The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(pb; 1990-1, 2010: graphic novel, collects issues 21-28 of the comic book The Sandman. “Introduction” by Harlan Ellison. Fifth book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

 

From the back cover

“Ten thousand years ago, Morpheus the King of Dreams, condemned a woman who loved him to eternal damnation. In Season of Mists, the other members of his immortal family, the Endless, convince him that this was an injustice. To correct it, he must journey to Hell and rescue his banished love. But Lucifer, the Lord of Hell, has sworn to destroy Morpheus, and Lucifer’s plans are subtle.”

 

Overall review

Season has one of the best story arcs of the Sandman comic book. It presents daunting, delicate-balance situations for the Dream King, who must be sensitive, clever and take a discerning view of the long-term repercussions of what he does in these moments─while this is not the first time he’s dealt with razor’s-edge situations, these negotiations concern not only his survival, but his life-defining redemption for a long-ago sin.

Once again, the artists, letterers and colorists who bring Gaiman’s transcend-the-genre writing to vivid, distinctive representation are top-notch and genre-defining. Worth owning, this. Followed by The Sandman: A Game of You.

 

Review, issue by issue

Caveat: possible minor spoilers for those who have not read these Sandman comics.

“Season of Mists: A Prologue” (#21): The eldest of the Endless siblings, Destiny, calls a rare family meeting─all but one of the siblings show up. After Desire verbally needles the Dream King about his romantic relationships, particularly his long-banished mortal ex, Nada, it sets Morpheus on a dangerous course.

 

“Season of Mists: Chapter 1” (#22): The Dream King puts his affairs in order before setting out to Hell. He sends Cain to Lucifer to announce his forthcoming visit─it would be considered an act of war to do anything less. Hippolyta Hall (The Sandman: The Doll’s House, issue 12) and Hob Gadling (The Sandman: The Doll’s House, issue 13) appear in this issue.

 

“Season of Mists: Chapter 2” (#23): Morpheus, ready to battle the more-powerful Lucifer to free Nada, is stunned to discover a everything-changes turn of events within the nether territory’s vast boundaries.

 

“Season of Mists: Chapter 3” (#24): Odin, “the Gallows-God, the one-eyed king of Asgard,” Loki Wolf-Father, and Thor, along with many other gods and divine entities from various mythology-shrouded realms, make their way to Morpheus’s kingdom (the Dreaming) to claim the recently abandoned, incredibly vast real estate called Hell.

 

“Season of Mists: Chapter 4” (#25): December 1990. The dead, freed from Hell (whether they want to be or not), return to the realm of the living. At a boarding school (St. Hilarion’s), even the horrible, rotting attendance of their former students and teachers cannot upset the careful balance of the school’s temperament and schedule. This is a particularly black-humored issue in the series─I laughed a lot.

 

“Season of Mists: Chapter 5” (#26): The multi-species supranatural guests from different realms attend a dinner in the Dreaming, most of them trying to sway a troubled Morpheus to hand them Hell’s master’s key. Flirtations, drunkenness, threats, betrayals and interactions in between occur while Morpheus and Silver City angels, Duma (“angel of silence”) and Remiel (“set over those who rise”) watch.

 

“Season of Mists: Chapter 6” (#27): Morpheus, based on his interactions with his guests, gives up Hell’s key to its new owner(s). Drama ensues when one of the guests, Azrael, does not react well to the Dream King’s decision.

 

“Season of Mists: Epilogue” (#28): Hell’s new owner(s)─aware of the cosmic balance their mandated stewardship maintains, but perhaps blind to its two-fold nature─take their realm in hand while its denizens return. Morpheus, fleshed as Kai’ckul, speaks with his previously condemned ex (Nada) for the first time in ten thousand years. An issue regarding Loki Wolf-Father is also addressed by the Dream King. Nuala and her sibling, Cluracan─subjects of the fairy Titania─add further, if equally brief, drama to Morpheus’s day.

The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman and various artists

 

(pb; 1990: graphic novel, collects issues 17-20 of the comic book series The Sandman. Fourth book in the thirteen-book Sandman graphic novel series.)

Overall review

Dream Country sports four often dark and melancholic, sometimes charming and wildly varied side-stories relating to the Endless, 1593 to the 1980s. The artists this time around are Gaiman, Kelley Jones, Malcolm Jones III, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, featuring characters created by Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg.

Worth owning, this. Followed by The Sandman: Season of Mists.

 

Review, issue by issue

“Callipe” (#17): May 1986. An acclaimed author with writer’s block (Richard Madoc) imprisons and rapes the “youngest of the nine Muses” and Morpheus’s ex-amour (Caliope) while the Dream King is being held by the Burgesses (issue 1). Then Morpheus gets free, and things change.

 

“A Dream of a Thousand Cats” (#18): A household feline takes a nighttime trip to a local cemetery to hear a human-free cat speak her and her species.

 

“A Midsummer’s Night Dream” (#19): June 23, 1593, England. William Shakespeare and his troupe perform the issue-titular play for Morpheus and members of the Endless.

 

“Façade” (#20): Urania Blackwell, one of the metamorphae created by the sun god Ra, laments her post-battle-with-Apep-the-serpent-that-never-dies existence, has a life-changing conversation with one of the Endless.

Kelley Jones' The Hammer: The Outsider, by Kelley Jones

(pb; 1999: three-issue comic book series.  Loosely connected sequel to Kelley Jones' The Hammer: Uncle Alex)


Review:

WARNING: possible spoilers in this review.

The plot:  Alaric Malleus (a.k.a. "The Hammer"), with the help of a legal researcher (Russell Boone), hunts an alien creature who's on a killing spree.  Clark, the aforementioned alien, it turns out, isn't nearly as bad or terrifying as the three cruel wizards who had held him prisoner, or - even worse - the demonic being they mean to resurrect (Zahak, making a series return).

#

The Outsider has all the humor, ickiness and pulp-horror charm of the previous Hammer stories.  If you have liked Jones's Hammer work thus far, chances are that you'll enjoy this three-issue miniseries.

Kelley Jones' The Hammer: Uncle Alex, by Kelley Jones

(pb; 1998: single-shot comic book.  Loosely connected follow-up to Kelley Jones' The Hammer and Jones's story "The World in Which We Live," published in Dark Horse Presents, issue 129)


The plot:

A new infernal threat presents itself, in the form of the worm-like Alexander Eastman - a.k.a. "Uncle Alex."  When Eastman was a human sorcerer, he "defiled women and corrupt[ed] men"; now, as a transformed being, he devours townsfolk within his backwoods hell-portal.

Alaric Malleus - "The Hammer," in modern English - and his human associate (Carl, also from the first Hammer miniseries) become aware of Alex's earthly presence via Malleus's quirky food version of reading tea leaves, and off they go, to take down this loathsome man-worm.


Review:

Uncle Alex has all the humor, ickiness and pulp-horror charm of its source miniseries.  If you liked that miniseries, chances are that you'll enjoy this single-shot comic book.

Malleus's next appearance, also created by Jones, was in a two-page installment miniseries, "The Sticky-Fingered Homunculus," which ran in several issues of Dark Horse's Diamond Previews magazine.  Malleus later appeared in the three-issue miniseries Kelley Jones' The Hammer: The Outsider.

Kelley Jones' The Hammer by Kelley Jones

(pb; 1997-1998: four-issue comic book series)


The plot:

1977. When two short-sighted teens in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island resurrect the decades-dead “Witch of Aberdeen,” Isobel Grierson, they set into motion a Lovecraftian battle of cataclysmic wills between Grierson and Alaric Malleus, a warrior who loathes evil – a battle that will take place twenty years later.

1997. Alaric Malleus, “roughly translated, The Hammer,” is a cocoon-like alien creature that attaches itself to the head of a human host (as it does with Professor Wilcox, a willing flesh partner). It imbues its host with preternatural powers, an über-muscular body and other properties, all the while incorporating its flesh partners’ tastes – in Wilcox’s case, a yen for Charlie Parker’s music and greasy fast food.

What has woken Alaric, currently residing in Briggstown, Massachussetts, is the near-fruition threat of Isobel Grierson. In the twenty years since her physical rebirth, the scantily-clad, sexually promiscuous cannibal witch has become a celebrity psychotherapist whose “advice” (embrace, act on one’s anger) is preparing the world for the arrival of the Lovecraftian demons Grierson means to bring into our world.

Now, chauffeured and battle-aided by Carl (an ex-student of Professor Wilcox/The Hammer) and Alex Maybridge (a cranky medical intern), The Hammer is slicing, smashing and spell-casting his way toward Grierson, who’s well aware of her approaching nemeses. . .


Review:

Kelley Jones writes and illustrates this wonderfully dark, meaningful and hilarious comic book mini-series, which mixes satire (e.g., Grierson’s slutty outfits), uncomfortable veracities about humanity, H.P. Lovecraft's atmospheric horror and Robert E. Howard-eseque/pulpish action.

Take into account Jones’s effective, character-centric plot twists and his penchant for having The Hammer utter straight-faced one-liners (e.g., “Thankfully, I can count on your human capacity to commit genocide when the time comes.”), and readers like myself get a character and a comic book that delivers landmark thrills, laughter and chills.

Worth owning, this.

The Hammer made his next appearance in a comic book short, “The World in Which We Live”. This story was published in Dark Horse Presents, issue 129 [February 1998]. Regrettably, I don’t own this, though I do own The Hammer: Uncle Alex [1998, a single-issue comic book], the third comic book appearance of Malleus/The Hammer.

Jones's four-issue/original miniseries, as well as the story "The World in Which We Live," was later brought together in graphic novel form: this graphic novel is called Kelley Jones' The Hammer: One Big Lie.

Last Train to Deadsville: A Cal McDonald Mystery, by Steve Niles & Kelley Jones

(pb; 2004, 2005: graphic novel, which "collects the four-issue series Last Train to Deadsville - A Cal McDonald Mystery, published by Dark Horse Comics." Introduction by Tom Jane)

From the back cover:

"When a demonically possessed teen redneck shows up on his doorstep, detective of the weird Cal McDonald hardly bats an eye. After all, in recent history he's battled a brain-sucking misanthrope, sent a perverted corpse-mangler up the river, and squashed a monster conspiracy to take over the world - all with the help of only his living dead sidekick [Mo'lock!] and an unhealthy appetite for intoxicants.

"Cal knows that the mulleted mook on his porch isn't anything to worry about. But the sex-crazed succubus the poor, horny kid summoned in a love spell gone wrong - she's a problem. Especially now that she's turned the entire male population of the kid's hometown into a throng of murderous monsters who are willing to do whatever the she-beast desires. As if that wasn't enough to deal with for a day, an even greater evil rears its head when Cal's girlfriend starts hinting at commitment. Demonic possession? That Cal can handle. . . but a demanding girlfriend? Cal's definitely over his head this time."

Review:

Niles' humorous, flip-scripting homage to horror and noir is just as exemplary and engrossing, if not more so, than its predecessor, Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery.

The reason for this improvement lies not only with Niles, but also with his change of artists: this time it's Kelley Jones, whose classic-with-new-influences work I prefer to Ben Templesmiths' too-murky/sketchy style, who brings Niles' shadowy, sometimes icky visions to vivid life. Also, I'm an admirer of any writer/artist who avoids a 'sophomoric slump' in their work - Niles has not only done that with Train, but his expansion on his characters' personalities opens up fertile avenues for future Cal McDonald stories.

Wonderfully EC/Creepy-esque and chuckle-worthy read from Niles and Jones; and, again, worth owning.

Followed by a at least five other Cal McDonald graphic novels, as well as three Cal McDonald novels, all penned by Steve Niles.

Batman: Gotham After Midnight, by Steve Niles & Kelley Jones

(pb - graphic novel; 2008)

"Gotham City after dark is a dangerous place.

"Gotham City after Midnight is Hell on Earth.

"There's a new kind of madman loose in Gotham and he's out to steal the city's heart. The monstrosity named Midnight is convinced he's doing Batman's job, only better than Batman ever could.

"As the city descends into madness, it's Batman's duty to stop Midnight, but the newcomer has manipulated an exceptionally unstable Joker, a giant Clayface and others into destroying the Dark Knight for him!

"Can Batman restore peace to a city that's growing colder and more heartless by the minute? Or have the people forsaken their patron protector to live in the shadow of Midnight's perpetual terror?

"Masters of the macabre Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Simon Dark) and Kelley Jones (Batman and Dracula: Red Rain) bring you a heart-stopping mystery beating within the darkest corners of Gotham City."

Review:

This efficacious blend of computer-style art, 1930s pulp and 1970s EC/Creepy-style gothic-schlock atmosphere may appeal to afficionados of the aforementioned elements.

Between Niles' off-beat, quick-moving, horror-veracious writing and Jones' equally off-beat, Creepy-recalling stylings, this is a fun, cheesy-villainous, fresh take on Batman, one that's familiar enough to not alienate longtime Batman traditionalists, and different enough to be its own metropolis-of-darkness beast.

Worth owning, this.

(Quick note: if you're a fan of Jones' artwork, check out his 1997-1998 comic book mini-series and one-shots, The Hammer, which simultaneously, over the course of countless re-reads, sent chills down my spine and made me laugh. . . Inconveniently, the 9-single issue comics that comprise these four stories haven't been anthologized into a single graphic novel.)

This is the first-ever issue of The Hammer: