Great comics I have read (in the past 48 hours)

DOOMED #1 (IDW): The tributes to the 70s Warren line of comics (Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, etc) come thick and fast in the inaugural issue of this quarterly mag: the oversized B&W anthology format, the contents page pastiche, followed by the introduction of our horror hostess with the mostest Ms Doomed. But instead of featuring the work of talented (and, I assume, cheap) Spanish and Filipino artists (plus a ton of Richard Corben stuff), Doomed has young tyros like Aussie’s own Ashley Wood and Ted McKeever illustrating the short terror fiction of legends Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson and more. Unfortunately, the end result’s a mish-mash – some stories work, some don’t…a bit like every fear anthology comic ever published. Still, reading David J. Schow’s short piece “Blood Rape Of The Lust Ghouls” (great title, shame about the mediocre story) and interview inspired me to watch the unrated version of Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (written by Schow) on DVD that same day. So it’s not all bad.

THE GOON: FANCY PANTS EDITION (Dark Horse): Well, I love this to friggin’ death. Eric Powell’s a helluva artist and a helluva storyteller. The Goon’s a big bruiser in some unnamed city: a standover merchant with a heart of gold. A villain but a loveable rogue. He and his scrawny pal Franky run the town but they have stiff competition from his arch-enemy the Zombie Priest and his undead horde. This graphic novel collects pretty much every comic that propels the Goon’s ongoing feud with the Zombie Priest. Beautiful art, offbeat story, a good dose of humour – what more do you want? Oh, and it’s reasonably priced, too. To coincide with its release, Dark Horse also had the good sense to publish a 25-cent issue of The Goon (that’s 95 cents in Aussie dollars), which reprints one of the yarns from the GN, but also throws in a four-page “freebie” to make it worth your while picking it up. Highly recommended.

I LOVE anything by the late great Wally Wood, so I quickly picked up Vanguard Productions’ soft-cover release of THE COMPLETE LUNAR TUNES (reasonably priced at US$9.95/AUD$16.95). Any Wood is good Wood, right? Well, not quite. This was banged out in 1981 when Wood’s eyesight was fucked and he was one bullet away from calling it quits. It’s nice at first to follow the candy floss storyline and minimalist art (a helluva lot of photo collages and photocopied backgrounds to cover up Wood’s scratchy foreground art). But it just gets sadder and sadder – the art worsens page by page and the storyline’s rushed and, at times, barely coherent. Clearly, this was a work in progress – maybe not even a work at all, just Wood doodling between stiff drinks and toying with his loaded gun. Not surprisingly, most of this stuff has never before been published (just a few short bits in Wood’s zine Witzend). I kinda wish it had stayed unpublished.