My Halloween has been made. Maybe even my fall. I’ll put it bluntly: If you are a fan of the horror genre, you must pick up the first issue of DOOMED, a new, bi-monthly black-and-white comics magazine put out by IDW Publishing. It hit stores yesterday.
An attempt to revive the legendary newsprint shocks of the late EERIE and CREEPY, it succeeds. The first issue adapts four short stories by noted (even legendary) horror authors. First, there’s Richard Matheson’s “Blood Son,” about a bizarre child who is mute for his first five years of life and then suddenly becomes obsessed with Bram Stoker’s DRACULA. “Cuts,” from the always reliable F. Paul Wilson, is a Hollywood revenge/voodoo tale with equal parts dark humor and darker blood, pulled off with an E.C.-style panache.
David J. Schow’s “Blood Rape of the Lust Ghouls” details the maddening turn of events when a henpecked gorehound film critic finds he can escape the trappings of his unhappy home and enter the celluloid world he so loves via a B-movie poster. Expect sex and violence, as all true B-movies promise. And “The Final Performance” – courtesy of PSYCHO’s Robert Bloch – puts a spin on the ol’ drifter-meets-pretty-girl-while-just-passing-through story with a truly twisted TWILIGHT ZONE ending I didn’t see coming. No, I take that back: It’s much too sick for THE TWILIGHT ZONE.
All four stories are rendered in different styles, each appropriate to the mood, with lots of X-Acto-style shading that makes DOOMED look like it could have existed in the ’70s, right alongside those adult-oriented (but not pornographic) magazines it’s set out to ape. Marvel also tried that forumla back then, but without the benefit of color, they lost their appeal. Here, the absence of color works to DOOMED’s benefit; I think the stark art would be neutered otherwise.
As if all that wasn’t enough, a lengthy interview with Schow is included in the mag’s end about the state of horror and his career (sometimes interchangeable). Kudos to IDW for having the guts (so to speak) to pursue a project like this, and moreso for actually pulling it off. The second issue can’t come fast enough for me.
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I picked this up as well. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but I like it a LOT. The art on the BLOOD SON story is just amazing. I recommend this to everybody who likes horror. They definitely nailed the old CREEPY vibe with this one. I was infuriated when I saw the next issue wasn’t due until next year. I want more now!