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Comics/Manga

Comic Book Review:
Papercutz’ Tales From the Crypt 1

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Zombos Says: Fair

Welcome, dear readers, to another unbelievably gruesome tale for your morbid delight. Pull up a coffin and sit for a spell, won’t you? Tonight, we look at another vain and feeble attempt to resurrect the dead. What’s that you say? No, it’s not good old Frankenstein up to his old tricks, nor voodoo zombies dancing in the moonlight. It’s more diabolical than that! It’s Papercutz’ Tales From the Crypt, Issue Number One!

The office is quiet. The clock on the desk shows midnight as the sleepy-eyed artist finishes his work. Reaching for his long cold cup of coffee, he accidentally spills red ink across the freshly drawn page.

“Damn,” he says out loud, but there’s no one to hear. Or is there?

“Hahahahaah!” cackles a mucous-filled throat.

“Who’s that! Who’s there?” says the artist, jumping out of his chair.

“Only us,” replies another voice, as if clogged with fresh earth from a newly dug grave.

Gasp! The artist trips over his chair as he spins around. Standing behind him are two figures. They glare at him from the darkness his desk lamp can’t reach. Their clothes hang in tatters, and moist earth drops in little clumps from their rotted limbs.

“Oh my god, you…you’re…” The artist staggers backward in disbelief, raising his hands in horror.

“Yeah, I’m Feldstein, and he’s Johnny Craig. Look, we’re not entirely happy with what your doin’ with our baby, the Crypt-Keeper.” Feldstein’s finger drops off as he points vigorously at the artist. “Not again, damnit! Now where did it go?” He motions to Johnny Craig while he looks for his finger.

“What he said,” snarls Craig. “I mean, just look at that artwork for the first story, Body of Work. Are you kidding me? Jack Davis was so upset he went to pieces. Wally Wood’s still back at the cemetery trying to put him together. Just look at these colors; bright, cheerful? And what the hell do you think you’re drawing, a Picasso? And don’t get me started on that storyline. Horror writer my ass! I’ll admit it’s kind of witty, and the tone of the story and art style work fairly well together, but that ending? C’mon, how original to use the old PG-standby, heart attacks. These are fiends, man! Thirsting for blood!”

“But I didn’t draw the first story; I drew the second one, For Serious Collectors Only,” pleaded the artist.

Feldstein stands up, grabs the tape dispenser off the desk, and tapes his finger back onto his hand. Then, in a fit of inspiration, he staples it for good measure.

“There, that’s not going anywhere now. Now what was I saying? Oh, yeah. The Crypt-Keeper may be demented, but he’s still educated. Who wrote those godawful word balloons for him anyway? You’d think he was a bit comic doing a dead vaudeville shtick the way he talks. Where’s the puns, the biting sarcastic wit? From Ralph Richardson to this? I can’t believe it. Even Kassir did a better job.”

The artist cowered. “That’s Salicrup. He did it. You can’t blame me for any of that. I told him it was too juvenile, too pedestrian. All I did was draw the second story.”

“That second story’s a doozy, too. It’s “250% more cursed” is right. How many times have I seen comic book stories about nerdy comic book collectors who live in their mom’s basement? Gee, let me count those times on my fingers. Damn, ran out of fingers!”

Once more, Feldstein’s overly dramatic hand gestures send another finger flying through the air. His pinky lands in the artist’s coffee cup.

“Gross,” says the artist, pushing the cup away in disgust.

“Damn, not again!” says Feldstein, reaching for the tape dispenser and stapler.

“He’s right,” says Craig. “These stories are so overly done and so predictable. Where’s the witty but ironic endings, the twist of the fickle finger of fate? Tsk, tsk.”

“There’s no unique Tales From the Crypt look, either,” says Feldstein. “No bold ink lines, or saturated morose colors, or salient looks of dread on fear-stricken faces. Where are the tombs, the crumbling cemeteries, the rotting zombies? Is this the best you got? All I’m sayin’ is show the respect due, that’s all. Don’t just throw anything together and call it Tales From the Crypt. I want to see more effort put into the second issue or else.”

Feldstein leans forward to emphasize his “or else.” As the artist frantically jumps backward to avoid the snarling corpse, he trips over his own two feet, and cracks his head open on the edge of the heavy steel desk. His blood pours out from the large gash in his skull, mixing with the red ink already spilled.

“Damn, didn’t see that coming,” says Craig. “His artwork wasn’t that bad, either.”

Both Craig and Feldstein hurriedly stagger off. Light begins to enter the office windows. The clock on the desk shows 6 A.M., the time the artist usually goes to Starbucks for his morning cup of coffee. He won’t be going to Starbucks today.

Well, dear readers, the poor artist has learned, only too late, that the comic book business can be murder. Perhaps he’ll be drawing a pair of wings next. Hehehehehehe.

Comic Book Review:
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Interview: Sight Unseen

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Sight Unseen book cover Zombos Says: Good

Robert Tinnell and Bo Hampton’s graphic novel, Sight Unseen, is an American Gothic story that, in true style, keeps the evil all in the degenerate family. With tight pacing, shadowy, emotive art panels that read like a cinematic storyboard, and a premise that doesn’t overwhelm the story but allows it to unfold, it delivers a tidy mix of eerie imagery and believable-within-context situations; along with a damned, J-Horror-styled spirit that simply loves to hurt people.

While seeing dead people through special optics like eyeglasses has been done in print and film before, that’s not the focus of the story. It just so happens that Frank Byron, blinded in a lab explosion, seizes the “opportunity” to explore a different type of sight; one based on his observation that his seeing-eye dog apparently sees things that no human can see. Dead things.

In the course of his experiments he distances himself from his daughter while becoming closer with the dead. But the dead are not entirely the focus of the story, either, except for one dead person in particular, still residing at The Birches Estate, recently put up for sale. She’s quite a handful as Frank gravitates to exploring the mystery with his newfound second sight when people start disappearing.

The artwork and story work well together, and the heavy line strokes combine with the shading and coloration across panels to sustain a morosely detailed and creepy sense of dread.

I met with director and author Robert Tinnell at the 2007 Monster Bash Convention, and took the opportunity to ask him a few questions.

How did Sight Unseen come about?

I met Bo Hampton at Wizard in Philly and we clicked. He read The Black Forest on the plane on the ride home and then called me and asked if I was interested in collaborating. I’m still trying to figure out why! He had ideas – the notion of a blind guy who could see ghosts.  I had a story involving the haunted house – and wanted to do the southern gothic thing – and we just sort of married the stuff…[Note: The last few pages in the book are devoted to the collaborative creative process involved in bringing Sight Unseen to print.]

With much of your creative work done in a horror vein, what is it about the genre that motivates you?

I think there are a number of factors, and while it may be embarrassing, there’s no denying nostalgia’s influence. Working in the genre brings to mind the things that inspired me in the first place – and the accompanying emotions. Of course, there’s more to it than that. In general, I think horror allows us to explore other aspects of life – sex and death are certainly primary examples. I mean – how can you watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers and think it simply exists to try and scare you? Of course, I do love trying to scare people. Always have.

Tell us about your monsterkid background and when the horror bug first bit you.

I remember seeing an ad for Hammer’s Kiss of the Vampire – it was going to be on CBS late night television, and I was immediately drawn to it – but forbidden to watch!  Later it was Dark Shadows and the Hammer films – still later the classic Universals. And in the seventies I was heavily into horror film fandom – did my own fanzine. I guess it was a cumulative effect of all that stuff…

Sightunseen02 Did your directing experience influence your writing in The Black Forest, The Wicked West, and Sight Unseen?

Not so much on TBF but definitely on the latter two. On TWW the book itself is certainly a rumination on film – at least one aspect of the book is. As far as Sight Unseen goes, I think even more as I was definitely tapping into cinematic methods of eliciting scares – and Bo was doing the same thing – drawing on his experience as a storyboard artist.

What was it like directing Frankenstein and Me?

Truly the best and worst of times. My personal life was in great upheaval. I don’t think the film is what it should have been – and I blame myself. But on the other hand, I did get to make it and did get to pay tribute – however flawed – to all those films and people who inspired me. Just standing around on the Brides of Dracula set and the Night of the LIving Dead location (I should clarify – recreations used for the film) was fantastic. And there are moments in the film – like when the kids are watching Dark Shadows that are very rewarding for me personally. I just wish I could go back and redo it.

Which horror films are your favorites and why?

The scary ones! Although I am partial to some that aren’t so much scary as they are beautiful to look at or thought-provoking. But here’s a partial list – The Uninvited: a ghost story that really delivers the chills.  It’s a very evocative little film – and I like the fact it doesn’t try too hard. The Innocents: a ghost story that’s about something, elegantly photographed, eerie in its simplicity. I’m a big fan. Night of the Living Dead: verite horror – this is a text book case about how to scare – and not because of the gore – which is actually the weakest part of the film. The Horror of Dracula – scary, sexy, economical, elegant, beautiful to look at, brilliantly directed. What more can I say? The Exorcist: you don’t have to like it – but you have to respect it. Scary because it takes its time, building its case, so that once you are confronted with the actual supernatural events you have no choice but to believe. The Old Dark House: The original James Whale version – scary and fun and sadly under-appreciated.

The list goes on and on – and my hands hurt from typing – so I’ll just note: THE CAT PEOPLE, FRANKENSTEIN, THE INVISIBLE MAN, DRACULA, DRACULA’S DAUGHTER, SON OF DRACULA, THE WOLF MAN, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDES OF DRACULA, DRACULA, PRINCE OF DARKNESS, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN, FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED, QUATERMASS FILMS, SUSPIRIA, DAWN OF THE DEAD – whew – the list is literally exhaustive…

What current and future projects are you working on?

I am writing two graphic novels – EZ Street for artist Mark Wheatley, and Bo and I are co-writing and he’s drawing Demons of Sherwood. I just finished the graphic novel, Eagle: Legacy, for Neil Vokes and once he’s done drawing that he starts our monthly comic, THE VOICE – which is my first foray into Mexican horror. I’m writing a big horror adventure screenplay and at the same time writing another more mainstream screenplay. After that I’m going to adapt Lee Maynard’s novel Crum – which is a brilliant book about Appalachia. I’m preparing to direct the movie version of my graphic novel, Feast of the Seven Fishes…I’m sure I’m forgetting something…Oh yes – writing the book, Jump Cuts, with Mark Clark – which we hope will serve as a interesting study of how horror movies have tried to scare us…

What’s the one question you’d love to be asked, and what’s your answer?

What are some dream projects?

I’d love to direct the movie version of The Living and the Dead, the graphic novel I wrote with Todd Livingston that Micah Farritor drew. I’d love to adapt Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife, though apparently that will never happen thanks to some convoluted rights’ issues. Tim Lucas wrote a marvelous novel, The Book of Renfield, that would be a joy to adapt as a screenplay.

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Manga Review:
Hideshi Hino’s Lullabies From Hell

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HideshiHino

Zombos Says: Excellent

Hideshi Hino's Lullabies From Hell is an essential tankōbon in any horrorhead's manga library. Hino is a queer duck, to be sure, and often incorporates much of his personal experience into his bizarre, visually disturbing stories.

According to an interview he gave for The Comics Journal, it was after reading Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man that he felt the need to combine horror with a sense of fairy tale. This led him to mix monstrous birth defects, other-worldly transmogrifications, and hideous characters—inside and out—with Japanese folktales, producing uniquely creepy and culture-transcending stories of terror.

There's a whimsical grotesqueness in Hino's artwork: he fills his panels with people endowed with oversized, misshapen heads staring madly at the reader with bulging, blood-shot eyes filled with large, zigzagging veins. All is definitely not right in his world, as body parts, disgusting creatures, blood and corruption—both physical and psychological—splash all over normal scenes of home, work and play.

In the opening story, A Lullaby from Hell, he introduces himself as a mangaka (manga author), who is obsessed with those terrible, unmentioned things peeking from just below the surface of normalcy. He describes his fascination with horror came at an early age, nurtured by a demented mother who tormented him, a father he rarely saw who worked at the factory right behind his house, and his abusive "horrible Yakusa" brother.

Soon, as things both living and dead bleed into one another in his mind, he begins to collect their parts in big glass jars so he can admire them for hours on end. In his admiration, he dreamed dreams of monsters and demons from hell that would, at his bidding, devour and torture people, especially those that abused him.

After being humiliated and abused once too often, he discovers he has a unique power: the ability to kill people with his drawings. And not just kill them, but mangle them, mash them, and do very nasty things to them. All because he could will it to be so. 

In the next story, Unusual Fetus—My Baby, once again he is dreaming up a nightmare. He imagines his soon-to-be-born son as a "grotesque lizard" thing. Since this is a horror story after all, we get what he dreams up. In this nasty tale of phylogeny recapitulates ontogeny gone haywire, his son is born a lizard-like thing with an unusual appetite that is not satisfied with baby formula. For a while, our horror writer uses this unfortunate event to his advantage, and successfully sells his impossible story. But fate always intervenes, and soon what is abnormal for him is normal for all.

In another story, Train of Terror begins with three children happily returning from a day trip to visit relatives. Soon their laughter turns to cries of terror as they meet the boogeyman (in this case, a demonic mountain goblin perhaps?) as their train enters a dark tunnel. Exiting the tunnel on the other side, only they remain unchanged. Their fellow passengers now have dark, mask-like expressions and pupil-less eyes!

In the tradition of Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the hapless children are alienated and hunted, with no one believing their strange accusations. One boy even suspects his parents of being different and wonders what the thing in the large sack they are burying late one night is. He is soon on the run, evading hordes of dark, pupil-less classmates, and adults that want to cause him serious bodily harm. In a unique twist, we are left with a happy ending, but not for long?

Now picture if you will, Morticia Addams sitting by a nice cozy fire, cups of hot and frothy, mashed eye-of-yak spiked cocoa steaming away, and Wednesday and Pugsley curled up around her like some lamenting felines as she reads the fairytale, Zoroku's Strange Disease. Never has a children's story conveyed such purulent corruption in its narrative and textured artwork. How wonderful!

Zoroku, the titular hero of the story, yearns to draw colorful pictures, but the evil villagers make fun of him and his condition. It seems that a little rash has turned to a boil, and a boil to many, and many to something much, much worse.

Poor Zoroku becomes covered with a "colorful purulence," and the villagers and their children drive him away to solitude, deep into the forest by a strange lake. Unfortunately for him, the purulence gives off an odor that would curl paint, and his boils ooze so badly, maggots infest them in the hundreds. My, what a quaint Brothers Grimm fairytale kind of picture, don't you think? But there is a happy ending. Well, happy for a horror story kind of fairytale, that is. 

Hideshi Hino blends his real and imagined selves into his fancifully grotesque stories too easily, revealing his fears and doubts with society and culture, making it a crapshoot as to where the real Hideshi Hino truly lives.

Manga Review:
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