Horror Comics #31 - Antarctic Press Comics

HORROR COMICS No. 31, December 2023

Taking its audience back in time to Fifteenth-Century Romania and the rule of Dracul, Dino Caruso and Shawn Richison’s narrative for Issue Thirty One of “Horror Comics” debatably does a sterling job in convincingly embroiling a huge vampire into the blood-curdling reign of the infamous Voivode of Wallachia. Indeed, the authors’ succinct storytelling as to how ‘Hannibal’ was appointed the Impaler’s “new seneschal” and later was forced to become “one with the shadows” upon his lord’s arrest for treason, is so enthralling that doubtless many a bibliophile was probably a little bit disappointed when the book suddenly jumps a good hundred years into the future.

Happily however Darwin’s plight at the hands of a ‘brotherly’ werewolf soon becomes just as beguiling, especially once it becomes clear the pair share a common, family bond with one another. Of course, the two potential time-travelling horrors also display some significant differences, such as the bald-headed, rebuilt collection of body parts much preferring to eat herbs than blood-drenched flesh. But the connection between these two characters, and subsequently the aforementioned vampire, is so well-penned that the relationship positively leaps off the printed page – even after the lycanthrope petulantly burns all his sibling’s precious plants.

Perhaps far less noticeable though, is the fact that various papers have also travelled along with Darwin from the present day – presumably being notes written by Doctor Liebrandt during his research on resurrecting “unnatural creations”. The wolfman’s interest in these tattered records is quite subtly underplayed for the most part, and largely relies upon visual clues to suggest just how much the lycanthrope hungrily scrutinises the discarded documents. Nevertheless, their contents and the knowledge they’ll impart intriguingly appears to bode ill for anyone attempting to thwart the monsters in their ultimate revenge.

Additionally adding to this publication’s overriding atmosphere of dark-hearted plots and general evilness, are J.C. Grande’s pencils, whose distinctive sketching style imbues the likes of Dracul, his “pet” vampire, and the Werewolf with just the sort of hawkishness a fright-fan might expect from such mass-murderers. Furthermore, the illustrator’s much more round-looking Darwin readily helps set the well-meaning individual apart from his brethren, and provides the somewhat crestfallen fellow with a palpable air of vulnerability not found in the rest of this comic’s cast.

Writers: Dino Caruso & Shawn Richison, Illustrator: J.C. Grande, and Colors: Paul Little

Horror Comics #30 - Antarctic Press Comics

HORROR COMICS No. 30, November 2023

Described by its San Antonio-based publisher as a “time-travelling horror” story containing “science-spawned monsters”, Dino Caruso and Shawn Richison’s narrative for “Origin Point” is arguably as good as such frightening fiction can get. Sure, it may take readers a moment or two to acclimatise themselves to colorist Paul Little’s dark-hued palette. But once they’ve become accustomed to the disconcertingly dreary surroundings of Doctor Liebrandt’s out-of-the-way lock-up and realise the struck-off surgeon is ferrying human corpses about on a trolley, this comic’s claustrophobic atmosphere becomes all the more palpable; “I realise it’s not the nicest part of town.”

Indeed, the motivation behind the former GENesis Labs employee is probably the first thing to grab the audience’s undivided attention. For despite his illegal underground workshop apparently about to be imminently hit by a squad of heavily-armed Special Forces, the man appears disturbingly unperturbed; casually stacking up a handful of carcasses upon a pushcart and then calming walking the cadavers across to where a fellow scientist is frantically finishing last minute repairs to her own invention.

The sheer volume of questions this bizarre behaviour raises in the mind should immediately grab any fright-fest fan’s interest, and subsequently help carry them on through the twenty-page periodical’s plot as more and more intriguing characters are added to the cast. Furthermore, the fact that one particularly shadowy soul suggests he’s somehow come back from the past to finally meet his “father” will surely raise the hackles on the neck of even the most cold-blooded of bibliophiles.

Probably this book’s best moment though, is the shockingly savage demise of the aforementioned police tactical team, who initially foolishly feel this “mystery-science-junk” assault is going to be a total waste of their precious time. Artist JC Grande does a good job in helping this comic’s writing team imbue a few of the troopers with all the arrogant indifference twenty years of gun-toting survival in such a high-pressure role might bring. And as a result, when the illustrator suddenly prodigiously pencils the squad being literally torn apart by a viciously-fanged ghoul, many holding this publication in their hands may well startlingly feel the overconfident gunmen are simply receiving their just deserts.

Writers: Dino Caruso & Shawn Richison, Illustrator: J.C. Grande, and Colors: Paul Little