Review
“It's our duty. There's no need to be scared of the harvest” - Trish Issue 2 of Eeek! sees three new stories from various writers with artwork by editor Jason Paulos. The first couple of stories are in that 1950s Sci-Fi arena that seems to keep intriguing people generation after generation, while the final story focuses more on earth bound horror, with a sort of M. Night twist to things. As usually Jason Paulos maintains a appreciably traditional look and feel to things that will have regular readers feeling very comfortable, and new readers high fiving each other over finding a traditional horror comic that keeps coming at you. Let's get our retro on. Our first story kicks off a duo of Science Fiction orientated nasties that will have most readers nodding their heads in approval. Jason Fischer provides a typically morbid tale in The Harvest that gets progressively nastier till a final twist worthy of Jason Franks nails the opening gambit and ensures the reader receives value for money right from the kick off. Highly recommended tale and one of the best yet to grace the pages of Eeek. Darren White continues the Sci-Fi onslaught with the well judged Deterrent Protocol that while being slightly predictable will still bring a smile to your face. For no apparent reason it reminded me of another comic where this alien chick turned out to be a giant spider, sorry the name of the comic escapes me. There's the same sort of atmosphere going down to groove along too. Our final story, The Green Fairy, is more earth bound but delivers the twist ending all short dark fiction should be aiming at. Okay so it's a horror trope but to be honest this one side swiped me somehow, nice bit of writing with a truly tragic central character. No credits are attached to the story, sorry to the writer there. Each of the stories is illustrated by Jason Paulos, with the panels matching the script's content. Paulos captures that by gone era Sci-Fi look, and then hits the traditional horror concepts for the final story. As expected plenty of voluptuous thinly clad young ladies adore the page, once again hitting the retro vibe. Readers will have a lot of enjoyment looking at the visuals with this comic and if you are a Creepy or Eerie fan then you are in for a real good time. As stated in previous reviews, Jason Paulos brings to mind the golden age of horror comics prior to self regulation that pretty much destroying the medium for a number of decades in the U.S. In keeping with the whole retro thing there's a sort of host like presence on the reverse of the cover, though unfortunately the host simply introduces the comic rather than introducing each of the stories in the issue. Jason Paulos keeps toying with the host idea, has tried the odd different one, but as yet hasn't fixed on one character. Maybe in a future issue, though I quite liked the grave digger dude from the first series of Eeek.
Our old friend Dave Elsey, of The Dark Detective fame, delivers the knock out cover artwork that will have you rocking to the beat right from picking up the magazine. The style differs from other covers I've seen Elsey produce, providing a unique and particular gruesome experience to the viewer. Excellent stuff and one of the top ten Downunder horror comic covers of the year. While Issue 2 isn't the knock out punch you might be expecting, it still provides a lot of entertainment and keeps the high standard of the new series rocking along. Notably Eeek! is being published by Black House Comics, so you get a pretty sleek design, high quality paper, and an excellent print. As normal with Eeek! I had a lot of fun reading the stories and scooping the artwork, Jason Paulos keeps delivering with this comic and you surely will be sweating on Issue 3 after reading this Issue. If Paulos decides to do a year's best anthology then I would nominate The Harvest as a early inclusion. I guess I should mention the comic is black and white with colour covers and is in U.S comic format. Though the format would seem to be pretty standard for Australian dark genre comics to be honest. Eeek! Issue 2 is available from blackboox and at $3 is considerable value for money. You can also pick up the first Issue into the bargain for those playing catch up. Eeek! has it's very own website right here for those after additional information and news.
ScaryMinds Rates this read as ... Jason Paulos keeps the retro feel rocking!
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