Horror Comic Haul #5: My Date with Monsters
Perhaps the best part about being a bonafide internet horror critic is that this title provides credentials and these credentials make me a trusted aficionado for horror. For an internet troll like me that means I can straight up lie about stuff and it means people have to believe me because I am an official, professional horror blogger…
Horror has its roots in mystery. This is perhaps most evident in the proto-slasher sub-genre of Giallo where the killer was most often represented as a black glove gripping a knife and the viewer was left to figure out who the killer was. As horror evolved, films grew from including elements of “whodunit” to other mysteries like “what the fuck is going on” and “who the hell made this shit?” The comic I will be covering in this week’s installment is all about mystery, so without further bullshittery…
Welcome back 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 Aftershock Comics My Date with Monsters #1.
Before diving into the review of My Date with Monsters I just have to take a moment to mention that AfterShock comics is quickly becoming my absolute favorite comic publisher. Not only do they have the absolutely incredible Maniac of New York covered in the previous entry of this series but they have tons of other amazing looking titles that I am trying my hardest to not add to my pull list, plus some older titles that I am definitely ordering. From the body horror of I Breathed a Body to the Lovecraftian horror of Miskatonic, and everything in between. I’m certain more and more series will be covered here as so far, they are all great.
Come to think of it, My Date with Monsters dabbles more in the realm of intrigue than mystery because the first issue gives a lot of exposition and world building, leaving no question as to what is going on but asking the important question of, what will happen next?
The story is your standard tale of a group of scientists working for the government on a top secret project to weaponize dreams that goes horribly awry causing a hole to be punctured between our world, and the dream world, allowing nightmare creatures to enter into our realm and stalk humans. To deal with this, one of the scientists responsible for the accident, Risa Harumi, develops a drug called “Blanket” which is mandated by law for everyone to take, every where, every night and it works, on most people. For those who are able to dream they bring monsters into our world and often they are dealt with by the government’s nightmare squad who eliminates them with excessive force. The government also works to make people’s dreams come true, a practice that according to the trusted expertise of well credentialed professional scientists is guaranteed to close some of the rift between the world. In the case of Risa’s daughter Machi, she is protected by a giant troll monster from one of Risa’s dreams, Croak, who gladly eats all and any monsters that come into our world and threaten the Harumi family.
Now this is fairly straightforward, standard horror type of stuff, where the intrigue comes is the key to closing the rift between the human and nightmare worlds and that is Risa’s daughter Machi. You see, Risa loved her husband very much and they worked on the dream experiment together. Little did Risa know but her husband was pretty much a scumbag and his corruption caused the experiment to fail allowing the monster into our world who in turn killed him, right in front of his young daughter. Her dream, the dream that if it can come true will seal the hole between worlds is for her mother to find true love. I mean, what an absolutely insane premise for a story!
The first issue 100% world building. We meet Risa out on a failed date where we learn about Blanket. It gives us a glimpse of Risa fighting nightmare monsters with a sword and Croak eating them. We learn about Machi and her powerful dreams which Croak gladly eats. We learn about the government programs including The Nightmare Squad and their top recruit Genka Eguchi whose gun has been swapped with cologne as part of a government plan to get Risa to fall in love. In the last few panels of the comic one of Machi’s classmates falls asleep and a crazy monster with a kabuki masks appears and goes straight for her with the reader left hanging at the end of the To Be Continued. I am absolutely thrilled to see where this one goes. The world they have built and the insane premise laid out in the first issue has me wanting more. The first issue was released November 10th with the second being released December 15th, go to your local comic shop and get a copy today.
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