Jodi Scaife (162)
I have not yet read Joe Hill’s novel NOS4A2, a horror tale about a mysterious dark man who kidnaps children, drains their life force, and takes them to his demented amusement park called Christmasland, but I was still intrigued by the concept of a comic book prequel exploring the villain, Charles Manx; however, as I read through Wraith: Welcome to Christmasland’s short first issue, I realized that I was missing something by not knowing the original story, and it made the comic less enjoyable.
Chambers #4 opens with Denise cornered in her apartment by the very police force she once felt was as close as her family. They’ve turned on her en masse, and the only person she can trust now is herself. Denise has one more person to confront before she can find peace with her father’s and brother’s deaths, but will she be able to pull the trigger on the final culprit or will the price for ultimate revenge be more than she’s willing to pay?
Duppy '78 is a unique graphic novel, because it looks at the Rastafarian culture of Jamaica and the accompanying local underworld rather than drawing from Western ideas or fantastical settings. Creator Casey Seijas draws from the ghost stories of Jamaica and Rastafarianism and blends them into a noir crime world to present something that is both paranormal and gritty. Due to the violence, nudity, and profanity throughout, I recommend this work for mature readers only.
Twelve-year-old Aurora Grimeon’s life was turned upside down when her parents died suddenly after accidentally using death’s head mushrooms in a pasta sauce. She only survived the poisoning because a mysterious benefactor treated her with thistle milk, an herbal option not allowed in the US. Now, the young girl is being transported to her grandfather’s home on the remote Ossuary Isle, a tiny locale in the southern swamps created as a burial ground. The locals live to care for the graves, and outsiders are eyed with suspicion. Aurora must learn to accept local hoodoo traditions and find her place in this strange new society. It’s slow going for the metropolitan child, but when a supernatural threat from the distant past threatens everyone on the island, Miss Grimeon may be the only one with the strength to take it down.
Unfortunately for Denise, Chambers #3 allows her to connect the dots behind who is picking off her family members, one by one, and get some real answers to why her father was gunned down. She’s also forced to close off her humanity as she sets out for vigilante justice, but while she’s cool and collected as she guns perpetrators down, Denise isn’t hard enough to be completely unaffected by her actions. By the end of the issue, this street-wise cop realizes that she can trust no one, even the boys in blue who are supposed to protect her back.
As Halloween is fast approaching, the Fanboy Comics staff and contributors decided that there was no better way to celebrate this horrifically haunting holiday than by sharing our favorite scary stories! Be they movies, TV shows, video games, novels, or anything other form of entertainment, members of the FBC crew will be sharing their "scariest" stories each day leading up to Halloween. We hope that you will enjoy this sneak peek into the terrors that frighten Fanboy Comics!
I fell in love with The Phantom of the Opera at the age of twelve, when I first heard the song "Think of Me" from the world-renowned Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Over the years, my love of the music has led me to see the musical twice, watch at least three movie renditions, and read a variety of Phantom novels, including the original by Gaston Leroux, a continuation, an audio book of the original on cassette tape, and a poorly executed erotic re-imagining of the story. With such a deep immersion in the world of Phantom, I should have been able to see the true intentions and nature of the original story, but I, and many modern fans, were blinded by the romantic angle of the love triangle between Christine, the Phantom/Erik, and Raoul. It took my father’s pithy review of the musical (I believe his words were along the lines of “I don’t know why this show is so popular . . . unless it’s all women who have had a stalker.”) and a careful re-read of the original novel to open my eyes to the pervasive horror of the piece.
Chambers #2 picks up with Denise struggling to cope with the final events of Issue #1, but this tough cookie refuses to let her pain and grief prevent her from trying to find the truth. When a hit on her life fails miserably, the police officer uses the opportunity to gather clues and starts moving in on the players who are out to take the Chambers family down one by one.
Duke is a hardworking, blue-collar guy who just hasn’t had much luck in his life . . . or does a good job of blowing what luck comes his way. He lost several body parts to a tour of duty in Afghanistan, spent time in jail for assaulting his ex-wife’s current boyfriend, struggles with gambling debts, student loans, and a mortgage payment on said ex-wife’s home, barely is allowed visitation with his six-year-old daughter, attends 12-step meetings for substance abuse and anger issues, and works as muscle for one of Houston’s resident villains. Things get interesting, though, when he fails in obtaining an artifact for his employer and gets sent on a quest to retrieve it, which uncovers a strange tale that turns the superhero genre upside down.
Officer Adrian Chambers took his job in narcotics extremely seriously, so seriously that he was willing to turn several dirty officers over to Internal Affairs for investigation. Now, he’s dead, and the former officers aren’t willing to stop their vengeance just because their primary target is gone. Fortunately, Adrian’s daughter, Denise, followed in her father’s law enforcement footsteps, and she won’t stop until she gets to the bottom of who has made taking out her loved ones a beloved hobby.
I honestly did not know what I was getting in Love Stories #1 from Image Comics. Based on the title, I thought I would be reading a girly comic involving relationships of various types and the ensuing hijinks. I ended up with demon-killing Norsemen and broken marriages in space . . . with aliens! Maybe it would have helped if I had known that the full title of the series is Love Stories (To Die For).
