous as the zombies are, it’s really the humans in this post-apocalyptic world who present the greatest danger of all. Some lose their very sanity while others revert to bestial survivalist mode. And Kirkman and Adlard beautifully set up the dichotomy of housing the humans in the most impregnable of fortresses, a maximum security prison, while in this collection showing how clearly human nature, when it sinks to its very depths, can take a world these creators have built over nearly 50 issues for Rick, his family, and friends, and completely pull it down around them.
Rarely have I put a comic book or graphic novel and felt so much sadness and hopelessness for the main characters. But The Walking Dead HC Volume 4 was such a book. The pain was so great I at first resolved not to pick up Volume 5, due out in January. But, no, I’m hooked. I’m too invested at this point. But my heart still goes out to our heroes, especially after the very last page of this story.
The Curse of Dracula
Dark Horse Books
Written by: Marv Wolfman
Drawn by: Gene Colan
When I discovered that this collection was published I was overjoyed. I was a huge fan of the Marvel Comics “Tomb of Dracula” series that originated back in the 1970s and brought to critical acclaim, not to mention some pretty hefty sales figures, for eight years and 70 issues by the creative team of Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan (with Tom Palmer, the best Colan inker, on inks). Colan thrived on this series and Wolfman always seemed his best at on it as well, despite runs on both Amazing Spider-Man and Fantastic Four and his Teen Titans book with George Perez which lost steam after a while. But TOD seemed consistently top notch, to me. I’d read that these two had reunited in 1998 on this short-lived miniseries but never took the time to track it down. Now, there it was packaged as a trade!
One of the first things you notice, if you were a reader of Tomb of Dracula, is that this is a different Dracula than the Marvel Dracula, whom Colan successfully went to great lengths to portray as large, stately and Slavic. It certainly seems that this distancing from their Marvel work is intentional for this Dracula could be a young British or Italian jet setter, complete with black leather, no cape to speak of and a mop of shaggy hair. And this Dracula appears bent more on political conquest than his thirst for blood. He has seduced the wife of a top Presidential candidate, given to him by the candidate in exchange for Dracula’s help in making him President. Naturally, both the vampire lord and Carole Watterson have an agenda that doesn’t include her husband.
Of course, there’s much here that’s similar to Tomb of Dracula as well. There is a band of vampire hunters many of whom are descended from the characters in Bram Stoker’s novel. Jonathan Van Helsing, grandson of Abraham Van Helsing (leader of Stoker’s band of vampire hunters) raises funds to support his team, leads them into battle with prayer and carries a whip much like Rachael Van Helsing carried a cross bow in TOD. Sebastian Seward, on the run from a band of vampires early on in the first chapter, is the ancestor of Jack Seward who fought along side Abraham Van Helsing in the novel. The other characters include a woman named Hiro who was raped and tortured by vampires and has been infected by them enough to be half vampire herself (not unlike Wolfman’s Blade character) and Nikita Kazan, a powerful ex-KGB agent who replaced the Indian Raj from TOD. Unlike TOD, though, no matter how well funded and organized these vampire hunters are, they never seem to have a chance against this Dracula who is one step ahead of them the whole time.
There’s quite a bit of intrigue as well as R-rated violence and gore in this book. Dracula has an army of hungry and sadistic vampires who love sacrificing humans as well as themselves to their king’s unholy thirst. Wolfman does an awful lot in integrating several unique characters and a twisting plot line, one that really does take a surprising turn at the end, in only three issues. The pace feels a little rushed but, as I mentioned, he had only three issues to tell his story. Gene Colan’s art is fluid, powerful and cinematic in style…in other words, typical outstanding Colan art! Overall, this is an interesting but all too brief Dracula distraction that’s well worth the $9.95 cover price if you’re interested in a different type of vampire tale for your pre-Halloween reading.
