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

Comic Review: The White Suits issues #1-3

THE WHITE SUITS #1
Writer: Frank Barbiere

Artist: Toby Cypress

Cover Artist: Toby Cypress
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime
Dark Horse

Publication Date: February 19, 2014

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 24061 0 00111

Preview
Mysterious killers dressed in white, they savaged the Cold War Russian underworld—then disappeared. Now they have resurfaced in New York, leaving a trail of dead mobsters. In this bloody wake, an amnesiac and an FBI agent search for the answer to a single question: Who are the White Suits?
* Debuted in the award-winning Dark Horse Presents.
* Violent noir action from Frank Barbiere (Blackout) and TobyCypress (Blue Estate, Predator).

THE WHITE SUITS #2
Writer: Frank Barbiere

Artist: Toby Cypress

Cover Artist: Toby Cypress
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime
Dark Horse

Publication Date: March 19, 2014

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 24061 0 00211

Preview
The White Suits, scourges of Russia’s underworld, have declared war on New York’s organized crime. But NYC’s crime overlords have their own army of Russian mercenaries hunting the Suits, with FBI agent Sarah Anderson and the former Suit known as Prizrak certain to be caught in the crossfire!

WHITE SUITS #3
Writer: Frank Barbiere

Artist: Toby Cypress

Cover Artist: Toby Cypress
Genre: Action/Adventure, Crime
dark Horse

Publication Date: April 16, 2014

Format: FC, 32 pages; Miniseries

Price: $3.99

UPC:7 61568 24061 0 00311

Preview

Mob war erupts in Chinatown! In a desperate final gambit, New York’s criminal underworld and their Russian mercenaries draw the murderous White Suits into a deadly ambush, with ex-Suit Prizrak and FBI agent Sarah Anderson as hostages. With no way out but death, who will survive the “Kill Box”?
* Violent noir action from Frank Barbiere (Blackout, Five Ghosts) and Toby Cypress (Blue Estate, Predator).

I was in the mood for some saw-toothed action when I decided to read the first three issues of this Dark Horse mini-series, and by god I got it.

Set in New York City, the various gangs have come under siege. An almost mythical threat has arrived on the grimy streets, known as the White Suits. As ruthless as the organized crime of the world's largest city is, they're downright fluffy soft compared to the buzzsaw-caliber quickness by which the White Suits decimate their numbers.

Amid the violence is a down-and-out FBI agent named Anderson, whose father was killed by the White Suits, and she's sworn revenge against them by any means, which puts her at odds with her bosses and sees her enlisting the help of a man named Prizrak, an amnesiac mercenary once associated with the mysterious killers.

The story feels murky at times, much like Prizrak's memory, with no hint of motivation behind the White Suits. They can mow down the gangs, so they do, while the gangs scramble like ants to keep from being trampled. And when mercenaries are brought in to protect the gangs, I immediately thought of Kick-Ass and how the Motherfucker got a bunch of mercenaries to protect him against Kick-Ass and the cops. Only in White Suits, the consequences feel a little more rooted in reality, albeit a blood-soaked one.

As for the artwork, it has a manic vibe that makes each three-color page just electric to the eyes. If you're hardwired for the clean, crisp lines of superhero comics, White Suits is going to beat your expectations into the dirt with 2X4 wrapped in barbed-wire. And when the violence hits manic levels, the illustrations take on an almost psychotropic quality.

I'm really curious to see how the fourth and final issue plays out on this revenge thriller. It has a lot to answer for in that one issue, so I'm hoping it pulls things off without leaving too many loose strings.

4 1/2 Sheep

Gef Fox

Wag The Fox: a den for dark fiction