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Fangoria Comics
Written by John Bisson and Robert Kurtzman Art by Stephen Thompson
Review by Mike Fish
First you puke blood. A lot of blood. Then you crap out your intestines. And finally choke on your heart before you spit it out like a pistachio shell. How’s that for a perfect death? I gotta tell ya. I think have a hundred ways of kicking the bucket before THAT one became an option!
Fangoria Comics unleashes the second release, Beneath the Valley of the Rage, after the successful launch earlier this month with Bump. It’s a different look and pace from Bump, but that’s good actually. Variety is definitely a needed source in the horror genre, and especially for horror comics. Some companies like that cookie-cutter mold, and have taken popular properties to a place where only fax machines would admire the view. Nope, not Fangoria Comics. They aim to please with different kinds of digital cameras, and this book does indeed capture the moment for the most part.
Created by Robert Kurtzman with wingman John Bisson handling the scripting chores, Beneath the Valley of the Rage immediately nods its cap to the 70’s B-Movie, most notably in the title itself. Once inside, the reader is immediately treated to uncensored gore with the opening of this review in full swing. It’s amazing art too as the style by Stephen Thompson fuses together that throwback disco era look along with modern comic book trends, most notably the art of Leinil Francis Yu. (New Avengers) With the coloring though, it stays with the classic grindhouse feel and keeps it away (most of the time) from looking like a Marvel “Yu” production. Mix in a little Dario Argento and Roger Corman, and Beneath the Valley of the Rage makes itself a nice comfy sofa in the horror genre. It will be interesting to see how this translates into a movie by Kurtzman later this year entitled The Rage.
What I really enjoy from this book is Fangoria’s new trick hat thrown onto the ice. Main characters are being molded around real film actors. This book features the always sinister, but immensely fun, Andrew Divoff. Most know him as the evil Djinn from the Wishmaster series, but some have recently come to love him as the apparently unkillable crazy Russian, Mikhail, on the cult ABC series, Lost. Not only is it fun to see actors crossover into this medium (“Mr. Blonde” himself, Michael Madsen will also appear in Fangoria Comics Shifter later this year), but also, you can actually see their facial expressions and hear them speak easier. Much like the new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, it allows the reader to really step into the story and live in that fantasy world. I hope Fangoria Comics continues this trend with such likeable actors.
The only complaint about the book is the abrupt stop it came to at the end. It really took away from the nice pace it established when Dr. Vasilienko revealed how he came to meet the rage virus and the beast known as “Misfit”, half man, half rotten tomato. But then, it’s a “grindhouse” comic book. It’s supposed to stop there and pick up again in issue two, right? Let’s wait and see!
GRADE: B+ CONTINUE READING? Sure. Looks to be a promising start.
http://www.fangoriacomics.com/
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