The horror (comics)! The horror (comics)! #2
Previously in our look at horror comics we took a look at Killadelphia and we had the chance to thank Rodney Barnes (on Twitter) for this excellent horror series.
We've returned to the wonderful world of horror comics and we're dragging the series Red Mother back to our lair...
Red Mother
When I can get to a post office, or see Ed in person again, or convince him to start his own comic postal order this is The One. The title may make you think of a 80’s communist bashing action drama (Ed: That is exactly what I thought when I saw the title!), but this threat and terror is straight out of the Hellraiser meets Sinister playbook (which would technically be Clive Barker meets Scott Derrickson…which has already happened on Hellraiser Inferno (Ed: Six Degrees of Horror Bacon)…but this isn’t the time for a Hellraiser deep dive…maybe some other time). From Boom! Studios, Jeremy Haun and Danny Luckert give us the story of Daisy McDonough. Daisy loves her fiancé and she loves puzzles (see where I’m going with the Hellraiser link). What she doesn’t love is having her fiancé disappearing in mysterious circumstances or losing her eye only to have it replaced with a prosthetic which lets her see, in vivid red, the thing that’s coming for her (Ed: We've all been there).
There are so many wonderful horror touching points in this story (only at four issues deep at the time of writing). Hellraiser and Sinister are two I’ve already mentioned, but I’ve seen shades of Suspiria, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Mirrors, The Mummy, The Conjuring and Hereditary. Having said all that, and with so many obvious reference points, I’ve not got a clue where it’s going, but I am most excited to find out.
The thing about comic books, which make them among the best untapped resources for horror (think about how well the marvel universe has been mined in recent years) is that they allow colour to be added to stories in a vivid, expansive and completely unrestricted way in a manner that film and TV almost never get, if just for budgetary reasons. Even in the conventional novel form it can be challenging to convey vast unspeakable horrors (if it weren’t Lovecraft wouldn’t have kept calling his nightmares indescribable). Red Mother, after just four issues, has already shown itself to be the reason horror and comics were made for each other. I don’t know where it’s going but I’m looking forward to the sights Red Mother has to show me.
That's it for another dip in the waters of horror comics. The story is TBC...
Next up will be...
FARM HAND
As ever we encourage you to support your local comic book store (such as our own Chaos City Comics) and a reminder that these recommendations came courtesy of excellent illustrator Luke Ridge.
