Creepy (Vol. 3) #2

Published by: Dark Horse Comics

Publication Date: November 11, 2009

Cover: Eric Powell
Letters: Nate Piekos and Nathan Fox
Frontispiece: Rahsan Ekedal

I had been meaning to review the first issue of Dark Horse’s recent revival of the classic “Creepy” series, but just never got around to it. Now that the second issue is out, I think I’ll go rectify that soon. But so as to keep up to date, here are my thoughts on their latest offering. To sum things up early, though: This is still one of the best anthology horror comics that’s been published in decades.

“Human Nature” (story by Dan Braun, art by Greg Ruth). A man named Walter believes he’s an expert on reading other people with just the slightest glance and evaluation. However, when he comes across a strange young man named Jimmy, Walter discovers that he may have catastrophically misread him. Or is it Jimmy who has misread Walter?

A modest start; the story sort of takes an uncomfortable turn into the realm of gay prostitution toward the end, but if a horror story isn’t supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, then I dunno what it’s there for. The twist is a tad predictable, but the real highlight here is Greg Ruth’s artistic execution of the whole thing. Walter and Jimmy are the only two characters in the story to be inked, with all the background characters and environments being rough pencils. It crafts a truly uneasy feeling of “isolation in a crowd” and is definitely a triumphant effect.

“Muscle Car!” (story by Mike Baron, art by Nathan Fox). Back in the 70s, to combat the fuel shortages crippling the US, a company comes out with a car that runs completely on dead animals. Dubbed the “Carnivore”, the new “green” vehicle is an overnight success. It has its drawbacks, though, as a pair of bank robbers find out when they make their getaway into a desert wasteland with no way to refuel. Well, there is one way…

Whereas “Human Nature” was sort of a humdrum story propelled by some nifty art, “Muscle Car” is sort of the opposite. The story is a fantastic piece of dark comedy if a tad unfocused, starting out as an “alternate history” yarn and then awkwardly transitioning into a tale of two bank robbers stuck in the desert. It might’ve benefitted from more page space, but that’s just one of the built-in constraints of the anthology horror style, so I won’t hold it against it. The story’s just really cool. On the other end of the spectrum, Nathan Fox’s art (or maybe just his inking) is extremely difficult to read. It’s so muddled that you can have a tough time following the action. I mean, there’s a scene where one character opens up a trunk full of power tools, but the entire thing is so murky I thought it was just a poorly drawn motor. That aside, it’s still a fun story and possibly my favorite of the issue.

“Drawn Out” (story by Joe R. Linsdale, art by Rahsan Ekedal). A murderer decides to have the last laugh on the world by hurling himself off a bridge and drowning in the river below. Unfortunately for him, there’s no river and he only proceeds to break his neck, paralyzing himself. The swift death he had envisioned becomes one of drawn-out suffering, as a myriad of horrors befall him, from greedy hobos to hungry ants to even hungrier dogs.

Some fantastic art by Rahsan Ekedal, extremely dynamic, expressive and especially well-inked. Easily the best-looking story in the issue. The plot takes me back to an episode of “Tales from the Crypt” titled “Carrion Death”, I believe. You know, the one that ended with the guy breaking his neck and getting eaten alive by buzzards? It’s basically that ending but stretched to fill a full story. To writer Joe R. Linsdale’s credit, however, he makes the whole thing work with some great tortured inner monologue from the murderer as he witnesses all these horribly painful things happening to him with no way of saving himself.

“The Curse part two” (story by Dan Braun, art by Jason Shawn Alexander). When we last left Jude, he’d just discovered that he could bend the reality of others at his whim, which ended with the death of his mother. After an encounter with his friend Toby, Jude learns that his own reality isn’t what he thought it was. An entrepreneur, he decides to sell his powers to various bidders and help them bring their sick fantasies to life, but not without a tinge of ironic justice where necessary.

This story arc has been eliciting something of a “meh” reaction from me, so far. Multi-issue story arcs were never “Creepy’s” strong suit, even way back in the day (I can’t be the only one who loathed the Adam Link stories). “The Curse” isn’t a bad story; I do like the whole surreal vibe of someone screwing with other people’s realities. And the ending is a rather sharp one, too. I just sort of wish it would hurry up and end already. Next issue’s supposed to be the conclusion; perhaps my opinion will change once I’ve read the full story.

“Loathsome Lore: Torture” (story by Braun, Gore and Haffner, art by Angelo Torres). Uncle Creepy takes us on a trip down memory lane as he recalls some of his favorite classic torture instruments, including the gibbet, the head crusher, the scavenger’s daughter and the iron collar.

I love the “Loathsome Lore” segments, at least when they manage to tell me something I don’t know. And in this case, they brought up some cool archaic torture devices that deviate from the typical iron maidens and racks we’re all so bored with. Good show, Uncle Creepy!

A Creepy Classic: “Shadow of the Axe!” (story by Dave Sims, art by Russ Heath). A young farm boy awakens every night to the sound of his father coming home at inhuman hours and the shadow of his father’s axe cast upon the wall. He ruminates on this for a while, but when word gets out that there’s an axe murderer running around town, the boy realizes he has to do something.

One of the best things about reprinting these old stories from the original “Creepy” series (aside from the fact that they’re ones that have yet to be collected by Dark Horse in their kickass “Creepy Archive” hardcover series) is that they illustrate just how well Dark Horse has managed to revive “Creepy” while maintaining the integrity of the original series. On both a visual and story-telling level, these new stories would have fit in just fine with the vintage material, and (as these “creepy classic” reprints illustrate) vice-versa. “Shadow of the Axe” is a great, moody piece of horror with some beautiful art and a rather surprising ending. A great selection, to say the least.

All in all, Creepy #2 is just as fantastic as Creepy #1. The book may be quarterly, but the quality shows that the folks at Dark Horse are taking their time to make this as perfect as it can possibly be. One of the best horror anthology comics I’ve read in forever, if you haven’t jumped on the series yet then, well, its your loss.

Grade: A (as in, “And just to let you know, protein-eating vehicles do actually exist. You can start crying, now”.)

Halloween #1 (Chaos! Comics)

Published by: Chaos! Comics

Originally published: November, 2000

Story by: Phil Nutman and Daniel Farrands
Pencils by: David Brewer
Inks by: Curtis Arnold
Colors by: Jason Jensen and Curtis Arnold
Lettering by: Oscar Gongora

Summary:

At his place of work in, Tommoy Doyle gets a call from a Michael Cyphers at Smith’s Grove, who has the Loomis files he requested. Tommy says he’ll be by to pick them up tonight. Tommy’s apparently writing a book on Dr. Loomis and Michael Myers and these files will really give it some oomph.

At Smith's Grove, Cypher is reading over the files and finds them sick, unaware that Michael Myers happens to be looming behind him with a kitchen knife. Stabbing follows. As Tommy arrives at the sanitarium, Michael peruses the crime scene photos from his very first murder and takes a trip down memory lane. Tommy enters the office and begins grabbing all the files, unaware that Michael is hiding behind the door. Before Michael can strike, a security guard enters and tells Tommy it’s time to leave. Neither of them notice that Michael has tacked Cyphers to the other side of the door with a butcher knife through the neck.

Back at his home in Haddonfield, Tommy goes over Loomis’s report of his very first session with Michael. Loomis doesn’t believe that a seven year-old boy should be locked away in a place as terrible as Smith’s Grove, and requisitions Dr. Carpenter for a private room and play area for Michael so as to ease the boy’s therapy. He is denied. So Michael winds up in the juvenile ward filled with violent teenagers and is immediately bullied.

A week passes and Michael still isn’t talking, only drawing pictures of his dead sister. One night, as Michael goes to bed in the juvenile ward, the lead bully, O’Malley, approaches his bed, intending to “make him scream”. Down the hall, the guards do hear a scream, but when they arrive at the room, they find O’Malley with a crayon jammed in his left eye socket. No one saw Michael do it, though, and O’Malley refuses to incriminate anyone. Loomis’s peer, Dr. Jennifer Hill, attempts to requisition Dr. Carpenter for a separate room for Michael a second time, but again they are denied, as there’s no proof Michael stabbed O’Malley.

Loomis and Hill go to dinner and develop a romantic relationship. Both believe that Michael is not insane and that the murder of his sister was a conscious decision. A year passes, but no progress is made with Michael. On his birthday, November 1st, they decide to experiment by giving him a cake and seeing how he reacts to such kindness. Unfortunately, a fat kid named Wade gobbles up the cake before Michael can even blow out the candles. Michael responds by cranking up the boiler heat while Wade is taking a shower, covering his body in second degree burns. Again, no witnesses.

At this point, it’s getting late at Tommy’s place and he’s frightened by the ringing phone. He answers, but no one’s on the line. So immersed in the files, he fails to notice Michael Myers standing in his driveway with a kitchen knife.

Back to the files. By age 14, Michael remains silent and as the years have passed, all the other kids in the ward have mysteriously died or gone even nuttier. One kid bit off his own tongue and choked on it, while O’Malley became a masochist and had to be placed in a padded cell. Despite Loomis’ warning, Dr. Carpenter decides to throw a mixed gender Halloween party, refusing to believe that Michael could hurt anyone. Loomis is outraged, but his new fiancé, Jennifer, calms him down.

At the party, Michael (dressed in a clown costume but with a blank white mask) loses at a game of musical chairs and a girl dressed as a witch makes fun of him. The lights go out thanks to a lightning storm and when they come back on, the girl in the witch costume is found drowned in a bobbing-for-apples bucket. Once again, no one saw Michael do it. Loomis has had enough, though, and is about to beat the shit out of Michael before Jennifer intercedes and pulls him away. She reminds them that they’ll be married in two months, then Loomis can leave Smith’s Grove and start a private practice with her and far away from Michael.

Loomis leaves to take a walk and clear his head, leaving Jennifer to put all the kids to bed by herself. She finds Michael wandering the corridors and chases him up the stairs. Loomis returns and finds Jennifer’s corpse on the front walk, apparently having been shoved off the roof. No one saw Michael do it, but Loomis knows the truth. From this point on, he vows to revolve his life around Michael and keep him locked away forever.

And back in real time, Tommy is getting drowsy. The clock strikes midnight. It’s Halloween. Right on cue, Michael bursts through the door to his office. Tommy can’t believe his eyes, as he’s sure he killed Michael himself the last time they met. Tommy pulls out a gun and shoots Michael twice in the chest. Michael simply pimp-slaps him across the room. Improvising, Tommy smashes a bottle of whiskey across Michael’s face and then sets him ablaze with a lighter. As Michael’s mask melts over his face, Tommy smashes a chair across his back and sends him tumbling out the window.

When Tommy goes to look, however, Michael is long gone. He swears to find Michael and kill him once and for all.

To be continued…

Notes:

*The story will continue in Halloween II #1.

*This issue follows the events of “Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers”.

*Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Hill are, of course, named after John Carpenter and Debora Hill.

Review:

“Halloween” is a franchise that’s had a lot of trouble finding its footing in the comic book industry. Devils Due Publishing got off to a fairly humdrum start with the achingly slow “Nightdance” miniseries, but began to turn around with the brilliant anniversary one-shot “30 Years of Terror”. Their “The First Death of Laurie Strode” miniseries was coming along nicely until it got canned halfway through. Before DDP, though, there was another “Halloween” comic series that was a bit all over the place in terms of quality. At the turn of the century, now-extinct Chaos! Comics (the company best known during the 90s for polluting the industry with the “bad girl” trend via Lady Death, Purgatory and the like) published a trilogy of “Halloween” comics on an annual basis. The series began well, but quickly dissolved in quality, particularly by its final installment.

This first issue, however, is where the good stuff lies. A sequel to “Curse of Michael Myers”, it gives us a much-needed glimpse at the sanitarium years of Michael’s childhood. And it did this long before Rob Zombie’s “Halloween” came along, and for my money’s worth, did it better.

As fun a character as Loomis was, the guy had very little real depth. He was just a maniac determined to hunt and kill one of his patients because he believed they were evil incarnate. The back story provided in this issue gives us a pretty good reason why Loomis eventually went off his nut and dedicated his life to containing Michael when any sane person would’ve called it quits. To authors Phil Nutman and Daniel Farrands's credit, you actually share in Loomis’s frustration as Michael keeps on killing and maiming everyone, but with no way to prove he’s responsible. The romance with Jennifer felt a little underdeveloped, but was necessary as the “last straw” to push Loomis over the edge.

Regrettably, the wraparound story featuring Tommy sort of falls flat. It’s a nice continuation of the “Curse of Michael Myers” continuity (which “Halloween H20” retconned out of existence), but isn’t given the page space to really go anywhere. His fight with Michael at the end feels especially rushed and, although the sight of Michael’s mask melting onto his face was pretty hardcore, ends on something of a laughable note. Michael goes down like a punk.

Unfortunately, the series starts to decline in quality with the next installment, culminating in a pretty lousy conclusion (but more on that when I get there). As for this lone issue, I’d recommend it. It’s one of the better “Halloween” comics out there and offers some decent character work for Loomis.

Grade: B (as in, “But Tommy, a body was never recovered after your last fight with Michael. And yet you’re so sure he’s dead that you decide to stay in Haddonfield? You deserve what’s coming to you in the next couple issues…”)

Trick 'r Treat (2009)

I had come to the conclusion not long ago that anthology horror was a dead art. Recent anthology horror TV shows like “Night Visions” and the repulsive Forrest Whitaker-hosted revival of “The Twilight Zone” sort of hammered that fact home, while extremely rare anthology horror feature films, like the horrendous “Creepshow 3”, pretty much just kicked me while I was down. Anthology horror may have ruled the 80s and the 90s, but now it’s dead.

Or, at least, it was.

When Michael Dougherty’s “Trick ‘r Treat” was released this past October, I completely ignored it. I’m sorry, but the memories of “Creepshow 3” were just too fresh in my mind for me to give a modern anthology horror flick a chance. Well, after some persistent encouragement and harassment from a friend of mine, I finally buckled and picked the movie up on DVD. I can confidently say that, if “Trick ‘r Treat” is an example of the kind of anthology horror flicks yet to come, then that subgenre is back from the dead!

The wrap-around segment involves a young couple callously ignoring certain Halloween traditions and attracting the attention of Sam (Quinn Lord), a creepy trick ‘r treater with a burlap sack over his head. Death follows.

“Trick ‘r Treat” forgoes the typical anthology tradition of featuring a “host” character, like the Crytpkeeper or Rod Serling. Instead, each story is tied together by the presence of the film’s mascot, Sam. Additionally, each story interconnects in several ways, but more on that later.

The first tale, “The Principal”, is the shortest. Principal Wilkins (Dylan Baker) has a secret: he enjoys murdering children and burying them in his backyard. However, as he attempts to plant his latest victims, a whole mess of misfortunes seem to befall him; from a barking dog to a nosey neighbor and even the shouting of his own son, who wants him to help him carve their jack-o-lantern.

“The Principal” is perhaps the most forgettable of the bunch, but not my least favorite. It’s a lighter dark-comedy piece centering primarily around Dylan Baker’s performance as a creepy elementary school principal. While a pretty humble start to the film, it does boast one of the better twist endings of all the stories. And I kind of have to give props to any horror flick with the guts to kill children; that's one of those "rules" horror movies tend to avoid breaking.

“The School Bus Massacre Revisited” centers out a quartet of elementary schoolers who conspire to scare the bejeezus out of a local “idiot savant” girl. They take her to a rock quarry where, many years ago, a demented driver drove a short bus full of retarded kids off a cliff. It’s all fun ‘n games until the zombie retards show up.

Perhaps my second favorite installment in the film, this one has some pretty great set design in the haunted quarry, with the decaying metal skeleton of school bus jutting out of the fog-shrouded lake. The kids are surprisingly tolerable in their acting prowess, which is sort of a lynchpin when it comes to horror films that revolve around child actors. The back story is pretty cool and ties into one of the later segments, too. Although not much of a “twist”, the comeuppance at the end is more than satisfying.

“Surprise Party” deals with Laurie (Anna Paquin), a 22 year-old “virgin” whose friends are desperate to make her have her “first time” no matter what. While searching for a date to bring to a party out in the woods, Laurie runs afoul of a masked “vampire”. Laurie may have her “first time”, after all.

This was my least favorite of the bunch, all things considered. The fleet of over-the-top “horny girls”, despite being excessively hot, were pretty obnoxious in their performances. Laurie, too, was that inexplicably smoking hot virgin cliché we see all the time in horror movies that’s really beginning to get dull. To the segment’s credit, it had a pretty good twist ending.

“Meet Sam” sees us old Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox), a bitter shut-in who despises the Halloween season. He starts to learn the true meaning of the holiday, however, when his home is invaded by a freaky trick ‘r treater named Sam. Give him candy or die.

As most would expect, this was the best segment in the film. When I read the overall plot synopsis, I anticipated it being a fairly run of the mill knock-off of “Halloween Candy”, an episode of “Tales from the Darkside” directed by Tom Savini. While it does share the same general plot of a bitter old man being menaced by a demonic trick ‘r treater, the similarities end there. Sam’s torture of Mr. Kreeg runs the gamut from some creepy atmospheric moments (dozens of jack-o-lanterns suddenly appearing on his doorstep, “trick ‘r treat, gimme something good to eat” being written in blood all over his walls) to genuinely horrific moments of action (Sam climbing on the walls and ceiling or, best of all, his unmasking). All in all, it’s pretty awesome.

“Trick ‘r Treat” does something different with the anthology horror genre that I thought was a pretty interesting approach. Rather than give us each story one at a time, they’re broken up and given to us piecemeal, more or less all happening at once. It’s a nice idea in theory, though the practice could use some tightening up. Some stories are just paced rather poorly, such as “Surprise Party”, which is given a lot of gradual build-up as Anna Paquin’s scenes are distributed throughout the beginning of the film, but when the story’s extended “spotlight” moment arrives, there’s just not a whole lot of meat left for the audience.

On the other hand, characters from each story interact in different ways and the film often has to jump back and forth across its own timeline to cover each event. As such, a “WTF” moment of crossover from earlier in the film will be given some amusing context later on.

“Trick ‘r Treat” is the sort of anthology horror flick I’ve been waiting I don’t know how long for. Reading up on the production, it apparently had a really hard time finding distribution and got pushed back a full two years. A shame that so much garbage can be rushed out to theaters, but it took an extra two years for a quality horror flick like this to make its way straight to video.

Don’t pass up on it like I did. “Trick ‘r Treat” is without a doubt one of the best horror films you’ll see all year.

Grade: A- (as in, “And you thought retarded kids were supposed to be harmless”.)

Night of the Creeps (1986)

Well, I was bound to get to this review sooner or later.

“Night of the Creeps” was another one of those cable TV discoveries I made many years ago and pretty much instantly became a classic amongst my family and friends. Well, to be fair, just about anything with Tom Atkins in it automatically reaches “classic” status among my peer group. He just has that sort of charisma. “Night of the Creeps” is the kind of 80s horror/comedy that flicks like “The Dead Next Door” only wish they could be. It’s self-aware, it’s funny, it’s consistent and it peppers it all with some really cool moments to keep you hooked.

After an alien experiment goes awry, a bunch of weird slugs arrive on Earth in the 1950s and infect a young man while his date is being axe-murdered (it’s a long story). Anyhow, to get to the point, the young man’s corpse gets cryogenically frozen for thirty years until a pair of college students (Jason Lively and Steve Marshall) accidentally thaw it out for a fraternity pledge. Now the “creeps” are all over the campus, nesting in people’s brains and turning them into zombies while their eggs incubate. It’s up to Detective Landis (Tom Atkins) to get to the bottom of this.

“Night of the Creeps” is ridiculous. However, it knows that it’s ridiculous and absolutely revels in that reality. Conceived as an homage to the B-movies of the past, nothing about “Night of the Creeps” is intended to be taken seriously. All the characters behave like blunt horror movie stereotypes, perhaps peaking with “The Bradster” (Allan Kayser); the most over-the-top of blonde preppy prick from the 80s you might ever lay your eyes on. Detective Landis is possibly the high-point of the stereotypes, encompassing all the worst hard-drinking, trench-coat-wearing, traumatic past-having detective clichés known to man. Atkins hams it up like nobody’s business and positively sells it.

The plot of the movie is your usual space invader shtick, but director Fred Dekker infuses some life into it not just with the comedy, but with some really cool moments of over-the-top horror. In perhaps the most awesome scene in the whole film, the corpse of an axe-wielding maniac gets possessed by a slug and chops its way through the floor of an old lady’s cottage. The scene is pulled off perfectly, as it begins with just a weird thumping sound and ends with a decomposing zombie bursting out of the living room floor and chopping an old woman to bits. It’s just so awesome.

The zombies-themselves don’t get a whole lot to do, if that can be chalked up as a setback. They mostly just stumble around long enough to puke a slug into somebody else’s mouth. Then they stumble around and repeat the process. The zombies attacking the sorority house at the climax, though, was pretty sweet (“The good news is your dates are here. The bad news is…they’re dead).

Not all the characters manage to pull off the intentional horror movie cliché bit, unfortunately. I’ve never liked J.C., the handicapped comedy relief character. He’s more annoying than amusing and even though he’s bumped off by the halfway point, he’s still a bit too obnoxious for his own good. Also, while the special effects are surprisingly decent, those aliens at the beginning look hilarious. I imagine most viewers never make it past that part to get to the gold within.

A few weeks back, “Night of the Creeps” got released on DVD at very long last. Unlike other long-anticipated horror film R1 DVD releases, this one didn’t get stuck with a barebones offering (unlike, oh, “Phantasm II”). As a matter of fact, it’s mind-blowingly comprehensive with more special features than most classic, globally recognized blockbusters are afforded. It also sticks Fred Dekker’s preferred ending back on the film, replacing the original theatrical and home video ending with the dog. For what it’s worth, I think I like Dekker’s intended ending better. It has zombie Tom Atkins and a spaceship in it.

Grade: B+ (as in, “Beat that, ‘Maniac Cop’”).