Icky October's Horror Comics

Ugh, what a name...
Anyway, in keeping with the theme of the season and with halloween coming up, I got a (mostly) horror comic haul for this october.

As you can see, also some books.
The Cold Commands isn't new but as I finished it last night and as it was pretty awesome I included it anyway. It's the middle book in the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy and yet it doesn't seem to suffer from middle book syndrome. Rather, it is the next step in the story and it is leaps and bounds better than the Steel Remains. Less misery-infused flashbacks but, even though there's maybe less action, what there is in the present is sometimes horrifyingly brutal and nobody is a safe bet to make it out unscathed, not even the main characters. I'll see when I'll do the review for it. It won't be as long as the book 1 review earlier this month so expect it reasonably soon.

The two Clive Barker novels are, as you can see, Cabal and the Inhuman Condition.

The Inhuman Condition above is actually just a re-printed and resleeved edition of the Book of Blood volume 4, which I've already read so I'm slightly miffed. But only Slightly because instead this is a book I could just slot right into my Read bookshelves.

Cabal I haven't read yet and it'll be the read I'm starting tonight with hopefully a review up by next-week's Halloween.

The book has 5 stories in it and 4 of those I've read already since, like the Inhuman Condition above, they were originally released as another Book of Blood, this time nr 6. Which though not bad, isn't as good as the first 4 books. The Last Illusion is kick-ass though.
Expect a review for the Cabal novella only.

The third book is non fiction and it's about my beloved Penny Dreadful, season 1.

 And as I have already read some of it I can tell you it's worth the money. The presentation is amazing and every page is delivered with loving care. Full colour throughout with interviews with full cast and crew and alot of information for fans to root through. Some of it is similar to the dvd extras (season 1 again) but there's really quite alot of it.
As it's non-fiction, there won't be a review but I can already tell you I'm quite happy with it.

Onto the comic part of this post!

I've also already been reading the Hack/Slash omnibi this month,
and can someone tell me if you're supposed to pronounce that 'Hack Slash Slash' because that would actually be quite brilliant, and although it's not something I'm usually into as slasher movies hold almost no interest for me, I have at least been having fun with the series.

Tittilation and the constant promise of bloody violence will get me to give most everything a go, I guess. The art and the stories are all over the map and the lore seems to be in constant, unpremeditated, and thus hit/miss :), evolution, but hey, Cassie is hot when they draw her with clean lines and the art style you see on the cover for omnibus 1. So, yeah, if nothin else: Acceptable.

Also...

Bonus 'Heck Gal'...

Which I still can't decide if I'm amused or annoyed by.

Anyway, that's my misspent time reading comics this month, up until now at least. let's take a closer look at what's up for the (short) rest of the month.

Here's the Colder omnibus. Don't know too much about this one as I've kept myself deliberately in the dark about it as much as I could. I do know it's got extreme body horror, as should be clearly evinced by that cover, and I'm guessing the story is mortals at odds with an immortal sadist trickster. I was actually more drawn to the latter part of that sentence as I'm very curious about the mythology of this series.

Roll Credits...

Next up we have the anthology collection Tales from the Dark North with an introduction by Clive Barker. No Idea what's in here yet except of course that this book compiles stories from Nordic writers and illustrators and... eh, what is this?

Okay, I clearly did not know this wasn't actually a comic anthology.

I've obviously got nothing against this format, but I confess that this caught me off guard a little.

Somehow this one immediately starts to look like work to me.

In the end, I'll give everything a go, but other things will obviously come first.

For example, the next one is exactly what it advertises itself as. No possibility for confusion here.

The Dark Horse Book of Horror is a comic horror anthology compiled out of three previously released trade paperbacks. Quick and easy, hopefully some horrifying reads. I took a quick gander and spotted a hellboy story I don't think I read yet. Hurrrah!

Here's something that puts a smile on my face.
Wormwood, Gentleman Corpse, created, written and drawn by the brilliant Ben Templesmith, who I just can't endorse enough. See my Fell review earlier this week.

Look at that art. That's worth the price of admission right there.

Lovecraftian calamari horror with Templesmith's usual darkly humorous art and familiar witty banter and... You know, It's odd, because you usually credit the writer with all of that and while I was taking a peek at the art I caught snatches of dialogue and I was, unsurprisingly, reminded of Niles' dialogue and banter in 30 Days of Night, while it is in fact Templesmith who takes up every single art and writing duty here. His art is so well done and so singular it doesn't fail to summon up a cheery sense of feel-good, just by the power of association alone.
Again, very unsurprisingly, I'm very much looking forward to this one.

Speaking of Lovecraftian Calamari horror...

Here's the full set.

The third Providence hardback also arrived recently and I'm itching to dive into the completed series now. Building on and alongside Moore's previous visit to Lovecraft's universe: the Neonomicon, I'm both wary and excited for what is to come. This is the continuation and resolution to that particular storyline so I'm curious to see if Moore sticks the landing. I don't imagine there'll be the same level of fish-rape (It sounds funny, I know, but really it's quite horrifying) going on here as there was in that comic, because obviously, If you've read it, you know why that it's there and that it has served its purpose, but with this kinQ of fiction you can never quite know. I'm hoping the story will Provide (ba-dum-tish) a Cthulhu-esque end-of-the-world scenario to Moore's visit to Lovecraft's universe. Just the next logical step really.

I had previously read the reasonably accomplished Fall of Cthulhu omnibus but as I wasn't at all familiar with The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, one of the few stories in Lovecraft's entire oeuvre that I haven't read yet, alot of the characters in the series were bafflingly unfamiliar and I had a hard time understanding just what the hell was going on.

Very entertaining though.

Here's hoping for something more familiar.

Up next:

Tokyo Ghost isn't horror, at least I don't think so, but after reading Remender's incredibly good space-cowboy saga I had been giving this the lustful eye now for a while. Finally took the plunge and ordered it. Hopefully it'll manage to leave me with the same emotional impact as the Incredible Fear Agent series did.

And here is God Country, because I'd love to read something along the lines of the Goddamned and I haven't heard anything new on the continuation of that series yet. Although I'll have something neat to show you soon, somewhere next month.

Religious eschatological horror, or deicide at least (what's in a name, after all) always, ALWAYS, gets my vote. Again, kept myself in the dark on this one. Look at the picture below and you've got as much information as I do. Humour  and artstyle seem at the very least okay.

And last, and hopefully not least...

I'm actually not going to talk about this one, as I'm doing alot of writing on the subject of Penny Dreadful these days, Mostly just for myself. Likely that'll not see the light of the blog cast on it as it's more me coming to terms with how everything continues after the televisionseries has ended and the comic takes over.

But I'll give it a read one of these days, maybe only when the whole comic series is done. Maybe not.

We'll see, I guess.

Enjoy the rest of your Icky October...

(cringe)