Wausau, Wisconsin, has a unique problem: a few weeks back – for one day only – the town’s dead came back to life. Known as the “revivers,” these are not your typical, brain-craving living corpses. Rather, they simply picked up where they left off
and are going about their usual routines, indistinguishable from the living except for their inability to die. With the small town in quar- antine and cut off from the rest of the world, Officer Dana Cypress is assigned to keep an eye on the revivers, unaware how much is at stake. Tim Seeley has created a great premise for Revival that isn’t afraid to delve into the more serious ramifications that such an event would cause, especially in terms of religion. He also doesn’t shy from visceral thrills; there’s a truly disturbing scene with an old reviver who’s convinced she’s been cursed by the Devil. Mike Norton’s understated artwork adds to the chills and makes the subsequent explosion of gore even more memorable.
An accident victim is convinced his family are robots. Astronauts discover the fossil remains
of a strange life form on another planet. The sur- vivor of a space ex- pedition is rescued by aliens for a sin- ister purpose. And a lonely farmer de- cides to create his own child. These four stories make up Dark Horse’s Eerie relaunch. Two of the tales are brand-new, while the remainder are reprints from the
1970s. Of the new addition, the space survivor story, Christopher A. Taylor’s “Beta-Eden,” is the most successful, mainly due to Rafa Garres’ bizarre and, yes, eerie, art- work. “A Robot for your Thoughts,” by David Lapham, also works well as a look into paranoia and technological phobia. The remaining stories are entertaining enough but suffer a bit from the over-nar- ration common in comics of that era. Still, well worth the $3.00 cover price.
For this limited The Infernal Man-Thing series, Marvel has
taken an unpublished script from the late Steve Gerber and paired it with new art by Kevin Nowlan. The narrative is a se-
quel to the classic Gerber Man-Thing tale “Song- cry of the Living Dead Man,” (also conveniently reprinted here), continu- ing the story of Brian Lazarus, a tormented writer physically attacked by manifestations of his subconscious thoughts. Years later, Lazarus is no better off, except this time his dangerous thoughts are taking their toll on a hapless Man-Thing. Ger- ber infused many of his stories with social com- mentary and this tale is no different, with many barbs thrown at the writing and television industries. Nowlan’s art is sparse and more sedate than long-time fans may be used to, but works surprisingly well, admirably conveying Man-Thing’s confusion.
The Hoax Hunters are off to investigate mys-
terious mass animal deaths in the Louisiana Bayou. Are they the result of the resident swamp monster or something even more sinister? After appearing in a handful of back-up features last year (collected in May’s Hoax Hunters #0), the Hunters now have their own title. But new readers need not worry: this issue brings you up to speed quickly
and easily. Michael Morenci and Steve See- ley have put together a confident opening chapter filled with strong characters, a good plot and plenty of teases towards the unrevealed past and the still-to-hap- pen future. Axel Medellin also does good work here, especially his ren- dering of the potentially misunder- stood swamp creature. It’s definitely shaping up to be a great year for hor- ror comics.
In Hellblazer #292 John Con- stantine and wife Epiphany do some
reminiscing about past encounters with werewolves, not realizing there’s
a connection to each of their tales. Today’s comic market is glutted with multi-part story arcs, so it’s nice to see a comic that can tell a complete story in one issue, and tell it well. As a bonus, you don’t need a degree in Con- stantine lore to understand the players or their situation. An en- tertaining read in its own right, this is also a great entry point for those curious about the fantastic work that Peter Milligan and Simon Bisley have been doing on the title.