I was unable to attend the most recent MKE Comicbook meet-up, but luckily, the dynamic Don Leibold was, and wrote this great follow-up to it!
And here are the past meetups!
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With Halloween looming, a few Milwaukee comics fans met to share scary comics. Some featured traditional fare (e.g., zombies, demons, vampires), while others evoked fear by way of teen angst, science fiction, espionage, and cute animals. Read on. And then get to reading some of these highly recommended comics.
Jony
Jony shared a bevy of X-Men-related books. The Knights of Pendragon #3 was inspired by the Creature from the Black Lagoon and H.P. Lovecraft. Excalibur #7, part of the Inferno crossover event, contained horror tropes galore. Classic X-Men #47 reprints Uncanny X-Men #143. #143 was something of a palate cleanser after the Phoenix saga and Days of Future Past. It is a one-issue story that puts the spotlight on Kitty Pryde, who faces off alone against a demon that has invaded Xavier’s mansion/school. Though it owes a heavy debt to Ridley Scott’s movie, Alien, it’s an exhilarating rite-of-passage story.
Not all of Jony’s choices were mutant-centric. Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #2 is a fun mash-up with art by Fabiano Neves that recalls the art of comics master and Poe cheerleader Richard Corben. Howard the Duck has a deeply disturbing cameo.
The Skrauss
The Skrauss brought Frank #4 by Jim Woodring and Thirteen O’Clock by Richard Sala. Woodring puts cute animals through the wringer in a psychedelic nightmare of a tale. Though you’d never mistake Woodring for Sala or vice versa, both comics featured meticulously detailed panels. Sala’s masked Mr. Murmur searches the city for the perpetrator of the Corkscrew Murders.
Podkayne
Podkayne shared Cromwell Stone by Andreas, Black Hole #4 by Charles Burns, and The Filth #1 by Grant Morrison and Chris Weston. All three, like the works Skrauss shared, feature highly detailed art. Cromwell Stone and others survive a voyage at sea. Soon the survivors begin disappearing. The artwork is oppressively dark, distributed across an unusually high number of vertical panels. The traditional comic size seems too small for this story. It’d be nice to see it reprinted in a larger hardcover with high quality paper.
Black Hole belongs in the Comics Canon, no doubt about it. The story of teens giving each other an STD that triggers horrific mutations benefits from Burns’ clean drawing style. Think Dazed and Confused as directed by David Cronenberg.
The Filth #1, which Podkayne compared to The Invisibles, is a dense, twisted story. I’ve read it and I like to think of it as Blade Runner-meets-Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-meets-James Bond-meets-Brazil-meets-The Filfth Element-meets-Caligula-meets-2001: A Space Odyssey. I’m not setting the bar too high, am I? As I said, it is dense. I recommend reading the entire 12-issue story in one setting.
Tim
Tim brought Hitman #13 and #14 by Garth Ennis and John McCrea. The issues tell one story titled, (wait for it) “Zombie Night at the Gotham Aquarium.” You will never look at dolphins or seals the same way again.
Don
I brought a book collecting the first several issues of Tomb of Dracula by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan. I highlighted a ridiculous, fun sequence in which a vampire grabs a film projector with mystical properties. Dracula wants it too. Vampire #1 transforms from human to bat form and takes flight, all while still holding the projector. Dracula transforms too and gives chase. This is the same comic that somehow contrived a meeting between Dracula and the Silver Surfer in issue #50.
I then shared Zero #7, which is not a horror comic in the traditional sense. A spy, Edward Zero, begins to realize that his job is a threat to his humanity. At one point, Zero opens a door and witnesses something horrific. What is it? Though given a few cryptic hints, the reader never really learns. The reader must fill in that information.
Hellblazer #7, by Jamie Delano and John Ridgway, asks the question, “What if your friend could project his astral self into a computer mainframe and then his body underwent spontaneous combustion and then he wanted to come back to what he thinks is his body but which is really a charred, lifeless husk and then you had to decide what to do?”
I also brought Wasteland #1 and #3. Wasteland is a horror anthology that DC published in the late Eighties. Each issue featured three stories written by John Ostrander and Del Close. I focused on two stories, both drawn by David Lloyd of V for Vendetta fame. The story from issue #1, “Foo Goo,” focuses on a group of rich dilettantes who gather to eat a fruit called foo goo, one tiny bite of which gives the taster a moment of supreme ecstasy that ends in death. Would you take a bite? “Dies Illa” is Latin for “That Day.” The title is an allusion to Mozart’s Requiem. A cop comes to realize that the Rapture is happening and, fueled by murderous goodwill, decides to hasten people’s transit to Heaven, including his own. It does not end well.
