Rediscovering my roots
I've been on something of a rediscovery of my roots as of late. In the past few months I have picked up Marvel's reprinting of Man Thing (two volumes), as well as reprints of ECs Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Shock Suspense Stories, as well as an almost complete run of the latest Crypt from Papercutz. I also picked up Volume 1 of Dark Horse's beautiful reprinting of the first five issues of Creepy (Volume 2 came out a few months ago, while Eerie, the companion magazine to Creepy, is also available from Dark Horse).
My first love of horror in the printed medium was through comics, and while I never completely stopped reading them, I was seriously out of touch with what is current in the medium for far too long. Thanks to the kind efforts of my wife and friends like Brian Keene, I've gotten in touch with that part of myself again. In the past six months I've read countless reprints of the comics I used to devour when I was a kid, have picked up back issues of House of Mystery, Weird War Stories, and Werewolf By Night, and have been introduced to new series like The Fall of Cthulhu. There's so much out there that is new, that I want to read, but I don't know where to start. It's somewhat overwhelming, especially given the time constraints in my personal life (not enough time to read all these comics). All I can do is make lists of what I want and try to buy them when the opportunity arises.
I've written elsewhere that my first exposure to adult horror fiction was through an anthology given to me by my mother when I was ten years old. The volume in question was one published for younger readers, and contained reprints by the likes of Robert Bloch, William Hope Hodgeson, Frank Belknap Long and others. Prior to that, though, and in the years that followed, I read comics.
Lots of comics.
If memory serves, Marvel served up the best stuff: the aforementioned Man Thing, House of Mystery and House of Secrets, as well as Werewolf By Night. This was my first exposure to artists like Bernie Wrightson (who I finally met ten years ago). The only Super-hero comics I read avidly was Spiderman. I discovered the Warren Magazines when I was twelve or so (Vampirella, Creepy, Eerie), and for years I searched for the EC stuff but was only able to find one issue of Shock Suspense Stories (a reprint) at my local liquor store (where I bought all my comics back then).
But at some point I stopped picking them up regularly. I can't really explain why. I suppose part of the reason was that books were rapidly replacing my reading interest, but then I was also a teenager, too, and other interests intervened for awhile (especially rock and roll...I went from wanting to be a comic-book/story book writer to wanting to be a rock musician). Occasionally, though, the occasional title would leap out at me on the newsstand and I'd snatched it up. That's how I found the Eclipse line of comics (Twisted Tales, etc) and, later, the Tapping the Vein line of Clive Barker adaptations. And of course by then Gemstone Publishing was reprinting all of the EC titles so I was able to catch up. And then there was the underground press like Kitchen Sink and Tundra Publications, where I first read The Crow (serialized in Taboo, which, in one memorable issue, produced a creepy adaptation of Ramsey Campbell's story "Again").
When graphic novels came along I didn't jump on the bandwagon immediately, but now I'm making up for it. I am completely engrossed by Michael Alan Nelson's The Fall of Cthulhu series from Boom Studios (the series has been illustrated by at least three different artists). If you're a fan of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, head to your nearest comic dealer and pick up the first four collections of this sprawling epic. The Fall of Cthulhu is a very large cosmic story that incorporates all aspects of Lovecraft's cosmos -- The Dream-Lands, Nyarlathotep, the town of Arkham and Miskatonic University, among others. The story-cycle in Volume 3 (The Gray Man) contains some of the most memorable and creepiest story-telling I've seen in a long time. If that wasn't enough, one of the characters, a Brazilian street kid named Lucifer, now has his own series entitled Hexed!
It's a good thing I'm getting a refund from Uncle Sam this year.
JFG
I've been on something of a rediscovery of my roots as of late. In the past few months I have picked up Marvel's reprinting of Man Thing (two volumes), as well as reprints of ECs Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror, Shock Suspense Stories, as well as an almost complete run of the latest Crypt from Papercutz. I also picked up Volume 1 of Dark Horse's beautiful reprinting of the first five issues of Creepy (Volume 2 came out a few months ago, while Eerie, the companion magazine to Creepy, is also available from Dark Horse).
My first love of horror in the printed medium was through comics, and while I never completely stopped reading them, I was seriously out of touch with what is current in the medium for far too long. Thanks to the kind efforts of my wife and friends like Brian Keene, I've gotten in touch with that part of myself again. In the past six months I've read countless reprints of the comics I used to devour when I was a kid, have picked up back issues of House of Mystery, Weird War Stories, and Werewolf By Night, and have been introduced to new series like The Fall of Cthulhu. There's so much out there that is new, that I want to read, but I don't know where to start. It's somewhat overwhelming, especially given the time constraints in my personal life (not enough time to read all these comics). All I can do is make lists of what I want and try to buy them when the opportunity arises.
I've written elsewhere that my first exposure to adult horror fiction was through an anthology given to me by my mother when I was ten years old. The volume in question was one published for younger readers, and contained reprints by the likes of Robert Bloch, William Hope Hodgeson, Frank Belknap Long and others. Prior to that, though, and in the years that followed, I read comics.
Lots of comics.
If memory serves, Marvel served up the best stuff: the aforementioned Man Thing, House of Mystery and House of Secrets, as well as Werewolf By Night. This was my first exposure to artists like Bernie Wrightson (who I finally met ten years ago). The only Super-hero comics I read avidly was Spiderman. I discovered the Warren Magazines when I was twelve or so (Vampirella, Creepy, Eerie), and for years I searched for the EC stuff but was only able to find one issue of Shock Suspense Stories (a reprint) at my local liquor store (where I bought all my comics back then).
But at some point I stopped picking them up regularly. I can't really explain why. I suppose part of the reason was that books were rapidly replacing my reading interest, but then I was also a teenager, too, and other interests intervened for awhile (especially rock and roll...I went from wanting to be a comic-book/story book writer to wanting to be a rock musician). Occasionally, though, the occasional title would leap out at me on the newsstand and I'd snatched it up. That's how I found the Eclipse line of comics (Twisted Tales, etc) and, later, the Tapping the Vein line of Clive Barker adaptations. And of course by then Gemstone Publishing was reprinting all of the EC titles so I was able to catch up. And then there was the underground press like Kitchen Sink and Tundra Publications, where I first read The Crow (serialized in Taboo, which, in one memorable issue, produced a creepy adaptation of Ramsey Campbell's story "Again").
When graphic novels came along I didn't jump on the bandwagon immediately, but now I'm making up for it. I am completely engrossed by Michael Alan Nelson's The Fall of Cthulhu series from Boom Studios (the series has been illustrated by at least three different artists). If you're a fan of Lovecraftian cosmic horror, head to your nearest comic dealer and pick up the first four collections of this sprawling epic. The Fall of Cthulhu is a very large cosmic story that incorporates all aspects of Lovecraft's cosmos -- The Dream-Lands, Nyarlathotep, the town of Arkham and Miskatonic University, among others. The story-cycle in Volume 3 (The Gray Man) contains some of the most memorable and creepiest story-telling I've seen in a long time. If that wasn't enough, one of the characters, a Brazilian street kid named Lucifer, now has his own series entitled Hexed!
It's a good thing I'm getting a refund from Uncle Sam this year.
JFG
posted by JFG at 3/31/2009
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