Doomed
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.
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!
[...] Not that you’ll find that, either. I did like the art of Ken Wolak’s two stories (although his cover painting is atrocious), but much of the rest smacks of the work of amateurs, ranging from incomplete to indecipherable. The introduction mentions some of the artists are “well-known industry professionals,” but I didn’t recognize a single name. Said introduction also states MOONSTONE MONSTERS’ intent at evoking the old-style horror comics, which we’ve recently seen done to a T with the premiere issue of DOOMED, but at which this fails miserably with its fractions of ideas. And lastly, the introduction also threatens a VOLUME TWO. Be afraid. Be very afraid. [...]
[...] BEST COMICS BIGFOOT and DOOMED. This may be the most subjective category, but I’m going with these two titles from IDW Publishing. Though both horror, they couldn’t be more different. BIGFOOT is here because it’s so balls-out crazy; DOOMED because it succeeded in resurrecting the ’70s black-and-white comics magazine and left us thirsting for more. [...]
[...] CRYPTIC’s selling point – and the one that swindled me – is its stated aim to emulate the late CREEPY and EERIE, dedicated to running original horror comics in a magazine format. The editor’s error-ridden letter claims “no one was publishing anything along the lines” of such, but readers of IDW’s excellent DOOMED – now in its second issue – know different. The half-dozen comics here aren’t poorly drawn by any means, but they’re so deadly dull that there’s zero life in them. The one exception: a nearly wordless chain-reaction gore tale of Rube Goldbergian proportions, scripted by the all-too-generous Joe R. Lansdale. [...]
[...] CRYPTIC’s selling point – and the one that swindled me – is its stated aim to emulate the late CREEPY and EERIE, dedicated to running original horror comics in a magazine format. The editor’s error-ridden letter claims “no one was publishing anything along the lines” of such, but readers of IDW’s excellent DOOMED – now in its second issue – know otherwise. The half-dozen comics here aren’t poorly drawn by any means, but they’re so deadly dull that there’s zero life in them. The one exception: a nearly wordless chain-reaction gore tale of Rube Goldbergian proportions, scripted by the all-too-generous Joe R. Lansdale. [...]
[...] OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS SERIES: • DOOMED #1 • DOOMED #2 [...]