The Nightmare Brigade, Vol. 2: Into the Woods (Family Comic Friday)

Rarely after I read something do I go online to buy the sequel at full price. I mean, I've gone online to buy follow-up pieces before. But I'm a bargain hunter and I am willing to wait for a deal. Not this time!

Last month I read and reviewed the first volume of the French comic The Nightmare Brigade. As I was rushing to get the book returned to my local library, I didn't treat it as a Family Comic Friday offering. I saw it on the new shelf in the kids graphic novel section at the library. From reading the back cover I knew that this was going to be a different kind of read. But I didn't expect to be blown away by the amazing storytelling of the first volume!

When I got to the last page, I was incensed! The first volume, which collected English translations of the first two issues, closed on a cliff hanger! I couldn't believe it! The revelation made on that very last page is what made me research when the second book was coming out. Thankfully, I learned on the Papercutz website that my wait would only be a month. And as I said, I immediately ordered me a copy of book 2!

When we left the residents of the sleep clinic, amnesiac Esteban learned the truth about his missing past. To begin this volume, Esteban awakens to find he's home??? The man and woman who own the house claim to be his parents and that Esteban's time at Doctor Albert Angus' facility was a delusion. If that's all true, where are the rest of the Nightmare Brigade?

Heading to the clinic, Esteban finds it overrun by the performers of a strange circus. The clinic staff have been held hostage. Friends Tristan and Sarah are missing and Dr. Angus has been drugged and placed inside the sleep chamber. Even worse, the evil patient Leonard appears to be freed from his cell and running the whole operation!

As with volume 1, this book reprints 2 issues of the French series. With how trippy and twisty the first segment was, I was seriously wondering if my love for this series was premature. I had imagined this was what the movie Inception was like, if I had seen the film. But by the time I finished the second story, I realized that my wavering faith in The Nightmare Brigade was premature. 

I can personally attest that all of the mysteries that were put forth in the first volume are answered in this edition. I wondered if such a move by author Franck Thilliez might have been a mistake. Yet by the end of the book, there's about a half dozen more riddles that need solving. They've got me hooked again! But this time, I don't have a clue when they're gonna release book 3!

The horror!

Neither Amazon nor publisher Papercutz has a recommended age group for this book. Therefore, I'm going to have the recommendation myself. I would say based on the scary characters, the intense physiological mystery and the occasional mild swear, readers who are in grades 4th-7th should have no trouble enjoying this book. Though I wouldn't be surprised if young adult readers as well as parents and guardians become as obsessed as I am with the Nightmare Brigade. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Nightmare Brigade, Vol. 1: The Girl From Deja Vu

I've never seen the movie. But I from what I've heard and read about it, I really think that today's book is Inception for kids!

Dr. Angus runs a sleep clinic that specializes in nightmares. With the help of his wheelchair bound son Tristan and the mysterious Estoban, a doe-eyed boy with amnesia, Dr. Angus is able to dig deep into the psyche of his patients. Literally!

Thanks to computers, a special wrist device and hi-tech communications, Dr. Angus has created a way for the two boys to physically enter the dreams of others. In this dream world, Tristan can walk again and Estoban can walk through solid objects. Once the dreamer begins their REM cycle, the boys have 20 minutes to solve what is behind the patients nightmares or they will be trapped until the next sleep cycle. Good thing that every 1 minute of REM sleep in reality is equal to 1 hour of time in the dream realm.

The next patient Tristan and Estoban are assigned to help is a teen girl named Sarah. She's been having this recurring dream of being chased by angry adults. Each night Sarah dreams, the number of children dwindle. With only Sarah and a couple of other kids left, if the Nightmare Brigade doesn't act soon, Sarah might become trapped within her own mind. But why does Estoban, who has no idea who he really is, have a funny feeling that he's met Sarah before?

The Nightmare Brigade is a French comic story that began in 2018. Only this year has the series been translated into English and become available in the States thanks to Papercutz. It's been a while since I have really gotten into a new young adult series. But the Nightmare Brigade has really captured my attention! Gosh darn it that I'm going have to wait an unknown amount of time for the promised volume 2!

Being a French series, there's a few minor things that might not be appropriate for American young readers. In Sarah's dream, one of the remaining teenagers smokes. With how cigarettes and tobacco paraphernalia being erased from old TV shows and movies, such an act is considered unimaginable in today's family media. But in Europe, the fervor against tobacco is nowhere near that of Yankee opinions.

This series can also be considered a bit intense. There's a second story in this volume in which a boy has recurring nightmares of tourists turning to stone. There's a monstrous creature behind the scenes and that's one scary looking entity! I'm reminded of the Weeping Angels of Doctor Who!

Amazon rates this book as being for readers in grades 3-7. School Library Journal recommends this book for those in grades 5 and up. Based on the fear factor and some intense situations involving a one of the clinic's long-term care patients, I'm going say that I think the latter might be on to something with their reading recommendations. 

One of the most cerebral series for middle-schoolers I have read in a very long time. There's a ton of mysteries waiting to be explored with The Nightmare Brigade. I just hope Papercutz hurries up with Vol. 2. I've got to know what happens next! 

UPDATE: Thankfully, I won't have to wait long. Thanks to a trip to Papercutz' website, I leanrned Vol. 2 drops next month!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Comico Christmas Special (#1)

(Disclaimer: I happen to know and interact on a daily basis with one of the editors of this comic. I didn't know this until after I read it. I mention this not to drop names but to allow readers the chance to skip this review if they feel I may in some way be biased.)

Comico: The Comic Company operated from 1982-1990 until it went bankrupt. Following this restructure, Comico still operated but its scope was narrowed to the occasional publication before completely folding in 1997. In its heyday, Comico produced a variety of titles including such licensed properties as Hanna Barbera's Jonny Quest, Max Headroom, and Robotech. They also published some cult classic original titles such as Mage and Evangeline.

 I love the Jonny Quest series. I read the first two issues and was so impressed I snatched up the rest of the series when I came across them at a comic book show in late 2013. This summer I found this holiday title online on a steep discount. Impressed already by the company's work with Jonny, I decided to give this title a shot.

   This 1988 comic is an anthology of Christmas stories ranging from sci-fi to humor to suspense. The first tale involves a man who goes into cryogenic freeze 11 months out of the year in order to only live during the holiday season of Thanksgiving through New Year's. But when a young boy captures his heart, will the man decide to live out the rest of the year or skip to the next Christmas.

   Then a young boy is left alone on Christmas Eve when a mall Santa breaks into his home. Can this Santa prove he's the real thing thanks to the miracle of cloning?

   Our third tale is like Fahrenheit 451 meets Christmas. In the distant future, Christmas has been outlawed for 11 months out of the year, thanks to the oversaturation of the over-commercialization of the holiday. Now a young rebel joins up with a group of Pro-Christmas militants.  in hopes of restoring the joy of the holiday. This strange romp has some crazy moments but was very thought provoking. The only thing missing was Charlie Brown.

  Tale #4 takes place in Buffalo, New York. There a young boy on Christmas vacation decides that snow isn't so great when he's constantly battling it with his trusty snow shovel.

  The final tale is also based on the cover image. Here, a group of alien explorers on marooned on a devastated earth. When the search parties chief researcher decides to write to Santa for a new engine, he awakens that Christmas magic that's been dormant for centuries.

The Comico Christmas Special is not only a fun collection of holiday tales. It's also a Who's Who of artists and writers that I've grown to become a fan of. In 1988, these guys were up-and-comers. Almost 20 years later, this all-star grouping is considered legends in the comics field. Bill Willingham, Steve Rude, Tim Sale, Dave Stevens,  Bob Pinaha, and my buddy Michael Eury are amongst some of the stars of this neat treasury.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Tales from the Crypt #2, (Banned Comics Week)

 This doubled sized reprint from Russ Cochran contains issue #34 of Crypt and Crime Suspenstories #15. Though I mention Gemstone as the publisher of the most of the EC Comics reprints in my collection, it was actually Cochran from Missouri who first obtained the rights to reprint the entire EC line. (Other EC reprints exist before this but Cochran was the first to reprint the entire line of EC Comics comics.) The collection was very popular, but it was a niche market.

 The Russ Cochran Company found itself unable to recoup its losses and sold the rights to newly established Gemstone. Gemstone got the brilliant idea to reprint in small batches and later reissue as needed. Thus, back issues of past copies could either be ordered through mail or replenished in comic shops nationwide. It’s this method that’s held on for over 25 years and helped keep the EC Comics from fading into obscurity.

   In Tales, our first story is by the Crypt Keeper in segment called “The Crypt of Terror” which was Tales’ original title. That story is based on the cover image in which a mad scientist creates a Frankenstein type monster and it goes on the rampage at a carnival. Then the Vault Keeper spins a yarn about two con men who dupe a small town into believing their sitting on the next oil boom. The Crypt Keeper then returns in his signature segment “Grim Fairy Tales” which are fanciful fables with gruesome endings. This go-round, the Crypt Keeper regales us with a story of a king who goes too far when he learns about taxation.

The last story is by the Haunt of Fear’s Old Witch. It’s rather interesting as it’s adapted by Ray Bradbury of Fahrenheit 451 fame. It’s a fairly light tale in which an old woman filled with salt and vinegar doesn’t want to die so badly that her spirit storms the mortuary in which her body is housed and demands it back.

  What I found so intriguing about this ghost story was that it’s basically by a well-known author. When Fredic Wertham testified before the Senate during the Juvenile Delinquency hearings, he claims that there was no ‘artistic merit’ to the prose found in comic books. Bradbury is such a big deal that not only did my wife read some of his work in high school for her English classes, I read it too! And I went to a strict anti-anything secular Christian school! So when ever anybody tells you that comics are rubble- you can point out that the great Ray Bradbury was featured in comics as was Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and even Doctor Seuss!

Before I close, let’s examine the Crime Suspenstories reprint. The first tale is a film noir-type love triangle between a wife with a bad heart, her husband, and his best friend who happens to be her lover. Take about Double Indemnity! Then Ray Bradbury returns! This time, his tale ‘the Screaming Woman’ stars a little girl who hears a woman begging to be released from a shallow grave but nobody will believe the tyke’s warnings. Next, we get an interesting story told in two parts in which the same man must suffer through thirst an dehydration first on the high seas and then in the Sahara. There are plenty clever twists in ‘Water, Water Everywhere…” as well as a unique story structure that clearly influenced some of the greats of the Silver Age like Julie Schwartz, Gardner Fox, and Stan Lee. Finally, the Old Witch guests to recall the bickering marriage of a hen-pecked husband and his meddlesome wife.

The Crime comics of the 1950s were a thing of the past by 1959. Crimes of the heart in which implied sex, adultery, and murder were considered taboo. Thus there was a rise in crime digests like Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen. Those mags contained the occasional illustration but were considered so wordy that it wouldn’t appeal to kids. Crime Magazines were still available where kids could reach them and they still had graphic covers. But the changing format was considered enough to prevent kids from going into a wanton frenzy like un-coded comics were said to have inspired.

True, it was 30-years later, but in the 80s I remember walking into a newsstand and buying crime mags as a gift for my mother who loved a good mystery. I was never carded. I couldn’t have been- I was 8! Still, the view towards comic books as low culture is proof of the hypocrisy of censorship. The next time someone tells you comic books are kids’ stuff and for the uneducated, ask them if they watch The Walking Dead, or have seen Men in Black? When they say “yes” tell them it was based on a comic book and watch their face drop. Argument won in your favor!

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Recollections Sampler by Alfred Harvey Presents

In the 1940s and 50s, before the company focused exclusively on the adventures of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich, Harvey Comics was heavily investing in publishing tales of horror, adventures, and noir crime. The company was probably the biggest competitor to EC Comics during the 1950s before the coming Comics Scare of one Dr. Wertham. Though Harvey Comics wasn’t as good in terms of art quality or even story plotting, Harvey published dozens of titles focusing on the gritty and macabre. Amongst those titles were the Totally Rad Tales (which really doesn’t seem like a 50s title but something you’d see on SNICK in the 90s) which boasted a mix of weird genre tales, Man in Black a sort of Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves knock-off, and Black Cat one of the first titles to feature a female hero and full of S&M leather and over sexualized stereotypes. Harvey dabbled a little in humor tales as well before being more kid friendly. An example of that was the WWII comic Sad Sack.

A small example of all of the titles I just mentioned is included in this sampler. The Black Cat story has some pretty good action but is laughable. A fiery redhead who is sexistly put in her place by her beau and father by day, the girl’s private detective  boyfriend can’t put two-and-two together when she disappears in her secret identity and a spicy red head in black leather suddenly appears when things get rough. Daddy knows really what’s going on, yet the boyfriend chalks it up to her being a scaredy- cat little girl. It’s definitely not a shining example of women’s lib.

The Man in Black tale has the title character telling a legend of a young man and his sister held captive by an Arab prince. They can leave his kingdom peacefully if the boy chooses which jar has a massive ruby hidden inside. But if he chooses wrongly, the girl becomes a concubine and its sudden death for the male sibling. I enjoy anthology horror tales, but this one isn’t all that. I prefer EC’s work better. Even Charlton’s hit and miss selection of horror comics is far more superior than this example of what Harvey had to offer.

The same goes for the Totally Rad story. It involves a murdered store owner and a motley line-up of country bumpkin stereo-types that are suspects in the crime. Each suspect’s testimony is captivating but the ending is rushed and it’s not clear if the person being accused of the crime or the person you assume is getting away with murder are in fact the actual murderers.

I can’t really judge the Sad Sack material. There’s only a one page sight gag. I laughed, but it takes up less than 1% of the entire book.

I got this comic for free from the publisher during a convention years ago. If I was offered more freebies, I would give them a try. Hey, they’re free. But would I lay down my hard earned bread for further volumes of these? Probably not. Maybe if I came across them in a dime box, but that’s about as much I am willing to shell out for more of the pre-comic code reprints of Harvey Comics. (One exception: there is a Black Cat Holiday special that I want- make that need- for my holiday/ Christmas comics collection)

Not Worth Consuming!

Rating: 4 out of 10 stars.

Will Eisner's The Spirit: The New Adventures #8

The Spirit is on the trail of a brother and sister team of con artists. The woman is a stunner, who mysteriously seduces men to a speedy nuptial and then suddenly dies before the ink on her life insurance policy has time to dry. Oh, and this woman has a tendency to rise from the dead.

A really good final act to a series that paid tribute to the work of Will Eisner. Sadly, this issue didn’t go on to issue 9 as promised in an add in the back of the book. It would have been a Christmas themed issue and from the cover shown, it looked awesome!

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Will Eisner's The Spirit New Adventures #7

In this supposedly Halloween inspired issue, the Spirit’s been overworked and Dolan gets him to go out for a round of golf. At the same golf course, Dolan’s daughter is targeted for death by the Octopus. It’s up to a weary and very unaware of his settings Spirit to save the day.

 

There’s another good Spirit tale. But it doesn’t have any memorable villains and I don’t see where it was any more of a Halloween story than the golf yarn was. The only thing in this issue that is in the spirit of All Hallows Eve was a classic splash page by Spirit creator Will Eisner from the early 40s.

A good issue that doesn’t quite live up to the promises on the cover.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Will Eisner's The Spirit: New Adventures #6

This issue contains two good stories that mix noir, humor, and superhero action all into one. The only thing keeping these New Adventures from becoming instant classics is that there isn’t really any memorable foils for Spirit to combat. This issue could’ve used a Sans Serif or an Octopus, or even the odd Nazi baddie.

The plots were good and the art exceptionable. They just lack that “ummph” that came with an Eisner inspired villain or femme fatale.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Will Eisner's "The Spirit" The New Adventures, #5

The Spirit gets drawn into a murder case that’s a little too much like the films Body Heat and Against All Odds. When a wealthy doctor with a shady past is found dead, it’s up to Spirit and Dolan to weed out prospective patients for the true culprit.

Like I said, the plot has been done to death (forgive the pun) in many film noir pictures. There’s also quite a bit of adult themes, double entendres and sex. It’s not for kids.

One of the more serious takes on Will Eisner’s classic character. Very enjoyable but not 100% what I was expecting either and that’s coming from someone who thought the Frank Miller film was oversexed.

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars