Dead Space: The Comics

I used to be a big fan of the Dead Space games and so it is with a very particular kind of loathing that I look at EA these days as it is 'the worst gaming company in america' for a reason. After all they were the ones who cannibalized Visceral Games, the company that made besides Dead Space also another one of my other favourite horror games; Dante's Inferno. Electronic Arts is the Beast Planet of video game companies, swallowing them whole and chewing them down for a profit. And then they even have the temerity to say that they think they don't deserve the title. Absolute scum.

Anyway.
     There are three Dead Space Comics;

     The original one, the one I took pictures and scans of, which chronicles the events before the beginning of the first game in 6 issues, and which also has the Extraction one-shot lumped in the back of the volume, and which follows around the wife of the games' protagonist in the time before the outbreak began and she sent her husband the fateful video log that opens the first game. Both stories were written by Anthony Johnston and have art by Ben Templesmith whose style I absolutely love the shit out of. Dead Space untitled is far and away the best of the 3 Dead Space comics and the only one that is actually worth both your and my time.

     The second one is Dead Space Salvage, and follows a group of scavengers called the Magpies as they stumble on the USG Ishimura which is drifting in space following the events of Dead Space 1.

     Anthony Johnston is on writing duty once again, but art this time is by Christopher Shy, and in my opinion it's a tumble down some stairs in quality after Templesmith's really quite glorious art. But the stories aren't exactly connected and so it doesn't matter much. By the Way, as an aside, Dead Space Salvage is collected in a single volume, but there's multiple editions out and some of those are presented as Salvage volume 2, so don't be taken in like I was and buy the same damn thing twice.


     Third and Last is Dead Space Liberaton which takes place before the events of Dead Space 3 and which focuses on telling the story of John Carver, the optional co-op partner players could play as in the ill-fated last game.
     Ian Edginton on writing this time and it is horrible, which I was a little surprised by as I've read a lot of by him and he usually isn't this bad. And though Christopher Shy is back again, his work here is more streamlined than in the previous volume, but still is terribly uninspired, ugly-looking and at times impossible to understand.
     I kind of despise this type of photo-realistic art in general as frequently it's too vague to make out what's going on and the whole thing just can't help coming off as cheap and rushed, even though there's a lot of work that's gone into it. It's quite honestly an art style I wish would go away, period , so I'm not going to talk about either salvage and Liberation and just stick to The first comic, which is actually really damn good and worth a purchase; provided you get a copy that doesn't fall apart in your hands, that is: Titan comics sometimes stints a bit on the quality of their trade paperbacks.

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     The comic opens up with extended character profiles that serve to flesh out our protagonists, and generally immerse the reader in the universe of Dead Space.

Yes, made a horrible scan here, but meh.

     It might seem cheap, rushed or indicative of bad writing, but I actually really appreciated it. It does give you more of a handle on the characters we're about to meet, if you're willing to take the time. And you should, because this story deserves patience and attention, especially as it's been some years since the games, and the profiles manage to sketch some of the greater in-universe events and lore in pretty quick strokes; the reader is reminded of the Church of Unitology, the various populated planets, various incidents of rebellion and the fact that this universe is one that has some pretty cool technology. Then we proceed and arrive at this hilarious bit of Templesmith genius:

     This'll be where this story ends, we are given a teaser of the ending in order to hook us into the story, which is probably necessary for a lot of the audience because a lot of the next 4 issues is build up, people talking and interacting with each other, which would be boring if one has the attention of a fish, but it is rather interesting for those of us who appreciate build-up and good character writing.

Did I mention that I think this comic's really really good?

     Then, the hook sunk in, we double back to the beginning, to a point in time that kicks off the whole mess of violence and insanity:

The finding of the Marker.

     The same one that is prophesied in the religion of Dead Space's Church of Unitology.

I'm vague on the whole lore aspect to the markers at this point, but it's good enough to know that this thing means a whole lot of trouble.

     In the weeks before the finding of the Marker the entire mining colony has become plagued by nightmares and the normally quite rare incidents of violence have substantially increased.

     And when the revelation that this holy object has been found becomes known to the numerous Unitologist members of the crew, tempers quickly begin to fray.

Up until this point the members of the church of Unitology had always been met with derision, scorn or outright persecution, and when they realize that the people in charge are hiding something so integral to their belief, something that has the possibility to validate their religion, unrest breaks out.

     But besides the civil unrest, there are other problems too; strange things are growing in the colony's tunnels, the dreams worsen, and members of the crew begin to see dead family members who warn of impending doom.

     It swiftly becomes apparent that command had good reason to hide the Marker's existence from the crew, that the Marker itself is dangerous to human life, but with the cat already out of the bag, and the obelisk already working on the minds of the entire crew things take their inevitable course and people begin to die.

Everything escalates pretty damn quickly actually.

   There's a few awesome moments in here, some of the big events hitting quite hard, but the most shocking thing is how quickly our characters start to bite the dust when push comes to shove.

  

   Also, it's a bit surprising, but the Necromorphs show up quite late here, and they're not the comic's focus so much as are the Unitologists, and how they react and the decisions they make.

     But then when finally do show up the true carnage begins. and it happens crazy fast.

     The game made it clear that these things were fast and terrifyingly dangerous, and that untrained and unarmed personnel simply didn't stand a chance, and so there's really only one way this thing can go.

     And we always knew that this is how it would go, since the colony isn't really a factor when Dead Space 1 begins, but at the very least Johnston and Templesmith deliver their story well enough, and have made their characters interesting and likable enough, that it never becomes disappointing or trite.  It's an awesome comic, well worth a read.

     And to tease you further into this universe, take a quick look at the trailer that originally drew me in way back when. It's pretty much perfect, and still on of my all-time favourite trailers.

Damn, I miss Dead Space.

The Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, Beehive Books Edition

My third acquisition from Beehive Books is their gorgeous Illuminated Edition of the Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde, which collects 2 of his short story anthologies. I have actually only read the picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde so I'm not sure what to expect from the stories, but having taken a look at this edition's art I think it's safe to say that they're closer in tone to the brothers Grimm than they are to Dunsany.

The Book Depository previously stated that they'd be shipping this in only about 5 months (or so?) from now, but then, without notice, released the book anyway and then shipped it to me. I'm not complaining mind you, or if I am, then only about some of the vaguer elements of my favourite online store.

There's nothing to complain about in ere because this stuff is again pretty as hell, even though I'm not too fond of yellow.

So, the book collects Wilde's The Happy Prince and Other Tales, and his A House of Pomegranates, together making up about 9 stories.

The foreword this time is by Michael Cunningham, and I won't read it until I actually intend to finish the stories, so you'll just have to leave it up to your imaginations for now.

There's I think even more art than is usual for the Illuminated Editions.

Oh and by the way; in the picture below I've put the Penguin Popular Classics edition of The Picture of Dorian Gray on top of the Fairy Tales book for size comparison.

The colours are pretty limited throughout, though the art itself is pretty nice.

The artist Yuko Shimizu set out to make her art deliberately mysterious, and as a result some of the artwork doesn't actually illustrate scenes from the stories they're from, or instead they're from only a tiny detail of the narrative.

As usual the note on the artist, a note by the artist herself, and the note one the author are all quite Illuminating... Ha ha ha.

Probably the most important information to mention here is that it isn't THIS Yuko Shimizu that created Hello Kitty.

With thanks to The Ink-Stained Beard for helping me out with advice and technical support with the picture-taking, as I was having a lot of trouble with their quality.

I've checked the Beehive Books site just now, and there's already 3 new Illuminated Editions you can pre-order and which'll release in June 2020.

First up the orange book is Margaret Cavendish's the Blazing World, which was originally published in 1666... which, damn, is a year before even Paradise Lost... fancy that *wondering*, and is a forerunner of the sci-fi genre and a Utopian novel.

The green is Peter pan, which I was pretty much expecting.

The white then is a bit of a surprise as it is Crime and Punishment, and it has a colour scheme which is making me drool. It surprised me a little bit as I'm wondering if this book'll differentiate in thickness much more than the other books already out. Crime and punishment is substantially thicker than the other books in the series and it will be only a mild bit of a shame, but a shame nonetheless, to have a book twice the size in width next to the other ones. I guess this means that the Illuminated Editions will cover a much broader range than previously thought, and that after a while, and a lot of expense!, the size will be so varied that this little niggle will fall by the wayside.

 Also, according to the site will have the Constance Garnett translation, and which bums me out a little as I was hoping the newer translation from Pevear and Volokhosnky would be used for this. But, I guess if it's good enough for Joseph Conrad it'll do for me as well.

Books of Blood Top 5

Here's a few books that should be on any horror aficionado's shelf.
     I've talked here at various times about my love of Clive Barker's works but I realize that I still haven't actually said anything about his first, and in many ways, still his most significant contribution to the horror genre: The 6 Books of Blood.
     When The Books of Blood were published back in the long forgotten yesteryear of 1984 they were an instant success, and though Barker attributes that mostly to the generous endorsement by Stephen King, the quality of the work itself makes The Books of Blood, even now 35 years later, stand out from a lot of other horror literature, despite his detractors all too eagerly labeling them as the very cheapest form of Splatterpunk.
     They still stand out and are still popular now because besides the expected horror-elements there's also an occasional touch of poetry to Barker's writing, and because despite a lot of these stories having heavy elements of violence, sex and gore, there's also an element that is quite bit rarer in horror fiction, and even in fiction in general. Barker manages to evoke something that harkens back to some of the earliest horror masters in the genre; in the tradition of Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood and Lovecraft he frequently manages to evoke awe in the face of the unknown.

     I've felt this quite strongly when reading Weaveworld and Cabal; and of course also here in the Books of Blood. It is a quiet feeling, mute and wondering in the face of something much bigger than ourselves, something darker, or maybe just different, but certainly almost always unknowable, and it is almost always present in his work. Barker has stated throughout the years that he is merely the tool through which something, something outside of himself, makes itself known, that this is where his creativity comes from. It is likely that this belief is relevant to the man's depiction of massive incomprehensible forces that impinge on and transform his character's lives. It is something I've come to expect to be present in all of his works that I pick up. And here in the Books of Blood is where it all started.

    The Ink-Stained Beard and I once had a conversation that led to us listing our top three Books of Blood stories. The Books themselves number 6, with about 30 stories between them (though 2 of those are about a page long and serve as the framing device for the entire collection), and a top three is kind of an easy order, so for the purposes of the post I'm making it 5 now.

Without further ado: My Top 5 Favourite Books of Blood short stories:

5

In The Flesh

Inmate Cleve Smith has been ordered to safeguard his new cellmate, the young Billy Tait, from the attentions of the other inmates. Though he resents the duty, Cleve does as he's told, and takes the vulnerable newcomer under his only slightly indifferent wing, and is in return made Billy's confidant. The young man reveals that he purposefully committed a crime exactly in order to be imprisoned, and that there was a very good reason for it;  his grandfather had murdered almost his entire family, and had hung himself in the very same prison Cleve and Billy are in right now, and that he had been buried here, and Billy reveals that he still has a spot of business with the dead man.

Thinking the young man insane, Cleve does his best to stay aloof, but soon becomes interested despite himself in his cellmate's odd doings anyway after Billy's found weeping and seemingly talking to himself near the prison's graves. From that moment on the boy begins to isolate himself, and Clive can't help but become more and more uncomfortable sharing the cell with him. His nights become burdened with strange dreams of a dead and silent city, and around the boy himself scary things begin happening.

     In the Flesh is a curious little tale, though it's actually one of the longest in the entire collection, and it's curious because its premise is so, well... almost banal. It seems familiar in its set-up of 'the protagonist has an associate who is haunted/tortured or who delves into forbidden secrets, until associate is delivered unto horror' type story. But it's interesting because Barker manages to make the mystery so compelling, his protagonist Cleve so down-to-earth, and the secret that Billy tries to unearth so obviously oh so very bad for him, and that quite quickly Billy also realizes this himself, and that despite of this it is unstoppable. It has creepy moments and the outright splatter and gore that usually is in full effect in other stories is here quite muted. Instead there is strangeness, something that ties into the flow of time, and life after the death. The theme of this one is similar to Cabal, and a few other of his stories, but here is its earliest form maybe.

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4

The Last Illusion

A stage illusionist has had an 'accident' under almost stage-show circumstances, and private detective and frequent dabbler in the occult, Harry d'Amour, has been hired by the late illusionist's wife, Dorothea Swann, in order to fulfill one of the man's requests as stated in a letter to be opened on his sudden death.

And so, beguiled by the lovely eyes of the widow Swann, Harry agrees to take up the ghoulish task of holding vigil over the deceased man's corpse. Soon after he suffers a vivid hallucination and is wakened by the late man's wife and her lawyer and then promptly sent on his way. But it's already too late and Harry is soon embroiled in a demonic struggle between two parties vying over a magician's soul.

     The Last Illusion is one of those that's an absolute favourite for many fans.

Despite being very good on its own, its horror quite strange and exotic, it also features the first appearance of Barker's very own occult Detective, Harry d'Amour, who went on to star in various of Barker's later novels.

     The story moves along at a break-neck speed and once the set-up is complete Barker wastes no time in letting the insanity begin. What follows is some of the most evilly imaginative stuff that only could've come from the mind of Clive Barker. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I've seen it in his other work too, and haven't seen or felt it in any other writer; there's a dark vibrancy to his monstrous creations that quite does away with the usual idea of how evil powers are generally depicted in western fiction. Barker's evil monsters are strange and wholly his own.

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3

Rawhead Rex

In a sleepy village in the British countryside

 an ancient monster has awoken,

 and proceeds to rip the cowering locals to shreds.

Yep,

that's all you need to know.

     Raw-Head Rex is an uncomplicated story; Splatterpunk through and through, shocking in its depiction of violence, and positively brutal in the way that it crosses lines with screaming wild abandon. I can confidently say that Rawhead Rex is a guilty pleasure kind of read. The violence is staggering, and the... ahem, phallic nature of the titular monster is something that is both disturbing and highly intriguing. Barker has no idea he will leave unexplored or un-visited if it's something that genuinely interests him.

     This one was also in The Ink-Stained Beard's top three... Quite an unrepentantly bloodthirsty sort of fellow, wouldn't you say?

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2

The Midnight Meat Train

New York City is awash with rumour and speculation, the nasty ghoulish appetites of teeming humanity on full display, as they latch onto the newest sensation: The Murders in the Underground.

First, a pile of bodies had been found in one of the city's subway cars, all hacked open, and in various stages of disembowelment. Then, another car with a woman inside, her teeth pulled, and her body removed of hair, hung up by a hook to the ceiling and left there to drain of blood like a hog. And now another three bodies in another train car, in similar condition.

The subway is leaking violent death, but Leon Kaufman's only thought is getting home after a late night at work, and the express train is still the best way to go. But as he wakes after a brief doze to the dizzying movement of the swiftly accelerating train and the sounds of slaughter he has no way of knowing that work is only just about to begin.

     I had actually seen and loved the movie before I had read the short story, and to my surprise even knowing how this one would go, I really found it quite an arresting experience. It differed only a little from the movie: Though its story was largely the same it was noticeably shorter in its length, mainly due to the movie's inclusion of more characters and a clearer story arc overall, and there were certain elements of the story's resolution that had been left out of the movie.

     And as it was, I did not expect what eventually would shuffle out into the light, and so was left to taste awe in the face of the unknown. This is what I was talking about earlier. Barker always brings a supernatural element into his stories, and sometimes the shape it assumes is familiar, and sometimes is isn't, and when he just shows it standing there, revealed, and you have no real point of reference, and the character that's come face to face with it has no real point of reference, both of you just end up sitting there in dumb, fascinated shock.

     Still just a perfect little tale.

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1

In The Hills, The Cities

In the villages of Popolac and Podujevo excitement reigns; the annual ritual contest that is about to pit the two villages against each other is about to begin. But venerable Nita Obrenovic, the organizer and leader of 60 years worth of contests on behalf of Podujevo, has died and her inexperienced daughter has no choice but to take up the mantle of her responsibilities. And they weigh heavy indeed, and too many mistakes might prove disastrous.

Judd and Mick have come to realize that their interests really don't match up, and both feel that their relationship has probably run its course. It's only unfortunate that this realization has only come about halfway through their vacation in Yugoslavia, with no quick way out of the others' lives and companionship.

To make the best of it the two men move into the hills, to see new and unexpected sights, but as they feel the rumble of the ground and a deafeningly loud multitude of voices, they can not imagine the sight that'll greet them next.

     Also one of the Ink-Stained Beard's list, and how could it not?

In the Hills The Cities is quintessential Clive Barker. Everything you could expect from the man is in here: graphic sex, violence, the dirty grubby underbelly of human nature, stunning amounts of gore, and an almost paralyzing sense of awe that you won't find anywhere else.

     What's maybe most impressive about In the Hills, The Cities is that nobody but Barker could have written it. It's absolutely remarkable. He weaves his penchant for impressive body horror in such a way that it ends up being the thing that evokes that awe in the face of the unknown. He manages to construct his story in such a way that certain of its elements, despite being explained and understood by the reader, at a certain point in the tale transcend their base and understandable origins and become something 'greater' and almost incomprehensible, to both the characters in the story, and the reader reading it. There is imagery here that is fit to stand alongside the best of the hellish imagery in Dante's Inferno.

     It is also easy to believe that the sight that eventually greets Mick and Judd as they follow the sounds that lead them on could very well prove madness-inducing. Whenever I read Lovecraft and another one of his main characters goes insane looking at something he shouldn't have been looking at I always find it hard to credit. But not so here.

     But also unfortunately, the set-up can't quite entirely work, logically. The premise strains the bounds of credulity just a bit, but who cares really, because Barker somehow manages to draw you in, and he graces you to see his own blood-drenched visions, to share in the delight of horror and awe. The only logical response would be gratitude, wouldn't it?

So, say thank you to the Master, and please understand that you're very much invited to continue further into his worlds, and that he still has such sights to show you.