Horror Comic Haul #1
I’ve always had an “on again, off again” relationship with comics my whole life. I’m basically John Wick and every 3-4 years the comic book shop comes to my house, kills my dog and then I have to dig up all my old gold doubloons from my basement bunker and fill out another pull list of comics. The most recent event that has me thinking “Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back” was the Fayetteville Comic-Con. The smell of dusty old comics, boxes and boxes of plastic covered comics and drooling over classic Silver Surfer covers had me feeling nostalgic so I headed to my local comic shop, The Dragon’s Lair, and just like that, I’m back into comics and because I write about horror here at Horror Bound…
Welcome to Horror Bound’s Horror Comic Haul where we dive deep on the best and brightest horror comics available at your local comic shop. In this entry, we will be covering issue #1 of Image Comics’ Nita Hawes Nightmare Blog as well as issue #1 of DC/Hill House Comics’ Refrigerator Full of Heads.
Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog #1
The Fire Next Time, Part I: Walking into Shadows
There’s an old saying that says “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” and it’s clear that this saying was created before the existence of comic books. I most certainly judged this one by its cover from Spawn artist Jason Shawn Alexander as I snatched it from the shelves as quickly as humanly possible. A cell phone exploding with all sorts of tentacled and horned demon monsters? Sign me up!
This issue opens up with an introduction of the titular main character Nina Hawes as she walks through the gritty streets of Baltimore, Maryland (aka Bodymore, Murderland) and explains that it was once “the home of Edgar Allan Poe and Freddie Gray but now Baltimore is the home of demons”. A subtle noise and a suspicious shadow in a darkened alley leads to her pulling her gun from her purse only to be met by a gigantic winged, tentacled monster straight out of Lovecraft lore.
After this brief opening we are met with tons of world building which, fortunately for the reader, does not shy away from the horror in the slightest. We are introduced to what appears to be the main villain, Corson, a demon who walks into a recording studio and pukes up tentacled howler monkey demons that rip everyone to shreds. Another character we meet is Detective Harden, who has been assigned to the case and appears to be dealing with some demons of her own and of course we meet Nita Hawes and her Nightmare Blog where Baltimore locals are encouraged to submit tales of demon encounters so Nita can assist with the help of her ghostly companion. Now a ghostly companion is an often used troupe, but this one is different, it’s her younger brother who is just constantly bleeding out of the head from a gunshot wound.
The art is fantastic, the horror is present, especially in the gore category and the story building feels like it is setting up for something huge and extravagant. It plays out more like a horror series than a movie as the narrative shifts between multiple characters, each as interesting as the next. I, for one, am excited for next months’ issue.
Refrigerator Full of Heads #1
Return to Brody Island
I bought Nightmare Blog based solely on the cover, I bought Refrigerator Full of Heads based solely on the title. I’ve been informed that this is basically a sequel to another Joe Hill/DC Comics collaboration, Basketful of Heads about a mythical Norse axe that if used to decapitate a person, their head will remain alive while the body dies. Seems pretty crazy but what else would you expect from the mind of Joe Hill?
The story opens with a home invasion where a group of thugs in ski masks are looking for the legendary Dagger of Fenrir, a blade from Norse mythology that paralyzes anyone stabbed with it.
It’s a bloody, violent bit of foreshadowing that will have you asking more questions than it answers. The story then shifts to the present, aka Brody Island, Maine in the summer of 1984 and we meet the Marshalls, a young couple who has come to town so Mrs. Marshall (Arlene) , a writer, can finish her newest novel. There’s a glimpse of the titular refrigerator, a run in with a biker gang that leads to a life saving dive into the ocean where Mrs. Marshall catches a glimpse of a glowing axe under the water which sets up the absolutely bat shit crazy end of this issue that I just cannot spoil for you. Get a copy and check it out, you won't be disappointed.
Now if the pacing and “feel” of Nightmare Blog felt more like the opening of a Netflix series, the first issue of Refrigerator Full of Heads felt a whole hell of a lot more cinematic. Instead of feeling like the first episode of a 20 episode arch, it felt like the first 20 minutes of a major motion picture. I’ve read it a few times already and each time I do, I pick up on an extra little nugget of information I didn’t notice the previous time I read it, and it’s doing nothing but making me more and more interested in what is going on. Not to mention the insanity of the last few pages has me hooked and I cannot wait until next month’s issue.
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