Creepy #13 – Review

By: Josh Simmons, Dan Braun, Peter Bagge, John Habermas, Cullen Bunn & Archie Goodwin (writers), Dean Haspiel, Bagge, D.W. Frydendall, Lukas Ketner, Tyler Crook and Reed Crandall (art), Nate Piekos & Bagge (letters)

The Story: More short horror stories from Uncle Creepy…

Review: This is another issue where the new Creepy stories don’t quite measure up to the reprinted classic story (Note: There is always a reprinted classic in contemporary Creepy).  The problem these new stories have is that they’re a little too cartoony in their artistic style and that cartooning is often incompatible with anything being truly horrific or unsettling.

The classic reprint in this issue (The Squaw, by Archie Goodwin & Reed Crandall, reprinted from Creepy #13, February 1967), shows how a serious tone can make an outwardly silly story “work”.  The Squaw sees a young couple in Europe on their honeymoon – who are characters only in the sense that they give the reader someone to see the unfolding story through.  They meet a loudmouth American businessman on vacation named Elias.  Why honeymooners want to hang out with a solo male tourist isn’t really explained, but Elias is basically the popular stereotype of Teddy Roosevelt: full of piss and vinegar, seeking danger, talking about animals he’s shot…..  The trio sees a mother cat playing with her kitten and Elias decided to toss a rock at the cats to scare the cats as a joke….except the rock crushes the kitten.  Oh….how the mother cat is pissed off, but she’s just a silly cat.  What can she really do to big man Elias?  Later the group tours the torture museum and Elias insists on getting inside one of the devices just to see what it was like.  You know….he wants ADVENTURE!  Of course, this is a terrible idea and as readers, we KNOW something bad will happen.  As the museum assistant is holding the jaws of the apparatus open and allowing Elias to experience the adrenalin rush of almost being skewered to death, the CAT shows up and claws the assistant’s face, the apparatus slams shut, Elias dies horribly and karmic justice is served.  The End!

Creepy #11 – Review

By: Gilbert Hernandez, J. Torres, Dan Braun, Peter Bagge, Alisa Kwitney, Archie Goodwin & Jamie S. Rich (writers), Hernandez, Amy Reeder, Bagge, Zullo, Johnny Craig and Joelle Jones (art), Hernandez, Reeder, Bagge & Nate Piekos (letters)

The Story: What do you want me to say?  You know what Creepy is!  It’s a black and white anthology horror comic.

Review: If you had to draw up a checklist for a great issue of Creepy it would look like this: (a) zero stories that suck, (b) great black and white art, (c) “Oh, Henry!” endings galore and (d) one stellar story.

The only place this issue stumbles a little is that it doesn’t have that ONE story that really sticks out.  Everything is very, very good, but nothing quite rises to that level of awesomeness that it can carry the entire $4.99 issue by itself.

Creepy #10 – Review

By: Doug Moench, Dan Braun, Peter Bagge, Matt Weinhold, Jim & Ruth Keegan, Bob Jenney & John Arcudi (writers), Kelley Jones, Bagge, Darick Robertson, Richard P. Clark, the Keegans, Jenney and Richard Corban (art), Nate Piekos, Bagge & Keegans (letters)

The Story: Creepy goes all Lovecraftian

Review: There is a segment of the comic readership that goes ga-ga over Lovecraft.  Personally, I’ve never really gotten it; I’ve read some Lovecraft recently and just thought it was “okay”–not “bad”, not “great”–just “okay and I never need to read more of that.”  The other thing I’ve observed about Lovecraft as an outsider is that his fans have the most hardcore fringe that I can think of online.  Seriously, these people put comic fans who fight about old versions of the Captain America uniform to shame.  They put Republicans and Democrats fighting about gay marriage to shame.  They put sports fans to shame.  So, I will candidly say that when I open Creepy #10 and see that it is an all-Lovecraft issue, my brain says, “SHIELDS UP!  ARM PHOTON TORPEDOES AND READY THE PHASER BANKS!”

Creepy #8 – Review

By: Jeff Parker, Doug Moench, Rick Geary, Dan Braun & Bruce Jones (writers), Colleen Coover, Kelley Jones, Geary, Kyle Baker, Bernie Wrightson (artists) and Coover, Geary & Nate Piekos (letters)

The Story: Another horror anthology guided by Uncle Creepy.

Review: I had mixed feelings on this issue. One one hand, we got a pretty nifty little story from Jeff Parker and Colleen Coover.  Seriously…I don’t think I ever would have imagined that Coover’s breezy and light-hearted style would find its way into the pages of Creepy. But there it is…  And it works so well.  It just goes to show that we shouldn’t assume limitations for creators just because we haven’t seem them do “it” before.  We also got some mighty fine artwork by Kelley Jones and that’s always good.  Jones is an artist who really understands what Creepy is all about and ups his already gothic style to a whole new level.

Creepy #7 – Review

By: Joe Lansdale, Keith Lansdale, Dan Braun, Bill Morrison, Martin Salvador & Archie Goodwin (writers), Guus Floor, Patric Reynolds, Wilfredo Torres, Steve Skeates & Steve Ditko (artists) and Nate Piekos (letters)

The Story: Uncle Creepy is back with three new tales of terror and two old reprints from the Creepy archives.

Review: This isn’t a “bad” issue of Creepy, but it does commit the cardinal sin of an anthology: It doesn’t have a singular story that sets your socks on fire.  Probably the closest to excellence that this issue comes is with the second story: “The Shroud” by Dan Braun and Patric Reynolds.  This snappy little story involves a young couple that visits an auction and acquires a creepy shroud with a demonic face on it.  It’s kind of an evil-looking Shroud of Turin.  That’s just not going to turn out well!  Reynolds’ art is crisp and the only thing holding this story back is that it ended kinda suddenly.  My two cents is that they could’ve ditched a panel or two of people nagging the guy to get rid of the shroud and had another couple panels at the end.

The other two new stories aren’t bad, but don’t do anything to stand out.  “Mud” was an interesting concept, but the art was too… well… muddy for me to really enjoy it that much.  “Bloodsuckers” was also just okay.

Dark Horse gives us TWO old reprint stories in this issue.  On one hand, it DOES expose readers to the excellence of those old Warren Publishing Creepy magazines.  Whether you collect the single issues (like me) or buy the archives that Dark Horse is publishing, those are MUST READS for any horror fan.  On the other hand, neither of these two stories are picked from the A-list of old Creepy material and it seems a little cheap to sell us a “new” comic that is 40% reprint material.

Creepy Comics #6 – Review

By: Joe R. Lansdale, Christopher A. Taylor, Alice Henderson, Dan Braun, Craig Haffnet, Archie Goodwin (writers), Nathan Fox, Jason Shawn Alexander, Kevin Ferrara, Garry Brown, Neal Adams (artists), Nate Piekos (letters) & Shawna Gore (editor)

The Story: Another issue of the reborn horror anthology from Dark Horse.

What’s Good: If you’re not getting Creepy, you’re doing comics wrong.  This issue nails the formula again by giving us 5 short-stories of horror goodness with excellent black-and-white art.

With anthologies, the overall grade is mostly related to (a) how good the “good” stories were and (b) how sucky were the “bad” stories.  The weakest of this issue’s stories (“Mine”) was still pretty cool and had great art and the high points (“Commedia Del Morte” & “Fair Exchange”) were really awesome.  Perhaps Dark Horse shouldn’t get full credit for Full Exchange by Archie Goodwin and Neal Adams since this is reprint material from the original 1960’s Creepy Magazine, but Commedia Del Morte was a real tour de force.  After reading Commedia Del Morte, you’ll see clowns as both scarier and more heroic than you ever did before.

Another thing that is precious about Creepy is that no one is trying to launch a new creator-owned series off any of these tales.  Even though I generally enjoy anthologies like Dark Horse Presents or Strange Tales from Vertigo, you know that those stories are usually pitches for ongoing series OR they are pitches that no one liked quite enough to turn into an ongoing series.  That’s never a problem with Creepy, there are just outstanding short stories with a definite ending.  Even when the concept is cool, the story has an ending.  Someone could easily turn the concept for Commedia Del Morte into a miniseries, but I strongly doubt we’ll ever see that.  Even though I enjoy continuity based superheroes as much as anyone, there is something special and powerful about these Creepy stories’ ephemeral nature.  And, these stories are basically timeless.  Go read the 60’s Creepys if you doubt me and compare how fresh they seem compared to Batman of that same era.

Creepy #5 – Review

By: Timothy Truman, Benjamin Truman, David Lapham, Dan Braun & Doug Moench (writers), T. Truman, Lapham, Lucas Marangon & Mike Vosburg (artists), Nate Piekos (letters), Shawna Gore & Dave Land (editors)

The Story: Uncle Creepy is back with 4 new black and white tales of horror.

What’s Good: There is just something about B&W horror comics.  Because Creepy is an anthology that comes out quarterly, it never has rushed looking art and there is almost never a need for separate inkers.  That means that the art for each story is nothing but the vision of the artist creating the story.  Further, B&W allows the linework to shine through in a pure manner that is not possible with colored comics.  If these artists want a shadow, they damn well better get out the fine nibs and some ink rather than just letting the colorist render a dark spot on the characters.  Creepy is a complete throwback and really makes me wish we had more B&W comics on the shelf.

All the stories in this issue are somewhere between “solid” and “quite good.”  First, Benjamin and Timothy Truman team-up on a story of a tribal shaman who must venture to the underworld to fight a demon and save her child.  This story is probably the artistic star of the issue as the linework is just wonderfully nuanced and Buscema-like.  Next up is the best story of the issue: a tale by David Lapham of how some farmers will go to any length to have a prize winning crop.  Third is a very short interlude-type story about cults in the United States.  And, we wrap up with a Doug Moench & Mike Vosburg story about a man who gets what was coming to him.  All in all, this is a pretty solid batch of stories for a horror anthology.

Creepy #4 – Review

By: Dan Braun, Craig Haffner, Bill Morrison, Andrew Foley, Nicola Cuti & Otto Binder (writers) & Kevin Ferrara, Michael Kaluta, Rahsan Ekedal, Paul Komoda, Hilary Barta & Gray Morrow (art) & Nate Piekos (letters)

The Story: A set of six horror tales to get your ready for Halloween!

What’s Good: Take a second to look over that list of creative talent.  There are some new(er) names in there, but also some real heavy hitters too.  Just the presence of Mike Kaluta and Hilary Barta is reason to buy this book!

If you enjoyed short form, slightly campy horror TV shows like Tales from the Crypt, The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits (or old horror comics), this is going to be right up your alley.  Creepy is an anthology series and this issue features 6 black-and-white stories spread over 48 pages of comic goodness.  All of the stories make your skin crawl AND you chuckle uncomfortably as Uncle Creepy comes in to narrate the transition from one gruesome story to the next.

It is very hard to pick a “best story” from this anthology because all are very, very good.  However, the winner would probably be a very creepy Nazi themed story by Craig Haffner and Dan Braun and chillingly illustrated by Kevin Herrara.  And, if this story doesn’t make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, something else will.