Review- CREEPY COMICS VOL. 1

CREEPY COMICS VOL. 1 (Dark Horse, 2011; Softcover)

Collects Creepy Nos. 1-4 (cover dates July, 2009- October, 2010) and two stories that originally appeared on Myspace Dark Horse Presents

Writers: Michael Woods, Dan Braun, Joe Harris, Neil Kleid, Shawna Gore, Mike Baron, Joe R. Lansdale, Craig Haffner, Doug Moench, Cody Goodfellow, Bill Morrison, Andrew Foley, and Nicola Cuti

Artists: Saskia Gutekunst, Angelo Torres, Jason Shawn Alexander, Brian Churilla, Hilary Barta, Greg Ruth, Nathan Fox, Rahsan Ekedal, Eric Powell (covers), Bernie Wrightson (frontispiece), Kevin Ferrara, Dennis Calero, Chuck Pyle (cover), Gene Colan (frontispiece), Michael Wm. Kaluta, Paul Komoda, and Ken Kelly (cover)

Damn! The newish Creepy series reads like a best-of sampler of the original title's finest moments. Old favorites and new blood mix to deliver Grade A quality Horror with the same black humor and ironic twist endings that fans of the original series know and love. 

In The Curse we see a young man with the ability to warp reality earn his heart's desire. The gift becomes a curse, especially when it becomes apparent that his mother has the same ability. This story appears across three of the issues. This title is presented in the same Horror anthology format as the original and uses multi-part stories like the latter era of the title. 

The Doll Lady from issue 4 is another one that really stands out. There's a local urban legend about a crazy old lady who has a life-size baby doll in her front window. She supposedly lost her daughter decades ago, went nuts, and dresses this doll daily. Kids think that the house is haunted and it becomes a rite of passage to knock on the door. A reporter whose brother went missing years ago decided to investigate this lady and her doll collection...and that's all you'll get out of me. 

This title is published quarterly, so years can pass between collections. I don't mind the wait when the quality is this high. Volume 2 was released recently.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Dark Horse makes good quality trade paperbacks. There are two full color stories included which are exclusive to this release, taken from the Internet-only Myspace Dark Horse Presents.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. I love the thick coated stock paper used in this book. It's got that sweet toxic Chinese ink scent to it, likely mixing in heroin, making it pleasurable to inhale and causing me to buy more and more of these books.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. This has glued binding. Nothing to see here.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 4.5 out of 5. The cardstock cover has a coating of decent thickness.