No Caption Necessary. Beach Blanket Blood Feud…
I have to admit I wasn’t sure if we were all being punked when Dark Horse first sent out news of this book, but Archie Versus Predator is nearly here.
The title tells you everything you need to know. If you surmise it’s ridiculous fun in every way you get the picture. Spring Break, bikini contests, girl fights, Costa Rican jungles, and buckets of blood. A proud sibling to Horror of Party Beach (1964) and Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966). Pop on a Los Straitjackets album and enjoy the ride.
The first issue of this 4 part series is on the stands April 15, 2015.
SkeletonPete Says…
Somebody start writing the screenplay quick. I want to be sure I live long enough to see the movie adaptation.
Dark Horse’s Fire and Stone Finale Final Countdown… Dark Horse Comics completes it’s six month Prometheus series with the Fire and Stone “Omega” issue. The stand alone book ties up the multi-title storyline of Alien xenomorphs, Predators, cosmic Engineers, android “synthetics” and stranded Weyland-Yutani astronauts. All get their fair share of “screen time” in this 44 page finale written by Kelly Sue DeConnick. There’s plenty of action and a little philosophy on the “human” condition, which are the polar nodes of director Ridley Scott’s original shock-ride Alien (1976) versus his search for the meaning of our existence, Prometheus (2012). Kudos to Ms. DeConnick for an ending that, while event filled, avoids being a one dimensional “monster rally.” Characters’ thought provoking actions feel correct within the confines of the Prometheus universe, and maybe closer to what Scott had in mind, but didn’t offer us, in the film.
Augustin Alessio’s detailed and atmospheric art compliments the story with a balance of frenetic action and portrait panel exposition. His use of blurring to separate characters from backgrounds and accentuate action scenes adds a cinematic component to his pages. It’s an interesting and successful technique found in several panels. Giger Counter…
Appropriately, the bio accelerant driven mutations that proliferate the Dark Horse Prometheus books channel H.R. Giger’s seminal visions as touchstones. Alessio does a particularly nice homage (think ELP’s Brain Salad Surgery) to the late Swiss artist in the latter pages of this final issue.
SkeletonPete Says…
Ridley Scott’s next foray into the plot line,Prometheus 2, is not due until 2016. For most franchise fans films take too long to make and endless script rewrites and rethinks tend to foster missteps that muddle the final product. Whatever your feelings about the cinematic progression of these intertwined universes, Dark Horse’s licensed graphic novels series (like this and the Buffy and Angel books) offer fans a fun expanded interaction with their favorite characters. There’s no lack of action in this final “Prometheus Fire and Stone” tale.
Richard Corben’s Rat God #1 from Dark Horse Comics Phillips 66(6)…
Howard Phillips Lovecraft fans should have a heyday with Dark Horse Comics’ new 5 part story cycle, Rat God. Conjured up in the darker corners of artist and writer Richard Corben imagination, the first issue introduces us to the collision of natives of the American North West and a native son of Arkham Massachusetts.
HPL devotee’s will immediately recognize their old boy in the figure of Clark Elwood (do your homework). He’s a history maven, a bit of a xenophobe, and a proud descendant of Arkham founders who is skint enough to ask a hitchhiker for gas money.
Love Craft…
Set in the 1920’s, the tale of culture clash is set in motion when Elwood becomes enamored with a strange young lady he meets while studying at Miskatonic University. We seem to have encountered her as well, in the prehistoric prologue. Hmmm. His pursuit of her finds him in places and situations he could not have imagined.
Mag the Hag, Corben’s EC comics inspired story teller, is along for the flivver ride too, offering exposition, pithy asides, and at times some meddlesome “assistance.”
SkeletonPete Says…
The premiere issue’s cover is a perfect example of Corben’s art with its three dimensional aspects and intriguing, misshapen characters. As you may know from reading other posts on this blog, I am a long time fan of Corben and have following his work as far back as the covers of Rockets Blast Comic Colletor and Heavy Metal Magazine. Dark Horse has anthologized many of his Warren Publishing Creepy and Eerie strips. It’s great fun to have a new story arc from the Eisner Hall of Fame inductee.
She’s Killer-Diller When She’s Dressed to the Hilt…
It was a mad, mad, man’s world in the mid twentieth century but Josie Schuller has an interesting side job. Along with the duties of attentive housewife and mother to twin girls straight out of a Keane “big eyes” painting, she’s a one woman hit squad. Stir in a Jackie Kennedy wardrobe, a meddling mother-in-law, and a Rock Hudson hunky handler and you’ve got a spice mix that goes way beyond the Bell’s Seasoning.
Writers Joëlle Jones (Helheim) and Jamie S. Rich (It Girl and The Atomics) set the stage in the premiere issue with some “if at first you don’t succeed” mano-a-mano murder worthy of Alfred Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain. Jones is also the illustrator of the series and keeps the line work crisp and the 50’s/60’s details accurate. SkeletonPete Says…
This introductory issue is a hoot, a twisted but fun scenario of mid-century modern mayhem. I’m excited to follow along as the plot, and the beef gravy, thickens. Lady Killer Issue #1 (of 5) is available from Dark Horse Comics on January 7, 2015.
Hellboy joins the B.P.R.D. for his first mission in 1952. Portrait of the Agent as a Young Hellboy…
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola (with John Arcudi) spins up a new mini-series for Dark Horse Comics charting the earliest mission of the big red guy. It’s 1952 and the Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense is adding a global vision to its explorations. They’ll be investigating the possible occult nature of mass murders in a small Brazilian mountain town and, at the urging of B.P.R.D. Director Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, taking along their until now sequestered ward. Mike Mignola’s issue #1 alternative cover art. Shadows and Tall Trees…
Artist Alex Maleev (George Romero’s Empire of the Dead) renders atmospheric, “hard lit,” panels that convey the nuevo-noir feel of 1960’s – 70’s Italian giallo films like those of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. It’s an appropriate analog to Mignola’s own stark style and to my eye reminiscent of Eugene Colan’s work (Daredevil, The Tomb of Dracula) in the unabashed use of swaths of opaque black. Longtime Mignola collaborator Colorist Dave Stewart(Baltimore) heightens the effect by establishing a monochromatic pallet that makes the Hellboy’s red complection all the more incongruous and striking.
If there are any Hellboy novices left after 20 years of publication and two Guillermo del Toro films, the first issue of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1952 offers readers enough backstory to make this an easy entry point. Issue one hits comic stands on December 3, 2014 and the 5 issue mini-series will run monthly through April 2015. The tale promises to be a core addition to the HB mythos. A look ahead to Alex Maleev’s issue #3 cover art.
