Skin Crawl magazine (issue 2) by magazine creator/writer/illustrator Skinner and various artists

 

(pb; 2022: second issue of Skin Crawl illustrated magazine, created by artist/writer Skinner)

Overall review

The second issue of this EC/Creepy-inspired illustrated horror magazine sports lush, wildly imaginative artwork as Old School as similar, also exciting genre comics that came before it. Two of the storylines in this issue are more ambitious than those seen in issue 1 of Skin Crawl (but just as moralistic and twisty), e.g. “The Seven Geases” and “A Case of the Morbs”. As with its first issue, this is a magazine that’s delivering on its vividly drawn and written promise and more. Worth owning, this.

 

Review, story by story

“Welcome Back”: A swamp creature is drawn from her primordial muck on an annual, special date. Poetic, pulpy, humorous, and completely engaging.

 

“The Seven Geases”: Cody Goodfellow scripted and adapted Clark Ashton Smith’s 1943 Weird Tales-published story, where Lord Ralibar Vooz, “high magistrate of Commorium and third cousin of King Homquet” and twenty-six men venture into the horribly storied Black Eiglophian mountains to hunt arcane game. Things go awry and soon Vooz, with a winged creature guide (Raphotontis), must pass through seven bizarre territories if he is see his terrestrial domain again.

Ambitious in writing, overall scope and sumptuous, detailed visuals, this adaptation of Smith’s work is wow-worthy in the best way and an illustrated tale that warrants revisiting at some future date.

 

“A Case of the Morbs”: Psycho-analytical and vividly illustrated (like all the stories in this issue) tale about two creatures escaping a horrible, monster-populated cave. Quotes from Carl Jung’s “The Shadow—Carl Jung’s Warning to the World”, which talk about balancing one’s light and dark aspects (in themselves and on a societal level), make up much of “Morbs”, making for a stellar, if especially intense work.

 

“Game of the Gods”: Two arrogant deities (The Lord of Instinct and The Lord of Strategy), using mortal alien armies on Scyorax like ongoing chess pieces, make grim and bloody sport to best each other. When a lesser god is allowed to join their game with only one warrior, it could prove to be Instinct and Strategy’s undoing.