of a cow wearing a vampire cape is unforget- table. PC
Mike Carey Genre fans best know Mike Carey for his lengthy run on
Hellblazer (#175 to #215), his work on Lucifer and, most recently, the dark, cryptic powerhouse that is The Unwritten (voted Best Comic Book last year by Rue Morgue). But his love affair with the medium goes way back to a childhood “addiction” to the four-colour page. As he grew up, Carey got involved in comics fandom and journalism, then even- tually indie titles, comics about musical acts such as Ozzy Osbourne and Pantera, and a regular gig with the British sci-fi comic 2000 AD, before the doors at Vertigo opened and he headed up several genre titles and a somewhat con- troversial stint on the long-running occult series John Con- stantine: Hellblazer. “My approach has always been to respect continuity and
mine it vigorously for story ideas,” explains Carey. “It was a mixed blessing in Hellblazer, where more radical re-in- ventions have often been the norm. I was once accused of writing Hellblazer fan fiction. I don’t really mind that accu- sation. If I’m honest, what it means is that I bring back char- acters and return to situations that have been set up by other writers.” Since then, Carey has continued
to rock the boat with his stellar col- laboration with Peter Gross on The Unwritten, a whip-smart, rabbit hole-like narrative about the son of a famous children’s author, who discovers there’s much more to his own story than simply being the hero’s namesake in his fa- ther’s books. It’s a tale that leaves
readers just as unsure as the protagonist as to what is real, and much of it transpires outside of comics’ conventional panels, in pages devoted to newspaper clippings and screens from online chat rooms. “The Unwritten is a story about stories, and it’s very
much concerned with the ways in which stories spread,” explains Carey. “We’re talking about rumour, urban legend, propaganda, all those other forms in which story enters our lives. We wanted to dramatise the spread of ideas, and in a digital age that meant trying to find ways of bringing the insane richness and disorder of the internet into the comic.” Considering Carey’s extensive work in genre comics –
and the fact that he’s written a series of novels about a spirit exorcist – it’s surprising to learn that he developed his love of horror as an adult. But he’s no less opinionated about what makes for a good dark story: “The best horror arises out of immediately accessible and believable human emotions and sit- uations. It’s raw and painful and harrowing. ... I guess it’s also fair to say that I’m a psychological mess.” MSK
Johnny the Homicidal Maniac
duced as Masters of Scaremonies for EC Comics’ groundbreaking horror titles in the early 1950s. Rendered as cadaverous, repul- sive storytellers, the “GhouLunatics” intro- duced each tale with pun-filled prose that helped inject gallows humour into the gory sto- ries. Warren Publishing’s Uncle Creepy is also a favourite, but most other horror anthology comics employed similar figures such as Mr. Bones, Headstone P. Gravely and Countess R.H. Von Bludd. PAUL C.
House of Mystery
Making its debut in 1951, DC’s horror an- thology series was neutered when the soul-killing Comics Code was introduced in 1954. Horror stories
such as “The Dummy of Death” gave way to blander fare (“The Magic Kite”), though there were still plenty of monsters on hand. The se- ries got its balls back in 1968 when legendary comic editor Joe Orlando joined the fold. Today, a creepier, Lost-esque incarnation of the series on DC’s Vertigo imprint follows a group of strangers trapped in the house for reasons they don’t understand. AS
Bessie the Hellcow Before George Lucas sullied his repu- tation, Howard the Duck was known for brutally satirizing everything from the Moonies (Unification Church fol- lowers) to the US presidential elec- tions. What some people may have forgotten, however, is that Steve Ger- ber’s creation started out as a horror parody. Introduced in the pages of Ad- venture into Fear in 1973 alongside Man-Thing, Howard quickly graduated to his own backup series, and his first foe (in the obscenely titled Giant-Size Man- Thing #5) was a vampire cow named Bessie. Seriously. Having been trans- formed by Dracula some 300 years ear- lier, Bessie boasts super-bovine strength and a winged bat-cow form. Howard went on to his own series – Bessie, alas, did not. Still, artist Frank Brunner’s depiction
Howard the Duck vs.
Before he created Invader Zimfor Nickelodeon, Jhonen Vasquez made a bloody splash in the indie comics scene with the short-lived Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (1995-1997). The cre- ator-owned series followed the exploits of a de- ranged but strangely sympathetic murderer who took his cues from a host of imaginary en- tities. Pinocchio had Jiminy Cricket, Johnny had Nailbunny and Mr. Fuck. AS
Junji Ito
Supernatural horrors abound in the works of Japan’s foremost horror manga creator (RM#39), but weaknesses of the human flesh and spirit are often Ito’s real culprits. Best known for Uzumaki (the tale of a town obsessed with spirals), Gyo (which sees Japan invaded by rot- ting sea creatures on mechanical legs) and his series about the demon girl Tomie, Ito can wring as much shock value from human frailty as from his money shots of mutilation and grotesque dis- figurement. He’s also a master of the “big re- veal” – read “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” and just try to scrub the horror of its fantastically dis- turbing final panel from your memory. AS
Kanako Inuki
Known as the Queen of Horror Manga (see RM#57), Kanako Inuki has carved out a niche in the male-dominated format through her mind- bending, often grotesque tales of the uncanny – with a female viewpoint. Of her English-trans- lated work, Presents (CMX) has an ageless girl bestowing gifts with hor-
Junji Ito’s Uzumaki
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128