Hemlock Ave - Book One: Hopes & Nightmares (2024) - Horror Graphic Novel Review

 

Hemlock Ave is a new horror anthology, which is a spin-off of author Richard T. Wilson's Halloween Girl series. Hemlock Ave - Book One: Hopes & Nightmares is the first in this series and is made up of four different short stories. Wilson has stated that the pandemic of recent years was a big influence on this new book, saying '...that woke our souls up in some very dramatic ways.'

An anthology always needs a good theme to it, and here, the titular Hemlock Ave is the theme. This appears to be a strange place between life and death where people are given the option to confront their life choices. It starts with 'Last Exodus' in which a man has been dared to go touch a certain tombstone in a graveyard at midnight. On his way he encounters a strange woman who decides to tell him a story about the man who rests beneath the grave he had been dared to touch. The lettering and illustration for this was by Pietro Vaughan, the art was crisp and clear with its black and white starkness. The story itself felt like something out of The Twilight Zone, I liked how it managed to fit in both references to 9-11 as well as the concentration camps of the second world war in an interesting way. My only real complaint would be that some of the panels looked stretched in odd directions, but other than that this was a fun first story.
Next up was 'Rose (By Any Other Name)'. This one had art and lettering by Shahed.R and have to say it was very impressive. I loved the shading on this, and thought the people drawn here looked almost photo realistic, very cool. This one had a middle aged woman who seeks refuge at a nearby house after her car breaks down during a heavy rainstorm. Speaking with the two women who live in there, she talks of regrets of how she lived her life, and is faced with the prospect of maybe being able to start over again.

Penultimate take is the sweet 'Bus Stops & Bacon', again with fantastic art by Shahed.R. In this one a young boy waits at a bus stop, intending to meet his stern father. Instead he meets a strange women who explains to him that he can't be responsible for other peoples happiness and that is up to them.

Finally is 'Free Range', with the art back to Pietro Vaughan. A man who was forced to raise himself due to uncaring parents is given the opportunity to confront what his perceived satisfying childhood was really like.

I thought the format here worked well, having a lost character encountering a strange female who seemed to know more about them than possible worked well. I also liked that the horror was understated. Characters are forced to confront their pasts, but often with understanding and compassion shown to them. I thought the art of Shahed.R was astounding, characters were so expressive and natural looking, making for panels that were a joy to look at. Throughout there was a good message given, with the supernatural used as a way to bring the humanity out of the characters. Hemlock Ave - Book One: Hopes & Nightmares is available for pre-order (from here), and includes autographed copies by the author. The book releases on April 26th.

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Wyatt Earp: Hollywoodland (2022) - Zombie Horror Graphic Novel Review

Wyatt Earp: Hollywoodland is a horror graphic novel that uses real life characters within its story. There was an interesting forward to this that talks about how Hollywood has glamorised people in movies that were really not good people in real life. An example used is of all the cowboys that have appeared in Westerns who were based on real people, like Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid, and Wyatt Earp. This graphic novel may well be fantastical, but it also makes an attempt to explain that these legendary people really were not as great as the legends of Hollywood would have you believe.

This takes place in America during the prohibition years, after three Hollywood stars end up dead in mysterious circumstances, a film bigwig decides to hire Wyatt Earp to investigate. While the man is now eighty years old, it is hoped that this icon's involvement will calm down investors. To assist him he is provided with an actuary named Eddie. At first Wyatt has no interest, but after an attempt on his life by a zombie assailant, he decides he needs to get to the bottom of what is happening. He discovers that many iconic historical people from the days of the Wild West have somehow been brought back to life as intelligent undead, and slowly but surely he shoots his way up the chain of command, hoping to find and stop the mastermind behind it all.

I like fiction that melds truth within the story, and that is what happens here. Learning afterwards that in real life that Earp died at the age of eighty, it was interesting to follow him around on what to be his final year alive. Of course the walking dead aren't real, but there insertion here perversely results in sowing the seeds of Hollywood's obsession with Westerns. While a detective investigation at its heart, mainly this story (written by Brian W. Donnelly) revolves around Earp as he follows a series of simple clues and gets in battles with lots of notable Wild West zombies. There wasn't much variation with this serving as a series of one on one gun fights, with the eventual revelation of who is behind it perfectly fine, if not that exciting. This may be because I'm not clued in to historical figures of the Wild West, heck, I didn't even realise Wyatt Earp himself was a real person before reading this!

This features pen, inks and art by J.C Grande and makes much uses of light and shadow, with characters constantly half in the shade. It leads to some expressive and moody artwork, but on occasion I did struggle to make out what was happening, especially during the more action packed scenes. There is a lot packed into this 94 page graphic novel, essentially commenting on what the forward was talking about. This goes for quality over quantity, and these undead may have a taste for flesh but are restrained in their needs, still leading to some fun scenes of violence. Wyatt Earp: Hollywoodland currently has a successful Kickstarter going, which can be found here.

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Halloween Girl - Book One: Promises to Keep (2022) - Horror Graphic Novel Review

It was back in May of this year when I first heard of Richard T. Wilson's Halloween Girl. Now, just in time for Halloween, comes Halloween Girl - Book One: Promises to Keep, which brings together the first seven issues combined into a 170 page graphic novel. I already covered my thoughts on the first three issues previously so I will try and talk more about the graphic novel as a whole.

Eighteen year old ghost Charlotte is the protagonist of the series. Despite being dead she discovers she has powers that let her combat supernatural evil in the world. Her son Luke has been kidnapped by a shady secret society known as The Hollow, and so Charlotte finds herself forced into going up against them. On her side is the enigmatic Poe, together they take on a terrible power that might have made a deal with the devil himself...

Despite being a unified story there were five different artists used over the run. Mostly the art is similar in style, with the exception of Pietro Vaughan whose stark black and white really stood out for his entry in Chapter 3: The Forgotten Boy. Almost my favourite art in the whole book, though I really loved the messy shading style Eleonora Garofolo used in the final two chapters. That one featured so much detail, and the shading was just perfect.