by
M.I.K.
Size… of a horror comic…
The nasty ninth edition of the Hallowscream! Hallowe’en Special has arrived! 48 pages packed with peculiar and paranormal perils!
Here Are The Download Links (right click and ‘save as’) :
Lo-res Version (file size = 19.9mb) : MEDIAFIRE DROPBOX
Hi-res Version (file size = 61.4mb) : MEDIAFIRE DROPBOX
You can also read the issue online at : ISSUU
These are the full contents behind the demonic djinni cover by Ken Best…
Page 3 : Be Careful What You Wish For Story by Mark Keenan, Art by Carol Kewley
Page 7 : Peril In The Park Story & Art by Tim West
Page 9 : Java Dreams Story & Art by Denise Van Hulst
Page 12 : A Brush With Death Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 13 : Fate Worse Than Death? Written by Marta Tanrikulu, Illustrated by Pramit Santra, Coloured by Joshua Jensen, Lettered by Micah Myers
Page 15 : Bestiary of Beasties : Jersey Devil / Home-Made Jampire by Malcolm Kirk
Page 16 : Terrorvision Guide by Malcolm Kirk
Page 17 : The Dock of Sorrow Story by Troy Vevasis, Art by Klaudia Bezak, Letters by
Adam Wollet
Page 19 : Bloodlust Written by Paul Bradford, Art by Luciano Fleitas, Letters by Marx Blum
Page 20 : Hades Recruitment Drive Story by Tunc Pekmen, Art by Patrick Halpin
Page 30 : TV Dinner Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 33 : Knights of The Beige Workbench Story & Art by BP Johnson
Page 34 : The Ikuchi Script by Christopher R. Matusiak, Art by Loc Nguyen, Letters by Nikki
Sherman
Page 35 : Caught In A Moment Story by Tim West, Art by Boris Peci
Page 37 : The Deadfast Club Story, Art & Letters by Ricky Perez
Page 40 : A Wine For Every Occasion Story by Tim West, Art by Ken Best
Page 41 : Dinnertime Story by Kae Verens, Art by Philip Sneyd
Page 42 : Deadvertisements by Malcolm Kirk
Page 43 : Do Skeletons Dream of Psychedelic Beer? by Philip Sneyd
Page 44 : Terror of The Sheep 2 : Chapter One Story & Art by Malcolm Kirk
Page 47 : Notforthenervousment (sometimes they come back)
…and…
Page 48 : Back Cover Skull by Malcolm Kirk
Previous issues of Hallowscream are available to download from
backfromthedepths.co.uk/hallowscream or you can buy real-life monochrome paperback versions from Lulu.com. HAPPY HALLOWE’EN!
by
Ghastly McNasty
Rebellion, publisher of 2000AD, has begun soliciting orders for a Scream & Misty Hallowe’en Special through comic shop distributor Diamond, promising new stories starring classic characters from two much-loved British comics published in the 1970s and 80s.
Wrapped in a cover by Henry Flint, we’re to be treated to the return of wo of Britain’s best-loved supernatural comics , resurrected and merged into one terrifying tome featuring all-new stories!
The story line up is as follows…
- Max the crazy computer makes a welcome return in “The Thirteenth Floor” by Guy Adams, John Stokes and Frazer Irving
- The fangs are out in “The Dracula File” by Grainne McEntee and Tristan Jones
- Weirdos, warriors and weasels plucked from the pages of various 70s and 80s British comics congregate in “Death-Man: The Gathering” by Henry Flint
- Kek-W and Simon Coleby collaborate on “Black Max” (actually a character who first appeared in another short-lived comic, Thunder), the German World War One fighter pilot that’s descended from a race of bat-people
- The high-rise horrors of Birdwood are back in “Return of the Sentinels” by Hannah Berry and Ben Willsher
- Fairies can be frightening in “Fate of the Fairy Hunter” by Alec Worley and DaNi
For ordering information (Previews code AUG171919) from your local comic shop, check out this page on the Diamond PREVIEWS web site.
It’s our understanding understand the special will also be on sale in UK newsagents and has a cover price of £3.99, with an on sale date of 18th October 2017, on shelves until 13th December.
Story courtesy of Down The Tubes.
by
Ghastly McNasty
From the pages of Scream! comic Hibernia is proud to present The Complete Dracula Files, collecting all the weekly episodes as well as all the episodes from the hard to find Holiday Specials. Also included is two page’s of unseen Eric Bradbury Dracula art from Scream issue 18, and a cover gallery.
Follow KGB officer Colonel Stakis desperate hunt for Count Dracula, who is spreading terror in 1980’s Britain after defecting from Communist Romania.
Written By Gerry Finley Day (Rogue Trooper) and Simon Furman(Transformers), and art by Eric Bradbury (Doomlord) and Geoff Senior (Transformers).
It’s something to get your teeth into!
You can purchase this fangtastic collection via Comicsy
by
M.I.K.
It’s ALIVE (again) !
The Back From The Depths 2012 HALLOWSCREAM! Hallowe’en Special has returned from the depths once more and is available to download as a totally free pdf file!
60 pages of horror for your delectation, a bevvy of beasties and brutality behind a monstrous cover by Malcolm Kirk!
SEE the stomach-churning sideshow freak!
HEAR the bellowing countryside beast which feasts upon unwary wanderers into its domain!
SMELL the bodily emissions of the not exactly undead!
They sing! They dance!
You can download this issue from BACK FROM THE DEPTHS, MEDIAFIRE or DROPBOX, or view it online at MYEBOOK, (login required for myebook due to gory content).
File size is 26.5mb.
Full contents are as follows…
Page 3 : Beaten Path Story by John J Owens, Art by Neil Roberts
Page 9 : The Gravedigger Story by Matt Garvey, Art by Erick Marquez
Page 14 : Sucked Story by Dirk Van Dom, Art by El Chivo, Letters by Jim Campbell
Page 17 : Farmin’ Story by Paul Eldridge, Art by Chow Martin
Page 19 : Cash 4 Souls Story & Art by Gordon Innes
Page 20 : Youkai Chronicles : Mokumokuren Story by Dirk Van Dom, Art by Antony Rothwell
Page 25 : Terrorvision Guide by Malcolm Kirk
Page 26 : Gaki Story by Paul Bristow, Design by Malcolm Kirk
Page 29 : Charles Wynford Lodge Movie Posters by Julian Jones
Page 30 : Buck Tucker : Enemy of Love Story by Dirk Van Dom, Art by Bhuna
Page 33 : Terribly Bad Monsters : To Be Frank Story & Art by Christopher Geary
Page 34 : The Pond Story by Chris Sides, Art by Chris Travell
Page 41 : Terribly Bad Monsters : A Curse Unwound Story & Art by Christopher Geary
Page 42 : A Grim Tale : Freakshow Story & Art by Malcolm Kirk
Page 43 : Dead Wood Story by Dave Roberts, Art & Letters by Michael Kennedy
Page 47 : The Nuisance Story & Art by Antony Rothwell
Page 49 : Rayne : Demon Hunter Story & Art by Rattan Bhagwandin
Page 54 : AAIIEEE! Advertisement
Page 55 : The Wanbies Story by Tim West, Art by Neil McClements
Page 59 : Deadvertisements by Malcolm Kirk
…and…
Page 60 : Back Cover Skull by Malcolm Kirk
by
Ghastly McNasty
A total must for any fan of the zombie genre this outstanding book by Max Brooks gives a unique perspective of the zombie outbreak and aftermath. Subtitled ‘An oral history of the zombie war’ the book consists of a series of interviews with survivors of the zombie apocalypse. It doesn’t have a standard storyline as such but the interviews follow a linear timeline streatched over 10 years that cover the origins and initial outbreaks through to the reclaiming of the world from the zombie hordes.
I’m still persevering with Kirkman’s ‘Walking Dead’ series but ‘World War Z’ manages to give me everything I hoped the meandering ‘Walking Dead’ comic would be, in one simple well written book.
This is also going to be made in to a movie to be released fairly soon and i can’t wait. Thoroughly expect this to be the best zombie movie ever made!
Click here to buy World War Z from Amazon
by
M.I.K.
The cover of The Mammoth Book Of Best Horror Comics, claims that it contains “OVER 50 OF THE GREATEST HORROR COMICS AND GRAPHIC SHORT STORIES EVER PRODUCED”.
It doesn’t.
Something being the “best” or “greatest”, is of course, a matter of opinion, (and there is some good stuff in here), but that doesn’t alter the fact that whether you agree with that part of the claim on the cover or not, there are only 48 stories in the book. This is probably a genuine mistake on the part of the publisher, but it’s an odd one to make, especially since all the stories are quite clearly listed in the contents section. Stranger still, if you google the title of this book, you’ll find it on sale alongside a picture of what is obviously an earlier version of the cover which claims it contains “60” stories.
This isn’t the only mistake in the book. Two of the stories have their pages printed in the wrong order, which rather messes up the structure of the tales.
However, these are just minor niggles, as overall this is a very well put together and varied collection. The Book is divided into four sections, each devoted to a different era of horror comics and each preceded by a small chapter on the decade in question, all written by the editor, Peter Normanton. Normanton also provides a foreword and notes on each story. He’s no stranger to horror publications himself, having edited the horror fanzine From The Tomb for the last eight years.
The stories are reprinted in black and white and while a few pages of colour wouldn’t have gone amiss, the reproduction is good enough. There’s plenty here to satisfy anyone’s craving for horror.
Overall rating 7.5/10
If you like this volume, as I’m sure you will, The Mammoth Book Of Zombie Comics is out in October and The Mammoth Book Of Best Crime Comics is out in a few days time.
The Mammoth Book Of Best Horror Comics
ISBN : 978-1-84529-641-4
Publisher : Constable & Robinson Ltd
544 pages Price : £12.99
by
Ghastly McNasty
I’ve just finished a good read from Ramsey Campbell, a unusual combination of Lovecraftian mythos and English folklore.
Its plot concerns the Price family who live in a small English town near a sinister wood called Goodmans wood, and how they are inescapably drawn in to it by the entity that exists there.
The family consists of Margo, an artist, and Lennox, a professor who is now in a local mental hospital because of his experiences in the woods. Their adult children are Heather, a solid, ‘unimaginative’ type, and her sister Sylvia, who is in many ways her opposite. Sam is Heather’s 23 year old son.
The woods themselves have a history of local folklore concerning the “Good Man”, although as Sylvia points out, “It’s often placatory, that kind of name.” At night, local girls see the “sticky man” outside their windows. And at the centre of the woods lie the remains of a mysterious tower torn down by the locals generations ago…
Throughout the novel, the woods are frequently described as if they are actively moving by themselves, rather than passively being moved by the wind or lit by the sun. Actions are implied and motives for them are suggested. It isn’t too long before you start asking yourself: “What are the trees? What are they, really?”
Campbell heightens this effect by using the somewhat unreliable nature of human perception. It’s a very persuasive technique (since this is what tends to be behind “paranormal” experiences in real life) and works well as we see the woods through the eyes of the characters.
The way in which these strange sights affect their emotions as the story unfolds is also handled very convincingly. At the beginning of the story, the characters only think they see something. Was it just a trick of the light, or was something there? About halfway through the story the characters start to want to deny those perceptions…and towards the end, Heather, the least imaginative one, desperately wishes for the time when she could actually doubt her perceptions.
The Lovecraftian aspects of the story are very nicely done. The woods display intricate patterns and colours which are tantalisingly just beyond the human mind, objects that seem to lack one dimension, and other subtle spatial dislocations. There’s also the fate of one unfortunate mage who, while travelling through the void, is reduced to a disembodied spirit which has suffered some kind of unimaginable damage “… that now cry’d out sans Voice for it import’d not what Manner of Bodie in which to procure its own swift Death”.
I found the conclusion to the tale satisfying, as the woods finally drop the pretense and reveal the sheer size and scope of the entity that was using them to “reach for the world”. There’s also a nice twist as things return to “normal” at the end, and an unexpected use of theme of the crazy person who understands the truth of what really went on…
Recommended 9/10
Read it with some trees around 🙂
by
Ghastly McNasty
On visiting my comic book shop, I discovered a comic book that came out recently. It’s called ‘Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs’. This was a spin off from The Lost Boys, the cult classic vampire movie.
Being a sucker (no pun intended) for The Lost Boys, I picked it up. And I liked it. There are cheesy moments, but I think it is more tongue in cheek than bad writing. This comic follows the Frogs brothers well known from the movie. Set in the present day, a teenager wants to become a vampire hunter and seeks out Edgar Frog. From there, there are a couple of flashbacks as Edgar explains his background as a vampire hunter. Plenty of action and blood letting. It also gave an interesting spin on American history.
The art is good but I’m not a fan of thick black outlines surrounding the characters. I find them a bit distracting. This is a limited series lasting 4 issues. I’m going to pick up another issue then I will if it’s worth sticking with it.
I also found out that there is a sequel to the Lost Boys. It’s due out this summer, straight to DVD. Straight to DVD, I ask? Does that mean it’s crap? I have no idea but I’m apprehensive seeing how most horror sequels can fail to impress. I’ll reserve my opinion until it comes out. Meanwhile, check out the trailer.
