Publisher: Dark Horse Comics

Writer: Paul Tobin, J. Torres, Dan Braun

Artist: Juan Ferreyra, Ron Salas, Peter Bagge

Release Date: 13th August 2014

This would be my first issue of Dark Horse’s acclaimed horror anthology, Creepy. For some reason, it always seemed to slip through the cracks when I was putting together my monthly ‘reading’ list. Too many books, not enough time I guess. However, I found myself drawn like a moth to a flame – or perhaps like a fly to a decaying corpse – to this particular issue, based solely on the prospect of seeing the team behind the frankly amazing Colder (Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra, for the uninitiated among you) combining for another horror yarn. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed.

Ferreyra and Tobin’s story takes a bleak, twisted look at ‘The Human Condition’, and once again shows the brilliant partnership between Paul’s sharp, intelligent writing and Juan’s beautifully detailed yet utterly disturbing artwork. With most of these stories, to delve too deeply into plot synopsis’ is to spoil the impact of the story themselves, but suffice to say that if you like the cover to this issue, you’re going to absolutely love this wonderful little slice of horror.

The other two stories vary slightly in quality, with ‘Arrangement of Skin’ providing a chilling look at taxidermy, while ‘The Duel of the Monsters’ seems to struggle slightly under the weight of its own premise, not quite delivering on the seemingly cant-miss Werewolf versus Vampire concept. That said, both are undoubtedly beautiful to look at, utilising a somewhat ‘dated’ artistic style – but in a good way.

One of the things I particularly liked about the format of Creepy was the change in tone from strip to strip. You have the main stories, each tackling horror in a fairly head-on manner, but these are broken up by light-hearted, humorous one-page strips featuring “The Creepy Family”, serving as almost a pallet cleanser between each horror ‘course’. A brilliant move, and one that made the anthology format flow much smoother than I’ve experienced in countless similar titles in the past.

Overall, while I’ll freely admit that I was only really here for Tobin and Ferreyra, the quality of the structure and the intriguing stories on display mean that I’m going to make damn sure Creepy doesn’t slip through the cracks again. Dark Horse horror at its absolute finest – and that’s definitely saying something.

Rating: 4/5

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The writer of this piece was: Craig Neilson (aka Ceej)

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