I’m not big on horror movies and can’t say that I am a big
horror fan, but surprising a lot of what I buy or at least this week’s pile has
horror or horror elements in it. Heck the five books included here all have to
be considered almost straight horror books. I guess what it comes down to is I
like to look for good stories and genre is only one consideration in my
decision process.
First up is Bedlam #1
by Nick
Spencer and Riley Rossmo. I’m a huge fan of Rossmo’s art and I
want to like Nick Spencer’s work more than I do. I know that creator owned stuff is the best
way to go for most of these guys, but I still believe they would benefit from a
good editor. I guess trying to hire an editor is beyond the budget of most of
the people involved. Anyway Bedlam has a lot of Batman versus the Joker in it
and in other ways it plays as a straight horror book. The bad guy is a
psychopathic killer of extreme magnitude. They start 10 years ago and show the
brutal scene of a mass killing at a movie theater. A Batman like characters
comes in to take out the bad guy. Not sure of the need to do the whole Aurora,
Colorado deal, but okay we get that he is a bad guy. It is not just him; he
leads a group or perhaps henchmen. We then jump ahead ten years and begin a
madding sequence of back and forth time jumps that destroy the narrative flow
of the story. The present story line appears to be about the same bad guy who
now is apparently been released and perhaps is on medication. He is floating
around town and almost forces some tough guys to shoot him, has a flashback or
hallucination about dying and calls the police and the story ends until the
next issue. Spencer loves mystery and being vague, you can call it challenging
the reader or you can call it poor story telling. Rossmo’s art will keep me
around and hopefully the story will be clearer in time. Personally I think an
editor would have told him tell the past story first, and then tell the present
story and layer in past pieces more as a page or two at a time instead of panel
by panel at times. Also I believe the story had flashbacks and hallucinations and
the method of demarking “what was what” was not 100% clear was. It is almost
like Spencer is fighting himself as there are some good ideas in the story
trying to breakthrough a weak story structure. 
Fatale #9 by Ed Brubaker
and Sean
Phillips continues its excellent run. Ed now says the book will go
20 issues or maybe more. At this point as long as the book has an ending I’m
fine with it being stretched out. With many of Brubaker’s Marvel super hero stories
the stretched out portion felt like filler, here it feels like each chapter is
adding depth to the story. Sean Phillips is the perfect noir artist and his
work with Dave Stewart’s colors is so well done that I take it for granite. I
know going in the book will look great and read well. Going into a plot summary
is worthless and the only possible issue one could have with the book is it is
not an easy book to jump into; it is better read from the start. The horror
elements are understated in some chapters and in this issue you could forget
that it had those elements. All in all Fatale is one of the best stories that
the Brubaker/Phillips team has produced. Oddly enough, even with tons of great
work that Brubaker has produced I still think his signature work is yet to
come. 
Lot 13 #1 (of 5)
by Steve Niles
and Glen Fabry
must be a left over project from Wildstorm before it was totally absorbed under
the DC banner. It does not feel like a Vertigo book at all. I think Steve Niles
and Chuck Dixon have a contest to see who can write for the most publishers.
This book is all set up and it is well done. We should get into more of the
haunting next issue. It starts in 1670 where the townspeople kill the already
dead family for the crime of suicide. It is gruesome and bloody ending with a
mass grave and as the dirt is being shoved over the grave an eye opens. Cut to
today and a family of five is moving out of the city into their new house.
Their house is not ready and they have to go to an oddly structured hotel.
Little ghostly things are happening around them during the entire story, but we
are not sure why this family is attracting these ghosts and what danger the
ghost brings. Solid story telling (Dear Steve please edit Nick Spencer’s work)
and strong art by Glen Fabry made this an easy choice to add to my list for the
rest of the series. I would love to see Niles do more straight super hero work.
Marvel Zombie
Halloween One Shot by Fred Van Lente
and Alessandro
Vitti was from a week or more ago, but I just got it this week. Set
in the Marvel Zombie world it is a surprisingly touching story of a mother and
her son surviving in this post apocalyptic world and their celebration of
Halloween. The surprise of who the mother is was a nice touch and made a story
of zombies into a touching character piece. I always enjoy that writers like
Van Lente seems to always put forth his best effort even on books commissioned just
to feel a marketing need.
Rachael Rising #12
by Terry Moore
was another great chapter in a fun series about witches and demons. Another
book that you need to read from the start, but another series that is more than
worth the price of entry.
This stuff is all horror based, but none of it is horrible.
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