As someone who supports independent publishing, I hate to say it, but MOONSTONE MONSTERS: VOLUME ONE is like HORROR COMICS FOR DUMMIES. This anthology collects the first five issues of the black-and-white MOONSTONE MONSTERS series, with each of the stories falling into the categories of werewolves, mummies, vampire vixens, ghosts and sea creatures. And utter crap.
It’s hard to know where to begin to chart this volume’s failings, but needless to say, the individual tales – 18 in all, three of which are new – are either predictable, nonsensical or both, not to mention plotless and pointless. I don’t mind predictable so much since most horror follows a well-established formula, but nonsensical is more difficult to forgive or overcome. When you have bad, underwritten scripts that leave you scratching your head or rolling your eyes, not even great art can save it.
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.
Related posts:
- UNIVERSAL MONSTERS coming back to comics
- 999: Twenty-Nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense
- Doomed
- Happy Halloween!
- BOOK WHORE >> 8.30.05
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Well this worries me. Moonstone is putting out the new Buckaroo Banzai comic book. Fortunately, it will be scripted by Earl Mac Rauch, but who knows what that means for the art, or the editorial decisions.
They have a lot of comics based upon known properties, including THE PHANTOM, SHERLOCK HOLMES and KOLCHAK, but having read any other Moonstone titles, I can’t comment on their quality (or lack thereof).