Graphic Novel Review: SOMETHING MONSTROUS

For fans of The X-Files and Steve Niles, Niles’ (with R.H. Stavis) graphic novel Something Monstrous will be a revelation.  Niles has already done an official X-Files story with The X-Files/30 Days of Night crossover but now he’s done his own homage to the iconic franchise.  This story follows siblings Cody and Alexis after Alexis returns home to the small town she grew up in to bail her brother out of jail and to get over the death of her father.  It also just so happens that at the same time several of the town’s citizens have been meeting untimely and gruesome deaths at the hands of some giant shadow like creatures.  When the locals are unable to handle the murders two FBI agents are brought in but the murders keep happening and the bodies keep piling up and Alexis and Cody soon realize that the murders may have something to do with something that happened in their past and that they may be more responsible than they know.

This is one of Niles’ darker stories as it has to do with child abuse and how it can affect two people in completely different ways.  Whereas Alexis fled her hometown to get away from what happened to her as a child, her brother Cody decides to remain at home and drink himself to death and become revengeful and bitter.  This plays into the story as when these two sibling finally come back together as adults they accidently release something conjured up from their past that will destroy everyone who was involved with the abuse from their past.

The two FBI agents are Niles’ version of Mulder and Scully and even make several comments about it.  Niles does have more fun with these two characters as they are also the comic relief of the story despite the fact that they are responsible for uncovering most of the mystery that surrounds the story and all the characters.

Along for the ride on this story in terms of art is Stephanie Buscema whose style may turn a few people off (as it did me at first glance) but after reading the story it perfectly complimented the story.  Buscema was a great choice for the story and her take on the so-called shadow monsters of the story works well.  Between Niles, Stavis, and Buscema Something Monstrous is one of the more interesting monster stories out there because it has more to it than meets the eye.  This is one that monster fans should definitely take a look at.

Graphic Novel Review: REMAINS

The name Steve Niles is no stranger to horror fans.  He’s most famous for co-creating and redefining the vampire genre with 30 Days of Night (for which there have been two films made already).  With his Remains he sets his sights on re-imagining the zombie genre (which has since been made into a movie by Chiller Films).  Niles writes with Kieron Dwyer providing the art.  The plot concerns a blackjack dealer Tom and an exotic dancer Tori who are among the only living survivors of a nuclear blast that decimates the entire world killing just about everyone and turning them into the walking dead.  Now they are holed in Reno with no escape as the walking dead’s numbers grow with each day.

As the days turn into weeks and the number of the undead grows exponentially Tori slowly begins to realize that something is changing in the undead.  They are beginning to remember how to speak and organize and work together.  Now Tori is even more determined to escape Reno before it is too late.  The situation goes from bad to worse when Tom rescues Cindy from sudden death.  It seems that Cindy is the last survivor from a settlement of survivors who were attacked by a newer breed of radioactive zombies who are stronger and smarter than any that they have ever seen and they are heading towards Reno.  Now these three must find a way to survive in a world where they are the endangered species.

As far as zombie stories go, Remains doesn’t have much new to offer but the notion that we caused the disaster itself is an interesting concept.  The story begins and a day of peace when the US and the world have agreed to get rid of nuclear weapons in a safe way but before this can happen a mistakes triggers a domino effect all over the world putting everything into a nuclear fireball.  Once the actual story starts the rest of the plot is pretty standard zombie material.  I do commend Dwyer’s artwork which greatly enhances the zombie mayhem and works perfectly for the story.  Niles has a very cinematic story telling style which fits with the material.  It is no reason that Chiller Films decided to make this one of their first feature length films.

Niles is no stranger to extreme gore in his stories and this one does not disappoint.  Dwyer’s cover for the graphic novel is pure Niles nightmare hell and horror fans will love what the two have come up with despite the sometimes cliché and predictable story.  Of note is also a lot of production stills at the end of the graphic novel from the making of the film version which shows you just how much care was taken to replicate the style and tone of the graphic novel to the big screen.

Graphic Novel Review: THE CRYPTICS

I’ve read many of writer Steve Niles’ stories and graphic novels (and comics) the most famous and influential being the original 30 Days of Night, which ushered in a new age of horror comics that flourish to this day.  Niles’ The Cryptics graphic novel is no 30 Days of Night and for die-hard fans of his material this oddity will barely even register (especially among many of his other works).

The Cryptics is the misadventures of the offspring of some of Hollywood’s classic monster films.  Present and accounted for are the sons of Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Wolf Man, Dr. Jeckel & Mr. Hyde and even Van Helsing’s son shows up.  This is an anthology of short stories and comic strips (many average only a few pages long) and detail the misadventures of all the characters who call themselves friends.

The stories are meant to be funny but the comedy is inconsistent.  There are some truly outrageous episodes such as “Gone Fishing” and “Mirror Mirror” (where the son of Dracula realizes he doesn’t cast a reflection) but my favorite is “To Heck and Back” (where the Wolf Man’s son is accidentally sent to hell before his time).  The stories work better when confined to only one to three pages as they read like a Sunday comic strip but the longer stories are a mixed bag.

The one element of the graphic novel as a whole that does work is the fact that Niles succeeds in presenting all the characters as three dimensional characters (something he doesn’t always succeed with in his longer works).  Over the course of both the smaller and longer pieces you get a sense that these characters are experiencing life and childhood just like you or I would have.  Herein, lies Niles’ true success with the series.  He is able to channel the classic monsters that we all grew up with and remember (or at least I do) and meld them with our childhood memories (or how we think we remember them) but to more unusual and comedic results.  They get to have misadventures while fishing, meeting Reapers, playing guns in the yard, having pop quiz at school, having a nightmare and many other adventures that go with growing up.

Niles has worked with many artists over the years but on this series he brings along Benjamin Roman (who also writes a few of the stories as well).  His illustrations perfectly contribute to the off-beat nature of the characters and the series as a whole.  Roman also contributes colors for several of the stories as well.

The Cryptics may be a mixed bag of goodies but there is no denying that Niles can write the funny books just as well as he does the horror and guts books and it reminds audiences and readers that he is a true connoisseur of the classics and can make them relevant to this day and age.

Steve Niles & Horror

I’ve read a lot of the horror comics from iconic horror writer Steve Niles from his most influential creation 30 Days of Night (which is finally going to an ongoing series) to his sinister Savage and The Nail to the more somber Freaks of the Heartland and comedic exploits of The Cryptics and the noire stories of Cal McDonald in Criminal Macabre.  Niles gets around.  Not all of his stories are masterpieces (i.e. I didn’t generally enjoy Giant Monster or The Ghoul) but there is no denying that he strives to tell stories different from everyone else in the field.

One of my personal favorites of his is his epic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic I Am Legend.  Despite the fact that I was first introduced to his work with the original 30 Days of Night series it wasn’t until I read his version of I Am Legend that I truly became a fan.  He’s the only one to truly get to the meat and potatoes of Matheson’s story and present it in a faithful way; not one of the three film versions have been able to do this yet.  Its amazing detail in story structure and execution is hands down spotless and brings out the nuances of Matheson’s story like few others have ever been able to do with the author’s material. 

Niles has done other adaptations of other authors work including Clive Barker and Bram Stoker (Dracula) and H.G. Wells (The War of the Worlds) and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein, Or the Modern day Prometheus), to name a few and he has taken some liberties with the material (not always for the best). 

Most horror writers find a niche and stick with it but Niles weaves in and out of all types of genre stories refusing to be pigeonholed into any one sub-group.  It would have been easy for Niles to have continued doing hardcore violent horror stories after the success of 30 Days of Night but instead he’s done dramatic horror with Freaks of the Heartland and comedy The Cryptics and even a giant monster story inspired by Godzilla in the form of Giant Monster and he’s even tackled Bigfoot in his series Bigfoot.  

Niles is a professional at crafting entertaining stories whether they be horror or not.  I just recently read The Cryptics (I got to it late since it was one of his series that didn’t look all that appealing to me at first because of its comic overtones).  It’s an inspired collection of short stories based around the offspring of the classic movie monsters (Dracula, the Wolf Man, and Frankenstein’s monster, Dr.Jeckle & Mr. Hyde, and the Creature) as they go about their daily lives living in the suburbs.  Not all the stories hit their mark but there are a couple that are quite funny but the thing that struck me the most is that as standalone stories they can be just moderately entertaining but by the time I got to the last couple stories I had really gotten into the lives of these characters and found the stories more entertaining because of how much “character” Niles incorporated into the series as a whole.  If you can get past the fact that this is meant to be a coming of age comedy and not a monster free for all then you’ll enjoy the series as much as I did (I enjoyed it more the second time I read it).   Despite the types of stories he does (the horror genre), Niles’ stories are always about the characters within which is why he is so able to maneuver from one type to the next.  As long as he writes good characters then every story (no matter how strange or unusual it may be) will always be entertaining and good.

If you’ve never read a Niles story before than any of the ones I’ve mentioned above are a good start but there are plenty of others to get your hands on such as City of Others, Epilogue, Doc Macabre, The Lurkers, and many, many more.  All have their own unique take on both classic and modern horror stories and all are worth taking a look at.