Creepy and Abe Sapien Reviews
Riding the horse to the dark workshop . . .
Reviews of Dark Horse Horror by Michael Clarke of BC Refugee Blog
ABE SAPIEN: THE HAUNTED BOY by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi
I am really warming up to this sad, alienated (“fish out of water”) character even more so than to Hellboy, Mignola’s other famous creation. Abe gets assigned to investigate what seems a simple paranormal occurrence. On the site of an accident where two boys fell into a frozen lake the ghost of the boy who didn’t survive seems to haunt the lake. Things are not what they seem and this tale of spirits and possession combined with a mother’s despair and another family’s concealing of secrets has a lot of depth to it. I was moved by this as much as by the frequent misunderstanding that Abe encounters. The art by Patric Reynolds is very well done and helps to convey the emotions of the story.
CREEPY #2 – horror anthology, various contributors
I wrote a mostly critical review of CREEPY #1 three months ago that was born more out of disappointment rather than disinterest. So it may surprise some to see me coming back here for a second helping. However, if you remember my previously-expressed interest in having good quality horror comics succeed then you understand.
I am happy to report that CREEPY #2 does a much better job of recalling those classic days of yore. Both story and art have been upgraded since last issue, and this is getting much closer to my ideal of what a good horror comics anthology series should feel like. I’m a little concerned that two of these tales plus a feature are scripted by the same person (a member of New Comics Company, the group responsible for the CREEPY revival). But Dan Braun does a commendable job here, and if he keeps it up we’re going to be hearing more about him.
This issue has less filler (just the one two-page feature, which was actually decent) and the stories are more creative and less stereo-typical in their characterization than we saw in CREEPY #1. The four new stories and one reprint all have the twisted, surprising endings as expected but they don’t seem quite as forced and are much more fun to read.
The opening story, “Human Nature” by Dan Braun and Greg Ruth revolves around the wealthy recipient of a large inheritance who spends his time reading souls and judging characters in order to change their fortunes/future with his donated money. Naturally we suspect that he has judged one character incorrectly – - but this doesn’t end as expected.
My favorite story this issue is the gory, grisly and highly creative “Musclecar!” by Mike Baron and Nathan Fox. A redneck solves the energy crisis by inventing a car that runs on meat – - the CARnivore – - just feed it some road kill. The art evokes memories of the old black and white CARtoons magazine, extremely appropriate for this story.
“Drawn Out” by Joe R. Lansdale and Rahsan Ekedal is a very creepy story of a jealous husband whose carefully plotted murder of his wife and lover goes off according to plan, only to result in an unexpected surprise during his concluding suicide attempt. I like this so much better than Lansdale’s story last issue, which felt like it was hurried off and written in about five minutes. I’m thinking the highly creative and twisted Lansdale probably spent an hour on this one. He’s a fast read.
“The Curse, Part Two” by Dan Braun and Jason Shawn Alexander adds an interesting twist to the events detailed in the last issue as the main character decides to create a new and dark occupation for himself based on his newly-discovered powers. It will be interesting to see how this concludes in CREEPY #3.
Finally, the reprint “The Shadow Of The Axe!” by Dave Sims and Russ Heath seems a much better choice than the theme-breaking kindly alien farm boy story they reprinted last issue. This one has a disturbing ending that will stay with you.
Thanks for your nice review of my story Drawn Out in Creepy Two, but I wasn’t in Creepy One that I’m aware of. Joe Lansdale