Comics and horror, like peanut butter and chocolate. Yeah that good. When you think about it how can they not go together. I know in the olden days you had the EC comics like Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt but unfortunately I was to young for that. I remember finding some at thrift shops when I was a kid and since have read many and studied all about them. The two comics I remember first giving my old nerd boner a twitch were Swap Thing and The Maxx. I had a few really beat up issues of Swamp Thing that I was convinced were worth my weight in gold and I wasn't what you call a tiny child.
Over the years there were of course tons of movie tie ins. I had to buy any that I saw. Child's Play, Nightmare on Elm Street, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, Puppet Master, and motherfucking Toxic Avenger. That's right, Toxic Avenger comic made me shit my ten year old draws. I would eat this shit up. In more modern times this has gotten even more out of control. There seems to be and adaption for everything these days. All the new movies that come out not to mention going back. They just put out a Motel Hell adaptation, for real. These are always cool as a piece of memorabilia but overall it's not that exciting to read something you just watched. The art is cool and all but I would rather get my hands on something fresh, like a prince.
Over the years I would get little tastes of horror comics. I would occasionally pick up Swamp Thing or other ins and outs but then thanks to the movie coming out I became aware of The Crow. Not typical horror by any means but still fits right in. Revenge and a character inspired by Iggy Pop. I met J O' Barr and let me tell you he is as crazy as expected. Some might say rude but whatever, I was glad he was so off, made the experience memorable. Hellboy was another one a bit before its time as far as the horror comic boom is concerned. I didn't get into Hellboy till late in the game but once I did I was hooked like a child in Thailand. 
In 2004 Jacob Von Klingele and I opened our video store and on the same boardwalk, yeah boardwalk was a comic shop our friend Ben ran. I had kind of lost all contact with comics horror or otherwise but wanted to support him so at first I started ordering DVDs and action figures from him. Well one day I decided to pick up and issue of a comic called The Walking Dead, I was so out of touch with comics I had no idea that there were comics like this. I thought they all dealt with dudes in capes. I went back and was recommended another one. The Goon. I took home the first few issues and immediately came all over my house. Seriously for the next week everywhere I went if I even thought about The Goon I had to change my pants. I started getting new titles. I would read previews and find things that sounded interesting and add them to file. It got insane. I was dropping like fifty bucks a week on comics. I went back and read 30 Days of night and Steve Nile's other creation Criminal Macabre. I quickly became an addict for Cal McDonald. Drinking, smoking, drug using monster hunter, he was like Constantine but way cooler and knew how to cough in a much more believable way. Grumpy Old Monsters was great, I mean I love Grumpy Old Men, I love monsters, you see where I am going with this. After Kirkman blew up thanks to the walking dead Marvel jumped on board and put out Marvel Zombies which had some of the best covers this side of Heavy Metal. 
As the store went away and I moved and became very broke I kind of fell behind on the comics game. A trade here and there and issues of The Goon were my only intake for the most part. I still went to conventions and would find random things but I stopped the insane collecting. The Walking Dead went on to be a TV show some of you may of heard about and The Goon is in production hell for a CG movie that David Fincher helped get off the ground. I would sell my left nut to see this especially after the trailer that was released at Comicon. 
Web comics and collections are a great way to go these days. Rick Tremble does Motion Picture Purgatory which is the second best way to get your movie reviews, the first of course from a drunk asshole(that's me). He has a couple collections that I highly recommend getting. Sex and Monsters is a newer one that I recently found that everyone should check out. It's so young right now that you might go to jail for taking it home but give it time and it will ripen. Tromeric
No comments:
Post a Comment