12/21/2023 0 Comments Tvtropes zombie night terror![]() It’s a magic-themed action/adventure that’s indistinguishable from the superhero titles published by DC, except that the characters get to say “fuck” instead of “#&$%.”Īccording to the Direct Market sales charts posted at The Beat, The Walking Dead is one of Image’s best-selling monthly comics. ![]() Milligan’s take on Hellblazer avoids becoming a self-parody by simply abandoning any pretense at being scary. This is why horror film franchises quickly descend into self-parody – once the monster is revealed in the first film, the audience no longer fears it, so the sequels are just the repetition of events that are humorous and comforting precisely because they’ve lost the ability to scare. Horror works best when it exploits the fear of the unknown and the unexpected. But the old, reliable formula that makes it good comfort food also makes it terrible horror. There are demons, spells, smoking, and British profanity. Hellblazer, like most long-running titles, is comfort food for fans, and Milligan knows where and when to deliver the expected beats of a John Constantine story. While it’s also tempting to complain that the story is predictable, predictability is really the whole point. Like the art, the writing is polished and professional, though not particularly memorable. The plot, in a nutshell, is about John Constantine fighting a Victorian-era demon in Mumbai. Still, Peter Milligan is an experienced mainstream comics writer, and he knows that every issue is someone’s first, so he provides narration at the front of the book that helps new readers catch up. Camuncoli and Landini work well together, and they produce a comic that’s clear, consistent, and bland.Īs for the story, this issue is the final chapter in a storyline within a book that’s been published continuously for two decades, so it isn’t exactly a great jumping-on point (and no recap page, because DC/Vertigo thinks recap pages are for wimps). But this is a Vertigo comic, and most of the artists who work for Vertigo tend to use the same semi-realistic, functional style that effectively conveys the story without drawing attention to itself. ![]() This could lead to some awkward, ugly comics if the two artists have different styles. The finishing artist then adds the necessary details (or is my assumption completely wrong?). What’s the division of labor between the artist who does layouts and the artist who “finishes?” I assume the layout artist determines the shape and number of panels on each page, and perhaps also the contents of each panel. These five titles aren’t necessarily the best or the worst, but they are indicative of what American publishers are releasing in 2010. I chose to review only original creations, not because they’re inherently good, but because I’m more interested in stories that are specific to comics. However, as many as a third of these titles are licensed properties (that is, they’re based on movies or video games). It seems every publisher has at least a couple horror titles, and in the case of some of the smaller publishers (IDW, Devil’s Due), the majority of their comics are horror. Unlike barbarian comics, which I discussed back in January, horror comics are not scarce. This week, I’m reviewing five recent horror comics.
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