Reviewing The Mammoth Book of Best War Comics, I wrote, “Perhaps we can hope for a Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics or Horror Comics or Romance Comics...”The introduction to The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga Volume 2 says, “Joining Best New Manga on the shelves is War Comics, Horror Comics and very soon Crime Comics: all of them thick as a brick with tons to read.”
The tense suggests that The Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics should be out already, in time for Hallowe’en, but Constable & Robinson’s ad in The Bookseller gives a release date of 24 January 2008 (with Crime Comics following in June). But so long as the nights are still long and dark, I’m not complaining.
The blurb at Amazon.co.uk - I take no responsibility for its accuracy - says, “In over 500 pages, this book collects the finest tales of terror from the past sixty years of comic book publishing. It encompasses all eras of the genre, from the 'weird menace' horror of the perennially popular 1950s pre-Code comics published by EC, to the dark modern gems of the 90s and 2000s. Discover the tales that drove the American youth of the 1950s into a frenzy and resulted in legislation to put an end to their gruesome content - the pre-Code comic book macabre that was Dark Mysteries, Chamber of Chills, Weird Terror and Journey into Fear. Contributors from these early years include Bernie Wrightson, master adapter of Lovecraft, Mary Shelley and Stephen King; Mike Kaluta, the man behind The Shadow, Metropolis, and The Spawn of Frankenstein; and Rudy Palais, the EC artist responsible for such twisted works as Marching Zombies. Modern contributions include Pete Von Scholly's The Graveswellers (the man behind The Shawshank Redemption, The Mask, and The Green Mile), David Hitchcock's self-published Immortal - A Vampire Tale (creator of the Jack the Ripper comic Whitechapel Freak), Thomas Ott's G.O.D. from Greetings from Hellville (acclaimed Swiss noir artist), L” – yes, it breaks off suddenly at the initial letter L, presumably interrupted fatally by some shambling thing from beyond …
Pictures
Mammoth Book of Best Crime Comics cover by José Muñoz taken from The Bookseller
Mammoth Book of Best Horror Comics Cover taken from the Constable & Robinson web-site
2 comments:
Fookin' love Sampayo & Munoz' SINNER. I frequently list comics that it's a crime they're out of print or incomplete in English, and it should include every page those two produce together.
I'm assuming, of course, that that actually is a Muñoz drawing on the cover, and not a copy; Best War Comics had a Kurtzman knock-off on the cover and no Kurtzman inside. Fingers crosed, eh?
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