I love horror comics, and the gorier and more mature the better. But there also has to be a good story attached to it and Satan’s Hollow, while only running for 6 issues, doesn’t push through the story fast enough to become much more than a shrug.
The story starts out in Blue Ash, Ohio where a cult supposedly murdered people in an old underground tunnel system 20 years ago. A couple moves back to this town only to discover things get weird pretty quickly. The story accelerates fairly fast towards the end without establishing any kind of memorable characters or plot twists. The story is fairly straightforward, B-Grade-Esque, and unfulfilling. The only redeeming value is the beautiful art and crazy monsters and gore.
Is it really worth reading this comic series? Sure, as 6 issues won’t take you more than an hour or so and can be at least entertaining to look at. The one-sided characters don’t help, and sadly the monsters from hell get little face time as having absolutely zero depth to them which is quite sad as I liked the designs quite a bit.
Zombies are everywhere these days, but Zenescope took a different approach. This is one of the most unique takes on zombies I have ever seen, and I wanted more. The comic starts off as a murder mystery. The narrator grabs your attention right away, literally, but tells you to pay attention or you might miss it. A man walks into a store to get wine and gets hit by a car. How is that related to zombies? The 4 issues have such fantastic pacing that it never misses a beat. You follow two detectives who pick up the case and actually are likable characters. They are both smart-mouthed and make funny cracks at each other so you are always entertained. This eludes the boring “cop dialog” that other comics tend to have.
After this initial setup, you will be hooked. You also follow a homeless-looking man who keeps his zombie daughter chained up. They keep flashing back to him to grab your attention. You want to know what’s happening here, children make everyone feel vulnerable. As the story picks up you meet a couple other people and then the zombies come. These zombies don’t just mindlessly eat everyone — they come back from the dead to avenge their death and then die. That has to be the most original use of zombies ever. Of course, New York City is freaking out, but later you find out what this homeless man is all about.
You also find out who’s narrating the story by the end of the 4th issue and it all comes to a satisfying close. It’s very hard to get an open and closed story that’s memorable in just 4 short issues, that takes talent and skill. The Waking may not surpass the popularity of The Walking Dead, which is remembered for its fantastic characters, but the originality is something that people should look into. The art is gorgeous by Zenescope standards, and surprisingly there’s full-on nudity here. Usually, they censor it somehow, but it was nice to see an adult-only comic actually be adult-only. The writing is spot-on and fantastic, I can’t really say anything bad except that I wanted more.
The first volume was just fantastic. It was short but sweet and hit an emotional high note towards the end. Fly is about drug addiction, but instead of a boring regular drug, this one lets you fly. Eddie has a psycho girlfriend after him who wants the drug while his friend, Francis, took over his dad’s empire and is one of the richest men in the world. In The Fall, Eddie finally escapes his wife but is now haunted by his current girlfriend’s past. We find out who the guy who burned down Francis’ parent’s home is in the first volume, and everything comes to a head.
The same clever writing and great art are still present. The Fall feels a bit more linear and less relatable than the first one, but it’s still great. Eddie’s life feels like it’s hit rock bottom and Francis ends up becoming a person we thought he wouldn’t. Their lifetime friendship is put to the test including a setup that Francis puts Eddie through. Francis is a smart guy and it turns out he’s sick in the head as well. Revenge can turn a good person into something evil, especially if it’s been eating away at them since childhood.
The Fall is pretty gory this time around, even more so than the first volume. There’s more violence and things just go from bad to worse quickly this time around and you really feel it. There’s tension in the air between all the characters and the final issue just lets all that explode. Fly is an amazing series and any fan who wants a sense of realism should pick this up. Of course, you should read the first, but the second doesn’t disappoint and has a satisfying ending.
It’s one thing to put your heart and soul into a comic. As a writer, when you interpret hardships of your own life — it becomes a whole ‘other beast. Fly is a new drug that allows you to fly. A boy and a girl fall in love as teenagers and later in life, she is haunting him and trying to kill him for more fixes of the drug. The comic is very linear focusing on only a few characters, but that’s okay. The story is gripping and the flashbacks and forwards are well-balanced so it all comes together very nicely in the final issue.
I was surprised the story could build like it could in just 5 short issues. The story starts at the very beginning as the two characters are kids and at the very end as adults. Each side works its way forward and backward until it meets in the middle of the final issue. The story is full of death, heroism, deceit, and heartbreak. You really get attached to these characters early on because they are very human and relatable. I felt I could personally connect with these characters and it hit home a bit for me, and I’m sure for many other readers. A lot of comics can’t do that because they tell stories about the awesome and powerful that no human being can relate to. The story is really about drug addiction, but they add a sci-fi twist to the drug making you fly. The actual story is about the writer and his wife’s meth addiction from when they were younger, the story is just gripping and very emotional. It just hits a note that a lot of comics can’t hit. Fly can do it on 5 issues when some can’t do it in volumes.
The art is fantastic. The colors are bright and vibrant without any messy penciling. The writing is superb and will keep you hooked from the very first page, the story doesn’t mess around, it gets straight to business. The covers are a bit misleading though because they show a very sexy female (the female antagonist) except she never looks like that in the comic, kind of weird. I also would have liked to see this story fleshed out more rather than crammed into 5 issues. What’s here is fantastic and any sci-fi fan or someone who wants to get away from the superhero stuff should take a look.
I love these sick and twisted horror comics, and Cancertown is some of the best I have read. You follow a man named Vince Morley who is diagnosed with a mental disorder where patients feel they are missing organs, they are already dead, or are missing limbs. He has a terminal brain tumor (that he calls Baby Meatfist) and he ends up slipping into this world of Cancertown. It all started when he met a homeless and deformed girl on the street. He gave her a blanket because his doctor said he should do nice things before he dies. Later another bum steals her blanket and he slips into Cancertown. The lore is pretty interesting, but the whole story feels convoluted and confusing until the end.
You are always left in the dark, but there are a lot of politics in Cancertown. Crosshair and Corpsegrinder are two sick players who both want Morley dead. Crosshair uses sentient eyeballs as weapons and pets, Corpsegrinder can grow bigger when people fear him. Later on, you mean the Piecemaker and Papercut. Papercut ends up being Morley’s ally, but who she is and where she came from are later told in the second volume. All the characters’ names are very unique and I love their personalities. You can slowly see Vince fall apart as he finds crossing points and slips back into the real world — usually waking up in places he can’t remember being. He wants to destroy Cancertown and everyone in it, but he wants to save this girl as well.
As you can see the story is really complicated and it is. The art is very dark and atmospheric if a bit messy. There’s a lot of gore and violence in this series and a lot of cursing. I was honestly more disturbed by Vince’s mental state than anything else. To see a terminally ill cancer patient fall apart at the seams is just horrifying. I just wish the story made a bit more sense because even at the end, I was still a bit confused about what was going on, but you end up forgiving it for the entertaining journey that Vince goes through.
Cancertown is a rare mature comic, it delves into the psyche of the human mind rather than superpowers. I loved watching Vince fall apart and was horrified at the same time. The characters are fantastic and so original, that you won’t put the comic down. If only the story wasn’t as mixed up and complicated, or just told better, but that’s the only issue I can pull from this series.
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