Comic Review: Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #7/#8 (Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll)

GRINDHOUSE: DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #7

Writer:Alex de Campi

Artist: Gary Erskine

Cover Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Dark Horse

Publication Date:April 02, 2014

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 22741 3 00711
Preview

Lace up for the “Flesh Feast”! Built on the site of a Puritan-era curse, Camp Oneida is better known today for vicious hockeymatches and even more intense pie fights! But when the Devil Doll returns to seduce and kill once more, the Oneida hockey girls make with the high-sticking!
* Gary Erskine (Judge Dredd, The Mask) joins the mayhem!
* Alex de Campi (Smoke, Valentine) brings her blood-and-guts A-game!

 GRINDHOUSE: DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #8

Writer: Alex de Campi

Artist: Gary Erskine

Colorist: Gary Erskine

Cover Artist: Dan Panosian
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Dark Horse

Publication Date:May 07, 2014

Format:FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price:$3.99

UPC:7 61568 22741 3 00811The knock-around teen gals of Oneida hockey camp discover that they may have taken on more than they bargained for, as they face off with an ancient, evil beast with a hunger for the sweet meat of virgins! And that calls for a shopping spree—for all the guns!

* Gary Erskine (Judge Dredd) brings on the bloodthirsty fun!
* Alex de Campi (Ashes) turns the blood and guts up to eleven!
Preview

Review #7/#8

What would happen if in the movie Meatballs, Bill Murray had to fend off a soul-sucking demon bent on devouring the blood of virgins? Well, unless Wes Anderson makes that movie anytime soon, I guess we'll never know. So we're all going to have to settle for the next best thing: Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll.

Renae is heading to private school when the summer's through, but because the school has a field hockey team, she's been shipped to Oneida Feild Hockey Camp to learn the ropes with the rest of the outcast gals. Might not be so bad, but darned if that camp isn't built on top of a satanic ritual site that was massacred by Native Americans. And exploritory fracking has unearthed the demon those silly Satanists were trying to raise in the first place.

The good news is that the demon has a pretty face. The bad news is that the demon has a second not-so-pretty face that it uses to chomp on its victims as soon as it seduces them. Or it's just really hungry.

So on a slow night with the girls stepping out, they wind up in a no-holds-barred showdown with the demon, and it's just terrific.

If you loved all those schlocky B-movies about summer camp from the 80s, and also have a penchant for those gruesome Satanic cult conspiracies from the same era, you're probably gonna love this two-parter as much as I did.

If there's a character that steals the show, it's not Renae. It's not even the demon. It's Tina, the cool-as-shit leader of the pack with her collar tee and aviator shades. She's the ambassador and head buttkicker for the gang of gals, and pretty much the queen bee. And no boys allowed, either. The topless pie fight should be a big giveaway there.

It's campy, yes. Pun intended. But it has some serious chills too, because that demon is scary as hell. Sure, the idea that these field hockey players are all too eager and apparently all too ready throw down with hellspawn strains credulity, but just remember the genre this thing is paying homage to while you're reading.

Throw in some very crisp--and at times icky--artwork from Gary Erskine, and Alex de Campi has a real winner with this one.

4 1/2 Sheep

Gef Fox

Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction

Comic Review (ARC): Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #1 Bee Vixens From Mars! part 1

GRINDHOUSE: DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #1 (FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA COVER)

Bee Vixens from Mars #1 by Alex de Campi
Writer: Alex de Campi

Artist: Chris Peterson

Colorist: Nolan Woodard

Cover Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Publication Date: October 02, 2013

Dark Horse

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price:$3.99

UPC:7 61568 22741 3 00111

Preview

Literature: overrated. Morality: expendable. Tonight is right for some over-the-top sex and violence! Bringing the flavor of midnight exploitation flicks to comics, Grindhouse delivers four two-issue gore operas, starting with “Bee Vixens from Mars,” pitting a one-eyed southern Latina deputy against lusty alien chicks bent on laying eggs in the entire male population!

* Covers by superstar artists Francesco Francavilla and Coop!

* First issue in a brand-new series of B-movie masterpieces!

* Eisner nominee Alex de Campi (Smoke, Ashes) is a writer to watch in 2013!

* Future arcs feature art from Simon Fraser (2000 AD), Federica Manfredi (True Blood, Hack/Slash), and Gary Erskine (The Mask)!
Take one of those schlocky sci-fi/horror flicks from the 60s and 70s, give it a 21st century coat of paint, and you've got Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight, the new series from Dark Horse.

All I had to see was Francesco Francavilla's cover art to know that I had to take this first issue for a test drive. And with the tag-line at the bottom ("Sleazeball Tested, Pervert Approved"), the book delivers what it promises, and has me reevaluating my moral code.

Right out of the gate, the B-movie quality of the story leaps off the page thanks to Chris Peterson's artwork, along with the coloring touches of Nolan Woodard. I mean, if the lurid imagery of the first page doesn't hammer home the kind of story you're about to read, the second page damn sure will.

With a couple of buxom besties, Betty and Arlene, going to town on a jar of honey scored from a hive atop Cemetery Hill, it seems pretty clear that it ain't the usual kind you find down at the Piggly Wiggly. And while they're caught up in the kind of bliss reserved for the wet dreams of fourteen-year-old boys, Betty's boyfriend, Jimmy, gets word from his one-eyed deputy of a disturbance up on Cemetery Hill.

Well, disturbance is one thing. An eviscerated corpse and something big and nasty waiting in the bushes is something else entirely.

If you have an affinity for those old movies like Kingdom of the Spiders or The Blob, chances are you're going to get a kick out of this book. Mind you, the cheesecake factor is quite high, so be ready for gratuitous cleavage shots and more puns and innuendo than you can shake a honey-dipped stick at. But if the title of the series isn't a big enough indicator for you, then you'd best not bother reading it.

4 Sheep

Gef Fox

Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction