New
Horror comics you must read!
by rick olivares
Horror is making a huge comeback. In
comics of all media. Sounds like it isn't easy to communicate in the
four-colored page, yes?
Nope. These four titles make it easy
and I smell film adaptation sometime soon.
Chilling
Adventures of Sabrina (Archie Comics)
Even as a kid, I thought that Archie
comics were the lamest ever. However, beginning with Afterlife with Archie and
now with The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Archie Meets Predator, and soon
the relaunch for a modern audience with comics scribe legend Mark Waid and
rising star artist Fiona Staples, the adventures of the true eternal teenager
(not Dick Clark) have become relevant, first rate, and daring.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
takes what was a second rate and stereotypical character into a more complex if
not frightening one. This isn’t the Day-Glo atmosphere of Riverdale but the
dark, creepy, and demonic Greendale where witches have no qualms about
dispatching human lives. The Ministry of Magic would have a cow each time
witches and warlocks take lives and use magic for their foul means.
There are consequences when warlocks or
witches fall in love with humans. To “protect" his human wife, Diana,
Edward Spellman wipes his wife’s memory clean and drives her insane after which
he sends her to a loony bin. Their one and only child, Sabrina, is a witch and
is brought up to live with her two aunts who are also necromancers. Just in
time, the father’s transgression is learned by the Coven for which he is
banished into a tree. The two aunts raise Sabrina as best as they could but the
teen soon falls for a human. Around the same time, Madame Satan, the witch who
was betrothed to Edward Spellman before he ditches her for a human returns to
this mortal coil and learns of her former lover’s actions. She first destroys
the tree where Edward is banished then returns Diana’s memory but her asylum
keepers disbelieve that a powerful witch is on her way to take care of her
daughter. Madame Satan then ensures that Sabrina’s human boyfriend learns the
truth about his girlfriend thus setting the stage for not only more drama but
chaos.
This isn’t definitely your mom’s Archie
Comics.
Wicked, enthralling, and frightening
writing by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa who also pens Afterlife with Archie.
Truthfully, the title says it all. It is chilling. The man definitely has done
his research about the Wiccan arts and all its creepiness. That is a huge
complement to Aguirre-Sacasa who cut his eyeteeth as a playwright and Marvel
Comics author. That he is also a scriptwriter for Glee, Big Love, and Looking
means he is talented. The success of Afterlife with Archie and all the
succeeding books has led to his being named Chief Creative Officer for Archie
Comics.
Robert Hack’s artwork that harkens back
to the 1970s style Warren Comics is dark and brooding. I believe the Warren
comparison is apt and bloody spot on. His use of light and shadow is magnificent.
In panel three page six of the first issue, how he depicts Sabrina’s aunt Hilda
and Zelda sitting atop the hill is downright creepy.
Horror seldom works in comic books. The
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, now three issues in, is going to zoom right to
the Top 10 Horror Comics published and a definite must read.
Harrow
County (Dark Horse Comics)
When you think of Southern United
States, you think of rednecks, steers, American Football, the NRA, cowboys, and
backwoods among others. Writer Cullen Bunn, in the past several years, has made
sure that you can add creepy horror stories based in the American South to that
list. American Southern Gothic. I like the sound of that. Nevertheless, first
with Oni Press’ surprise Western hit The Sixth Gun and now with Dark Horse’s
Harrow County, Bunn has been at the forefront of the horror genre in
comics.
Harrow County is a story about a rural
life where superstition holds sway and an ancient evil arises. The small town
once upon a team put to death a local, Hester Beck, who was accused of
witchcraft. But this isn’t your typical death-from-beyond-the-grave story.
And the protagonist, Emmy, a young girl
growing up in a farm, is plagued by nightmares about Beck who has in fact
returned. There is nothing like a child-like innocence dealing with the unknown
and unspeakable horrors.
As I previously mentioned, it is rather
difficult to communicate horror in comics but Bunn’s canny writing aided and
abetted by the brooding, hauntingly beautiful water colors of Tyler Crook
convey the atmosphere of dread.
Some panels are frightening and they
stick to your head. And in comics, that says a lot. I wouldn’t be surprised if
this is eventually adapted into film.
You simply have to check out Harrow
County.
The
Burning Fields (Boom Studios)
Boom Studios describes Burning Fields
as Zero Dark Thirty meets The Thing. I’d also add The Kingdom (that excellent
political thriller by director Peter Berg that starred Jamie Foxx, Chris
Cooper, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman among others) to that mix.
When a former US Marine is brought back
to Iraq to investigate a murder, she finds herself not only in the presence of
former colleagues who she has made lifetime enemies with but also an evil that
lurks in the oilfields. A geopolitical horror thriller from writers Michael
Moreci and Tim Daniel with art by Colin Lorimer. Dana Atkinson and her former
CO, Nelson Kendrick, fly to Kirkuk, Iraq where they are joined by a local
police detective Aban Fasad to solve what seem to be ritualistic murders. But
danger, not only the supernatural kind, lurks in just about every corner.
Burning Fields is a gripping story that reminds me of the comic book adaptation
of the sci-fi mystery film Outland (starring Sean Connery) in the pages of
Heavy Metal. It has that feel and that vibe. Another story that I feel could
land a Hollywood production.
Wytches
(Vertigo Comics)
A wholly different take on witches by
acclaimed writer Scott Snyder and artist Jock.
The six-issue series (supposedly the
first story arc) follows the Rook family as they move to another town to begin
a new life following an incident between their daughter Sailor and a classmate
named, Annie. Little do they know that the cannot escape the past especially in
a town with its own dark secrets. A unique twist and take on witches. Snyder,
who zoomed to comic book fandom with his work on Batman. With Batman, he has
shown that he is equally capable in another genre that he imbues with themes of
loneliness and depression. Mix that with horror and that is quite an explosive
conflict.
And after reading this you will
probably not look at another tree in the woods the same way again.
