Review
Issue 1 of Eeek! comic presents the reader with three brand new retro style stories by Jason Paulos. The first A Boy's Best Friend is straight out of the Grindhouse play book with Nazis inter-weaved with werewolves. An excellent and explosive start to the new Eeek! release. Collateral Damage explores revenge and the ramifications of focusing solely on that notion. And finally the Issue closes with Look Who's Stalking, a morality tale of rage and prejudice. Has Jason Paulos gone all moral on us with a new Publisher, can't imagine so as Black House are certain up for the darker notions. More on this later in the review. All we really need to say is Eeek! is back baby and it's taking no prisoners. As expected Eeek! continues Jason Paulos' infatuation with traditional horror comics from the 1950s and 1960s. The stories in the comic could have been dragged kicked and screaming from the pages of Creepy or Eerie without losing anything in the translation. So if after something in the retro range that you haven't read before, or wanting to dial in to see why people are huge fans of a bygone era, then Jason Paulos has you covered. Eeek has got a solid treatment from Black House with the first edition definitely in the collectors realm. Besides top grade paper stock Dave Elsey has designed one of the great covers that captures the whole essence of Eeek! without going over the top. Definitely tee material, though I'm still waiting on something from the Dark Detective series. The covers are in colour while the actual stories themselves are rendered with black and white pen, once again a look that was prevalent in various horror comics back in the day. Colour wasn't a major player in the darker end of the market during the horror comic golden era. Jason Paulos is so adept at catching the retro look that I think he would fool some of the folks who worked on the original comics. All three of the stories presented in the comic can be seen as morality fables, once again this was a common trait amongst the major comics coming out of the States prior to the self regulation that pretty much destroyed the horror comic market for a lot of fans. A Boy's Best Friend can be viewed as a tale of someone seeking redemption for past crimes, though I must admit I didn't know if Jason Paulos was making a point with the villages whole acceptance of their situation thing. Sometimes I have a tendency to over analysis, we'll pass it back to the keeper for someone else to worry about. Collateral Damage visits the concept of revenge as a destructive force if it becomes the sole focus to the detriment of everything else. And finally Jason Paulos pulls one of the great twists in the tale with Look Who's Stalking, a story that moves from the obvious antagonist to one that only becomes obvious when we consider that single minded hate is not a good look. You certainly can't have bad feelings towards a comic that deals with value systems in a plausible fashion. As we have come to expect from Jason Paulos the script for the three comics is brisk, doesn't stray from the point, and keeps the pacing happening throughout. Issue One of Eeek! weighed in at 21 tightly drawn and written pages that were adequate to cover all three stories. At $3 dollars per issue that's pretty good value to get your retro fix. On the bright side of the inking Eeek! is apparently going to be published on a bi-monthly basis. Certainly the $3 entry fee represents good value for money, though unfortuntely I haven't noticed a subscription option from Black House, that could be down to software limitations. Actually while on the demanding trail, you know it had to happen, an Eeek! annual would be awesome. Last year Jason Paulos promised further editions of Eeek! after the initial print run concluded. I was actually quite surprised and delighted to see the comic appear under the Black House flag and immediately ordered the first issue to get my fix after being some months without a new one to read. The comic duly arrived and I wasn't disappointed, the series hasn't lost any of the magic and I had a fine time in Country. I'm already looking forward to the next Issue based on the standard achieved with Issue one. The official Eeek! website can be found right here, you can purchase issue one at Black House's online store, and further information can be found via Black House Comics. That should have all your Eeek! bases covered friends and neighbours.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Paulos is back and kicking arse!
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