Comic Review: Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out #3

Grindhouse: Drive In, Bleed Out #3

Writer: Alex de Campi

Artist: Chris Peterson

Colorist: Nolan Woodard

Cover Artist: Francesco Francavilla
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publication Date: March 25, 2015

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 26746 4 00511
Dark Horse Comics

PREVIEW

Deputy Garcia is back, and this time the shotgun-toting Latina is sporting the latest in badass cybernetic enhancements! But can her new augmentations prepare her for the giant, man-eating ticks that now rise from a small southern town’s mysterious blood lagoon?

* Look for Alex de Campi on Archie vs. Predator in 2015!

If you love pulpy horror and you're somehow not reading this series, you're missing out. This time around, we actually are treated to a sequel of sorts for the first time with a return of Deputy Garcia from Grindhouse's inaugural tale, “Bee Vixens from Mars.”

Garcia and her friend, Wayne, are on a road trip to visit Wayne's crotchety old homophobe father to let him know he's fixing to get married … to the man he loves, Sergei, who happens to be a whiz at fixing Garcia up with some bionic gizmos to get her back up and running after getting shellacked by those honey-dipped demons. She's still got just the one eye though, but the eye-patch suits her.

And while Wayne's dad might be as fun to be around as an ornery alley cat, it's a far cry from the stressful ordeal Garcia had to contend with back home. At least the neighbors are nice. And there's a fishin' hole down the road—oops, that's a literal blood bath now on account of the slaughterhouse. Oh, and those giant ticks creeping up out of the blood might be an issue too.

“Blood Lagoon” takes a little while to kick into high gear, but we do need a few pages after all to get a feel for the relationship between Wayne and his dad and how that'll play out when all hell breaks loose. And it does hurt that Chris Peterson and Nolan Woodard do one heckuva job rendering the illustrations with this electric vibe of blues and purples, until the bugs show up and then it's a whole lotta red. And I want that monster truck!

There's a part in the book that feels a bit too cartoonish, even for a grindhouse-themed comic book, but still it was enough for me to shake my head. But not nearly enough to kill the story's momentum and dampen the overall enjoyment. If you are curious about the series, trust me when I say you need to find “Bee Vixens” and then come back to this right quick, because part two is gonna be a barnburner.

I hope.

4 Sheep

Gef Fox

Comic Review: GRINDHOUSE: DRIVE IN, BLEED OUT #2 Dark Horse

GRINDHOUSE: DRIVE IN, BLEED OUT #2
Writer: Alex de Campi

Colorist: Giulia Brusco
Genre: Horror, Action/Adventure
Publication Date: December 24, 2014

Dark Horse

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 26746 4 00211
preview

Scalped artist R. M. Guéra!
When you think of comics that really bring the Christmas spirit, put Grindhouse at the top of your naughty list! We’re leaving sex and violence under your tree this year, as the desolate plains of the West fall victim to a terrifying quartet of cold-hearted demons, in “Slay Ride”’s gory climax!
* The nasty holiday gem “Slay Ride” concludes!
* Alex de Campi (Smoke/Ashes, Lady Zorro) is back with a vengeance!
* R. M. Guéra (Scalped, Django Unchained) paints the snow red!

Shayla, when last we saw her, was being buried alive in the snow while demonic children watched on with fiendish glee. Well, sufficed to say the brash anti-hero ain't going out like that, so where does the second half of Slay Ride go once she's free and back to whooping the snow demons?

I actually mistook this as an ongoing series, unlike the first run's 2-parter format, but this was the second part and a grand finale to this story, and it wasted no time in getting right back into the action and setting up the final showdown. It's where that showdown pays off on an emotional level that I didn't see coming, though.

I had my heart set on a more visceral, bare-knuckled free-for-all with a demonic bent to cap off this storyline, but the focus wound up having a more emotional, more familial core to it. In a strict story sense, it gave me what I needed more than what I wanted. Shayla was a gloriously bad-ass, defiantly flawed character, and if any of Alex de Campi's characters make a comeback in future issues, I hope it's her.

With Slay Ride #1 & #2 in the books, I now find myself chomping at the bit for whatever fiendishly pulpy extravaganza de Campi and company have cooked up next.

Review: Grindhouse: Slay Ride #1

4 1/2 stars

Gef Fox

Wag the Fox

Comic Review: Grindhouse: Slay Ride #1

GRINDHOUSE: DRIVE IN, BLEED OUT #1
Writer: Alex de Campi

Artist: R. M. Guéra

Colorist: Giulia Brusco

Cover Artist: R. M. Guéra
Dark Horse

Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Publication Date: November 12, 2014

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price:$3.99

UPC:7 61568 26746 4 00111

Preview

Grindhouse is back from the dead, and it’s meaner, badder, and dirtier than ever! In the first of four new exploitation opuses,Scalped’s R. M. Guéra joins series writer Alex de Campi for “Slay Ride,” a brutal holiday tale of revenge and supernatural terror in the driven snow!

* We’re back, just in time to celebrate the holidays in bloody style!

* From the perverted mind of Alex de Campi (Smoke/Ashes, Lady Zorro)!

* World-renowned artist R. M. Guéra (Django Unchained,Scalped)!

I was already made a fan of Alex de Campi's gory greatness that is Grindhouse, but now that it's back this month and has it's new story taking place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada? Well, shoot...I'm a double fan now.

Grindhouse goes for the jugular yet again too, with de Campi's high-octane horror featuring a father and son murdered in the opening pages, then the elderly cancer-ridden Mother Wolf facing down a malevolent trio of misfits with only the estranged daughter of Papa at her side.

In Grindhouse's ghosts of Christmas past (the previous issues, of which I clumsily refer), the stories were all done in two-parters, but this time around Slay Ride will be a four-parter, which should give de Campi more elbow room for some character development—not that you need heaping piles of that in exploitation fare. Actually, this doesn't feel like the kind of gritty, hard-nosed 70s-style grindhouse, but more in keeping with the supernatural, hack-and-slash kind of stuff that came along with the advent of VHS in the 80s. It's blood, and weirdness, and jump scares, and mounting dread, and a bevy demonic debauchery.

With R.M. Guera offering some gripping illustrations and Giulia Brusco adding top-notch coloring, the visual impact of this first issue is about as great as a fan of the series could ask for. Alex de Campi had mentioned in an interview back in May (http://www.ismellsheep.com/2014/05/interview-alex-de-campi-comic-book.html) that she had artists in mind for what is ostensibly Season Two of Grindhouse. And in these early goings, it looks like its paid off with great choices.

Now, with the frenzied manner with which this first issue left off, I can only salivate at the chance to read the ensuing issues to find out just how in the heck the folks of this idyllic little snowscape can survive the scourge of the Clown, the Man Who Walks, and the Overseer.

Reviews: Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight

4 1/2 Sheep

Gef Fox

Wag The Fox

Interview: Alex de Campi - comic book horror writer

From gore and sex to My Little Pony, writer Alex de Campi can do it all! Gef and I talked with her about her Dark Horse hit Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight along with some future projects. 

Gef: I'm no expert on comics, but it seems a press like Dark Horse is willing to feature subject matter that DC and Marvel might be too timid for, but when it comes to Grindhouse and your vision for the series, even they were a little blanched at first. How much convincing was needed to let you and the artists you've worked with on the series thus far pour a bucket of gasoline over the exploitation genres and light the match?
Alex: Marvel might be too timid for it, but DC's Free Comic Book Day comic had some female character's screaming face cut off and stapled to the chest of another character soooo yeah, DC would probably be down with it. In fact, one of the reasons I wrote Grindhouse was I was so tired at the ham-fisted co-opting of exploitation tropes into mainstream superhero comics as a way of making them seem more “real” and “relevant”. I wanted exploitation to be fun again, and not always about horribly mutilating an innocent female character. I mean, any fule kno, you only mutilate the sluts or the evil ones. (I kid. Partly.)

But yes. That is the secret origins of Grindhouse. Bring sex and gore back to something I can enjoy! More sex! More exciting gore! Not horribly offensive to women / all from a white male gaze! Make it gleefully schlocky and fun again!


Gef: With each two-issue story, Grindhouse apparently has a checklist of genres it is tearing through. Was there one in particular that you couldn't wait to dive into? Is there one in particular you hope to highlight in the future?
Alex: I had way more fun than I was expecting to with the summer camp slasher, Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll. It's like some unholy melange of Incubus, Sixteen Candles, and The Dirty Dozen. There's a reason why the summer camp slasher is the high plateau of horror genres. I mean, they were all a ton of fun. The kiss at the end of Prison Ship Antares (and the shower scene at the beginning) are two moments I just love. Page 1, Panel 3 of Bee Vixens.. yeah, that was fun. That whole page was fun.
In terms of genres I can't wait to do? The space sexploitation story (Barbarella, etc). The blaxploitation story (Coffy, Cleopatra Jones). A straight up giallo/paranoia-slasher. My Christmas Annual story, which I need to finish!


Gef: Nearly every story in the series has its fair share of humor to go along with the horror, except for Bride of Blood. Is that a case where any hint of levity would have diminished the emotional impact you were aiming for?
Alex: I have many things to say about rape as a device in comics. But my short answer here is I wanted the rape to be lengthy and physically uncomfortable/unenjoyable for the reader. This isn't a shortcut to character actualisation. This isn't a lazy footnote to tag a male character as “the baddie”. This isn't so the male character can scream “noooo” in silhouette over the broken and mutilated body of PoC / teenage / gay / female (circle as appropriate) team member and then go on a vengeance spree.
And, c'mon, there were a couple good lines and a good twist-scare at the end. No chuckle? No chuckle.
Part of me ultimately wondered if the story being medieval was too distancing. What if she were a young freshman who got gang-raped at college? Would that have been more uncomfortable for people? Because that book, the point of it (like all the good rape revenge films) was to make you uncomfortable.


Gef: How many fingers do I need to cross in order for "Swamp Tramp" to become a real thing?
Alex: Oh, we definitely want that to happen. It was on the list for Grindhouse Season Two, which is still in negotiation. I love Luca Pizzari's work and have wanted to do a project with him for some time.


Gef: I imagine scheduling is one of the big determining factors when you have a series that features multiple artists. How trying was it find the right artist for the right story? With the prospect of future Grindhouse stories, do you have an artist wishlist in your hip pocket for specific stories?
Alex: One of the good things about two-issue stories is the brevity opens you up to a much larger pool of artists. Many artists who could have never done a 6-issue book, could fit in two issues with a long deadline. I finished all the scripts by March 2013, and the first issue didn't come out until October.
I had a pretty easy time finding artists for the Grindhouse stories, and I'm immensely pleased with how each one of them delivered.
As far as Season Two, yes, I have artists I very much want to approach for certain stories. Some I've already had brief chats with.


Gef: Along with writing comics, you're also squeezing in time to write your first novel. How much of a gear shift is it when focusing on a different medium?
Alex: It's a huge shift. Comics, I don't revise that much. I think over the story for a couple months, sketch out some notes/breakdowns, then I sit down and write an issue in a week or less. The novel, holy cats, no. I get these awful, jumbled, leaden words down just to beat a path through the emptiness and I hate myself for how clumsy the phrasing is. I know in my heart that when I type the last sentence of the novel's first draft, then the real work begins.
  

Sharon: What is the nerdiest thing you own?
Alex: Hm. I don't own that much nerdy stuff. I also don't own that much nice stuff, and half my life has been in boxes for almost a decade now due to poverty / living in tiny apartments / general life turmoil. But! You know the bug-typewriter in the film NAKED LUNCH? I have touched it. It is in a good friend's home.

Sharon: Does it feel weird to write a My Little Pony Story and then turn around and chop off penises in Grindhouse? <G> Have you ever wanted to have Pinky Pie go into beast mode and eviscerate someone?
Alex: I had totally wrapped the Grindhouse scripts about six months before I wrote Pony, so there was a clear delineation in my mind. Also, I have to say, horror and comedy share a lot of similar pacing tricks.

Pinkie Pie using Twilight as a magic machine gun in the season finale of Season One was... one of my all-time favourite Pony moments.

Sharon: How many languages do you know? Which is your first?
Alex: American is my first language. I'm fluent also in English. I can stumble along in French and Spanish, and I used to know a fair amount of Italian. I can curse in Cantonese and Tagalog. 

Sharon: If you could own any piece of art in the world what would it be?
Alex: There was a huge, wall-sized Basquiat painting up at auction in London just before I moved to the US. I wanted that with the fire of a thousand suns. And, of course, the modernist urban mansion to display it in. 



Sharon: What can we be on the lookout for you in the second half of 2014?

Alex: I am not quite going to achieve my goal of having a book out every month of 2014...June is my letdown. (Though my supernatural thriller webcominc, Valentine, still updates every Wednesday at Thrillbent and it's free! Go check it out). In July, my Lady Zorro mini from Dynamite comes out – a four-issue swashbuckling extravaganza where hot, shirtless men are saved; indigenous peoples are badass and awesome; bad people are cleaved in the head with axes, and Lady Zorro doesn't fall out of her bra ONCE. Wonderbra has nothing on the 1820s, people.

In November, my next project with Dark Horse debuts in Dark Horse Presents #4: a supernatual horror series with Jerry “The Greatest Artist Ever (And Also Nicest Dude)” Ordway (seriously his pages make me cry, they are so good). It's called Semiautomagic, but I tend to refer to it as The Alice Creed Stories. If you liked Hellblazer? Well, this is nothing like Hellblazer, but you might like it too.

Check out Valentine over at Thrillbent. It is an amazing way to read a comic.

About the Author:
website-twitter
Alex de Campi loves explosions and obscure film noir. She hates writing bios. She writes the comics SMOKE/ASHES and GRINDHOUSE for Dark Horse. She has directed a bunch of music videos for indie bands famous and not so famous. Rumours that she was the product of a secret Mi6 programme to create a race of genetically modified super-agents are, alas, entirely without foundation. The rumours that she snuck across the Russian border and spent many louche years in Hong Kong are completely true.

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: Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight (Bride of Blood) #5, #6

GRINDHOUSE: DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #5
Writer: Alex de Campi

Artist: Federica Manfredi

Colorist: Federica Manfredi

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

Publication Date: February 05, 2014

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 22741 3 00511

Brace yourself for Grindhouse’s most disturbing tale yet! On what should be the happiest day of Branwyn’s life, atrocity beyond comprehension strikes. With everything she’s ever loved destroyed by reavers, all she has left is revenge, in “Bride of Blood”!
* Cover by Francesco Francavilla!
* Art by Hack/Slash and True Blood’s Federica Manfredi!
* Eisner nominee Alex de Campi (Smoke/Ashes)!
Preview

GRINDHOUSE: DOORS OPEN AT MIDNIGHT #6
Writer: Alex de Campi

Artist: Federica Manfredi

Colorist: Federica Manfredi

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

Publication Date:March 05, 2014

Format:FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price:$3.99

UPC:7 61568 22741 3 00611
Clad in her fallen brother’s armor, massacre survivor Branwyn vows to repay every drop of blood that was spilled during the slaughter of her wedding party. But her mission turns even more horrific than expected when the true authors of her torment are revealed in the grisly conclusion to “Bride of Blood”!
* Cover by Dan Panosian!
* Hack/Slash and True Blood’s Federica Manfredi brings the hurt!
* Eisner nominee Alex de Campi (Smoke, Ashes) will make you squirm!
Preview

Review #5/#6

Back in the 70s or maybe very early 80s, there was this exploitation film called I Spit On Your Grave. A rape/revenge film that's kind of built in cult status to the point where it's probably the rape/revenge film. It must have some measure of notoriety to earn a crap remake like most other horror properties of the 70s and 80s.

I mention this because "Bride of Blood" the two-issue tale in the Grindhouse series feels like high fantasy incarnation of that movie ... sort of.

It's Branwyn's wedding day, but when barbarians called Reavers attacked her husband-to-be ditches the wedding party, including his blushing--and bleeding--bride. She survives, but barely, and being the last in her family's lineage the fate of her kind rests with her. And when she's up and around again, she's out for blood.

I could say the first issue is pretty brutal, but if you are a reader that needs trigger warnings on subject matter like rape and violence against women in general, brutal might be an understatement. It's a direction I really didn't expect the Grindhouse series to go, but I will give them points for their willingness to push the boundaries of what their audience will read. Unlike the "Bee Vixens from Mars" and "Prisonship Antares", there is nothing fun about this two-issue story. It doesn't feel gratuitous to any offensive degree, but the winks and nods that came with the two previous stories in the series were glaringly absent. Granted, rape-revenge doesn't exactly lend itself to brevity.

As for the artwork, it felt a little uneven in spots. Most of the drawings and coloring are really well done, especially in capturing the quiet scenes or ramping tension, but there are action scenes that just lack vibrancy and fell kind of flat. Brownie points, however, for dressing Branwyn in her slain brother's suit of armor when she goes out to crack skulls, rather than truss her up in some skimpy gold bikini for the sake of a few pages of cheesecake.All in all, it's a straight-forward, action-packed, blood-soaked revenge story.

3 Sheep

Gef Fox

Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction

Comic Review: Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #2 Bee Vixens From Mars

Grindhouse: Doors Open at Midnight #2
Bee Vixens From MarsWriter: Alex de Campi

Artist: Chris Peterson

Colorist: Nolan Woodard

Cover Artist: Dan Panosian
Genre: Action/Adventure, Horror
Publication Date: November 06, 2013

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

Age range: 18 

UPC:7 61568 22741 3 00211

Dark Horse Comics

Just because Grindhouse #1 was the most messed-up comic you’ve read this year, don’t think #2 can’t top it! The bee vixens’ queen is ten feet of pissed-off buzzing stinger, and the only one left to stop her is shotgun-wielding, motorcycle-straddling Deputy Garcia. Good thing she don’t take no bull!

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

Preview

Dang. I was hoping for more out of this killer bees story-line, but it looks like it's a two-issue run. At least this issue offered a balls-to-the-wall showdown. Okay, all but one of the characters in this comic are women, so "balls" may not be a great choice of words. Still, it doesn't hold back by any measure.

Garcia is a one-woman army against a bevy of bee vixens in this one. Looks like ol' Sheriff Jimmy is benched, since the hymenopterous hotties are about to sacrifice him to their queen. She might not have superpowers, but Garcia does have a motorbike have apparently heels on command, plus a whole lot of shotgun shells.

Okay, seriously, this book is like a tricked-out cross between The Stepford Wives and Planet Terror, and I just gobbled up each electrifying page. And the little baby vixens were sickening in their cuteness. The illustrations might not always be as crisp as I'd like them to be, but the color scheme is just perfect. The overall tone and pace of this little two-issue story is electrifying.

Now, where the Grindhouse series goes from here, I have no idea. But there are a couple of teaser ads at the back of this issue that have me very eager read the likes of Zombie Rapture and Swamp Tramp. Please tell me those are real and are on the way.

If you like pulp with no brakes and no apologies, you had better check this one out.

Review: Grindhouse #1

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