Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees by Patrick Horvath and Hassan Ostmane-Elhaou

 

(pb; 2024: graphic novel. Publisher: IDW Publishing.)

From the back cover

“Don’t. Murder. The. Locals. This is adorable brown bear and small-town serial killer Samantha Strong’s cardinal rule. After all, there’s a sea of potential victims in the big city just beyond the forest, and when you’ve worked as hard as Sam to build a cozy life and a thriving business in a community like Woodbrook—surrounded by friendly fellow animal folk and the aroma of cedar trees and fresh apple pies—the last thing you want to do is disturb the peace.

“So you can imagine Sam’s outrage when one of Woodbrook’s own meets a grisly, mysterious demise. . . and you wouldn’t blame her for doing anything it takes to hunt down her rival before the body count rises and Sheriff Patterson starts (literally) barking up the wrong tree.”

 

Review

Beneath is a fun, fast read with a storyline, tone and character that deftly balances the sweet-natured, slice-of-small-town life vibe, sometimes gory and visually shocking horror of a serial killer elements, with characters worth caring about or hissing at. I love the fact that Samantha Strong is horrible in her own, out-of-town way, yet relatable for her other emotions (or lack thereof) and sense of community connection. Great read, dark for an adolescent/YA work but still works as such.

Conan the Barbarian: Marvel Treasury Edition #4 by various artists and authors

 

(oversized pb; 1975: Marvel Comics graphic novel. Based on two of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories: “Rogues in the House,” originally published in January 1934, and “Red Nails,” originally published in July-October 1933. . . This oversized graphic novel is a collected reprint of several Marvel Comic comic book issues: Conan the Barbarian #11 [1971: “Rogues in the House”] and Savage Tales #2 and 3 [October and December 1973: “Red Nails”].)

 

Review, story by story

“Rogues in the House”: Betrayed by one of his many women (Jenna) after he “revenged” himself on “that priest of Anu,” Conan finds himself chained in a dungeon. An opportunity presents itself in the form of Murilo, a nobleman who offers to free Conan in exchange for the Cimmerian’s services as an assassin. Murilo’s stated target: Nabonidus, “red priest” and “master” of the unspecified city they’re in.

Conan accepts the offer, unaware that his liberator (Murilo) also has snuck into Nabonidus’s castle to make sure the targeted “man of science” meets a violent end—a mission further soured with a just-discovered horrific twist: Nabonidus is also a “wereman,” a giant ape creature calling itself Thak. Conan and Murilo immediately decide it’s best to flee the castle, as dealings with the supernatural rarely result in a survivable, positive outcome, something Conan knows all too well. They quickly find out escape is not an option for them.

Further twists in this illustrated tale make themselves known, making this fun, tightly penned and fast frame-paced comic, based on Robert E. Howard’s tale of the same name, originally published in Weird Tales magazine, January 1934.

Fans of Howard’s oeuvre might especially appreciate “Rogues”’s explicit reference to another Howard-penned Conan story, “The Tower of the Elephant,” originally published in Weird Tales in March 1933.

The artwork, perhaps because it was blown up for the oversized edition, has linework that is hazy, not solidly defined as well as slightly washed-out colors. This is not a complaint; I note this so readers of The Savage Sword of Conan magazine, which sports stellar, highly defined black and white artwork, don’t compare Savage to this more mainstream, less adult Marvel Treasury version.

 

“Red Nails [henceforth referred to as “Red”]”: Conan, trying to get into the loin cloth of a loath “Aquilonian she-pirate” (Valeria) he met in Sukmet, stalks her—he’s beguiled by her sword skills as much as he is by her wild beauty.

Just as she becomes aware of Conan’s creepy attentions, they sight a walled city in a barren plain. About the same time, Conan and Valeria fend off a horse-eating “dragon” (which looks like an uncommonly aggressive stegosaurus), compelling them to enter the mysterious, fortress-like city.

Upon entering the city-fort, Conan and Valeria encounter complicated dangers: they get caught in an intrametropolitan conflict between two feuding factions: the superstitious Xuchotl and the magick-wielding Xotalancs, whose long-term, internecine warfare is rooted in a broken brotherhood (Tecuhltli and Xotalanc’s), further betrayals and a seemingly ageless “witch,” Tascela.

“Red” is one of Howard’s most ambitious and character-complex Conan stories, even with its basic Hatfield/McCoys feud structure. Its original, print 1933 version, while impressive in intention, felt “weak. . . part of the reason for its disappointing delivery is because of its extended length—it’s a novelette, not a short story” (so I thought on 8/23/11, in my review of the print/story collection, Red Nails).

This Marvel Treasury Edition comic book version trims “Red”’s print-only excessive verbiage and length to its core, between its storytelling (if line-hazy and color faded) artwork and concise descriptions and dialogue. This makes the Marvel version of “Red” a better, more fun read, one that makes me appreciate Howard’s expansion of Conan’s world, along with his more fully realized characters, namely Valeria, whom even Conan recognizes as more than a beddable conquest by tale’s upbeat end.

(Valeria appears in director/co-screenwriter John Milius’s 1982 classic, Conan the Barbarian. Sandahl Bergman played the fierce “Aquilonian she-pirate.”)

This is a good, worth-owning read if you’re a Conan and/or early-1970s comic book fan.

“Red Nails” originally appeared in Weird Tales (July – October 1933, published in three serial parts).

Escape from New York: Volume Four by Christopher Sebela and various artists

 

(pb; 2017: fourth graphic novel in a series of four. Alternate title: Escape from New York: Escape from Cleveland. Collects issues #13-16 of the limited-run Escape from New York comic book. Publisher: Boom! Studios.)

 

From the back cover

“After Snake Plissken gave the President his comeuppance in incredibly public fashion, he retreated to a quiet life, away from the battlefield. That lasted for years, until Federal forces attempt to seize his land via eminent domain, which brings Snake once again at odds with his nemesis—the U.S.P.F. This time, Snake’s got a plan to strike back. . .”

 

Review

The fourth and final volume of Escape takes place fourteen years after the events of Volume 3. Snake has settled down in Ohio, with his faithful dog (affectionately called “Dummy”). But then the day he suspected would come: federal agents come for him after he repels two agents trying to foist an eminent domain order on him. Snake, with help from a few fellow bandits, embarks on a blitzkrieg cycle of robbery, death and other mayhem that leaves few in his sphere untouched.

As with the three previous Escape graphic novels, there’s plenty of humor, twists, explosions, dead people (many of them deserving of their fates) and Snake’s taciturn resistance to those “taking what they think is theirs.” The ending leaves Snake’s journey open to future adventures while providing a character- and story-true denouement of sorts. Excellent, fun wrap-up to a bang-up graphic novel/movie tie-in series.

The New York Ripper 2 by Stephen Romano, Alex Sarabia and others

 

(pb; 2025: limited release, for mature audiences only graphic novel. Graphic novel-only sequel to director/co-screenwriter Lucio Fulci’s 1982 film The New York Ripper. Publisher: Eibon Press/Vinegar Syndrome.)

 

Review

Caveat: spoilers in this review if you haven’t seen The New York Ripper (1982).

Ripper 2 picks up seven years after the grisly, especially nasty and sexual serial murders shown in Fulci’s 1982 source film. The Ripper (Peter Bunch) is officially dead, killed by the world-weary Lt. Frederick Williams near the end of Ripper. Now, it seems someone—a somehow-not-dead Bunch?—has resumed a relentless, similar spate of gut-spilling, crudely surgical killings, sometimes boldly executed in front of the cops even as they’re helpless to stop them. Nobody is safe in this lots o’ nudity, character- and plot-twisty tale, certainly not Paul Davis (the academic psychiatrist who helped hunt Bunch) nor Fay Majors (Bunch’s ex-girlfriend). A new player is equally traumatized by the Ripper’s offal-stench rampage also: Bob Hansen, Williams’ younger, thirty-something partner, whose life is about to seriously go off anything resembling rails.

Ripper 2 is a "for mature audiences"-fun, Times Square sleazy, gory and wild story, with over-the-top extreme horror illustrations (often involving a big knife ripping through red-splatter flesh), one that lives up to the source film’s screenplay, penned by director Lucio Fulci, Gianfranco Clerico and Vincenzo Mannino. This is a “Video Nasties” flick in graphic novel form, worth purchasing you’re into that sort of thing. One of my favorite reads of 2025.

Ripper 2, a limited release, can be purchased (in three package options) here.

Escape from New York: Volume Three by Christopher Sebela and various artists

 

(pb; 2017: third graphic novel in a series of four. Collects issues #9-12 of the limited-run Escape from New York comic book. Publisher: Boom! Studios.)

 

From the back cover

“As Snake Plisskin continues his quest for revenge, he leaves behind the frozen tundra of Siberia to enter the last place anyone, least of all those looking to kill him, would ever expect: Manhattan. Snake returns to the middle of New York city for one last word with The President!”

 

Review

The third volume of Escape, alternately titled Escape from New York: Escape to New York, finds Snake Plissken making his way back into that city prison so that he can kill the former U.S. President (from the original 1981 film and the first two Escape graphic novels). Seems that this President has been put in prison for his illicit activities during those earlier stories and is now touting himself a new version of the New York-ruling Duke, whom the former President killed at the end of the 1981 film—having succeeded in this “I’m the new A-number one!” role, it’s fallen to Snake to fell the man who initially set him on his current fight-and-pursuit situation. Not only that, Snake must (once he’s deposed the Duke) find a way out of New York, before the new U.S. President (President Sutter), who has reasons to hate the former President, bombs everyone in the citywide prison to hell.

Complicating matters are other, sometimes crazy characters. Fortunately for Snake, he has allies, some unexpected, e.g., the members of the Lenape [Native American] tribe, led by Lappawinsoe (aka Johnny), who control one of the World Trade Center towers. Can Snake get the former President, end his delusional reign, and leave New York, to finally live a quiet life?

The third volume maintains the same tone and elements that make its first two fun and tonally consistent with their source film and characters: wild-card characters, humor, well-timed and potent action, and overall good writing. For fans of the 1981 film and the first two graphic novel volumes, Volume Three may prove to be a worthwhile purchase. Followed by a fourth and final volume, Escape from New York: Escape from Cleveland.

Escape from New York: Volume Two by Christopher Sebela and various artists

 

(pb; 2016: second graphic novel in a series of four. Collects issues #5-8 of the limited-run Escape from New York comic book. Publisher: Boom! Studios.)

 

From the back cover

“After making it through the madhouse of Florida, Snake Plissken gets on a plane, only to be thrown out over Siberia, returning him to a battlefield he thought he left behind. Continuing the story that picks up right where the classic film left off, writer Christopher Sebela (High Crimes, Welcome Back) and artist Diego Barreto (Iredeemable) drop the classic antihero into the middle of a brand-new Cold War.”

 

 

Review

In the also titled Escape from New York: Escape from Siberia, Snake is dropped (with a parachute) into all-too-familiar, war-torn Leningrad, site of his previous, pre-crime military assignment. There he is forced to join a U.S. military unit led by Major King, an icy and sly woman who takes an instant dislike to Snake. Not only that, the helmeted and metal masked soldier known as Texas Thunder, with his spiked metal suit, is in the unit as well. Who is Texas Thunder? (Read and find out!).

When Snake winds up in Tunguska, site of a famous meteor crash, he and his reluctant and sociopathic scientist fellow traveler (Bulgarov) encounter a dangerous cult, whose goals and upcoming ceremony may prove fatal to Snake and Bulgarov.

Vol. Two/Siberia, like Vol. 1/Florida, is an excellent, tone- and character-true (thus far) follow-up to the original Escape (1981), with its wild characters, humor. The artwork is good as well. This is a fun, fast-moving and bursting-with-action read, one with a cliffhanger finish. Followed by Escape from New York: Escape to New York.

Scary Book: Insects by Kazuo Umezu

 

(pb; 2003, 2006: second volume in Umezu’s Scary Book manga series. Japanese-to-English translation by Kumar Sivasubramanian; lettering and retouch by Kathryn Renta. Followed by Scary Book: Faces.)

 

From the back cover

“Kazuo Umezu, ‘The Stephen King of manga,’ returns with the second frightening volume of Scary Book. In ‘Butterfly Grave,’ a young woman, Megumi, is paralyzed by an inexplicable, devastating fear of butterflies, a phobia brought on by the mysterious and untimely death of her mother when Megumi was still an infant. Upon visiting her mother’s grave years after her death, Megumi becomes haunted by a black butterfly that only she can see and which seemingly causes waves of destruction and misery to Megumi’s family and friends wherever it appears. But when Megumi’s father decides to remarry. Megumi begins to fear that her new mother is turning into the very thing she dreads most.”

 

Review

As with the first Scary Book (Reflections), manga/J-horror fans may easily find much to enjoy in this second volume of Umezu’s Scary Book trilogy. The artwork is mainstream manga-realistic, plausibly slipping into its characters’ visualized mindsets and realities (veering between horror, silliness and bloody violence), its writing mostly solid, entertaining, at least until its last third.

Unlike Insects, this second volume is one 227-page story (“Butterfly Grave”), a mix of The Babadook (2014; director/screenwriter: Jennifer Kent), J-horror manga and Alfred Hitchcockian psychological mystery and intrigue. It’s Babadook-esque in that Megumi is often irritating and bizarre in her loud, violent constant-panic-mode behavior (like young Samuel in Babadook). It’s Hitchcockian in that as the story progresses, it seems Megumi’s off-putting behavior might be justified by the seeming intentions of some around her, who might not wish the best for her.

As noted before, Insects has a good, entertaining, steady build storyline for the most part. Near the end Megumi’s seemingly irrational flights of nightmare and its Reveal/climax scenes run a bit long. Still, it’s a fast, worthwhile read, one worth checking out. Followed by Scary Book: Faces.

The Town of Pigs by Hideshi Hino

 

(pb; 1983, English translation 2022: manga)

 

From the back cover

“One night, under a blood red moon glimmering with demonic beauty, a group of devilish creatures armed with axes and spears came riding into a quiet city on horseback.

“One by one, they loaded the villagers up into cages and carried them off without any explanation. . . I barely managed to escape alive.”

 

Review

This 185-page manga, with little-to-no explanation for its immediate, violent and gory events and its bizarre, character-centric end-twist, is a blast of a read, with great artwork, a confident tone (it doesn’t spoon feed anything to its readers) and overall impressive delivery. Great read, might be puzzling for those who aren’t big on reading between strange lines.

Epic Collection: Ghost Rider—Hell on Wheels by various artists and writers

 

(oversized pb; 1972—1975, 2022. Collects Marvel Spotlight #5-12, Ghost Rider #1-11, and Marvel Team-Up #15.)

From the back cover

“In 1972, one of the most iconic characters in comic book history, the flame-skulled Ghost Rider, burned his demonic presence into readers’ minds. Forevermore, a legion of fans were addicted to the Rider’s combination of hell-on-wheels drama and action-horror adventure. And it begins here when Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the devil to save his friend’s life. The payment due? Transformation into the Ghost Rider. The stories that follow will take the horror hero to Hell to battle Satan, pit him against the tempting Witch Woman and team him with Daimon Hellstrom, Son of Satan. Written by Gary Friedrich and Tony Isabella and gloriously illustrated by Mike Ploog, Tom Sutton and Jim Mooney.”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review of these fifty-year-old comics.

GR = Ghost Rider

JB = Johnny Blaze

These opening issues of GR are fun, sometimes above-average reads, especially toward the later issues shown in this collection. Initially, there’s a lot of repetitive framing in consecutive issues (Satan, having made a crooked deal with a naïve, curiously childlike JB, seeks to reap JB’s soul via different, malefic operatives). Then there’s the issue of why JB sells his soul, his reasoning—beyond his short-sightedness and masochistic personality—reading as paper-thin. If you can get past that (I eventually did), GR, at least in these issues, is entertaining, with more plot variation and character deepening. Good tween-to-teen-mindset stuff, for the most part, with consistent, stellar artwork.

Followed by Epic Collection: Ghost Rider—The Salvation Run.

 

Review, issue by issue

Marvel Spotlight: “Ghost Rider” (#5): A desperate situation leads an adolescent, stunt-motorcyclist Johnny Blaze to make a dumb decision: he sells his soul to Satan, who cheats Johnny via a sly loophole. Johnny now turns into a flaming-skull, nighttime demon (Ghost Rider), even though Satan has yet to fully claim Johnny’s soul.

This origin-story issue works if Johnny is a sixteen-year-old; such is the adolescent emotionalism that drives him to sell his soul. . . for what? That an emotionally abusive old man and supposed friend (Crash Simpson) has a few more years of life? Both Crash and his daughter, Roxanne—also Johnny’s potential girlfriend—treat Johnny like crap over a misunderstanding, one he doesn’t bother correcting them on. This is all too plot-convenient dumb, even for a comic book. While this doesn’t entirely ruin the issue, it makes for an at-times badly written read with two key emotionally schizophrenic characters (the Simpsons) who are wildly inconsistent in their mood swings.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “Angels from Hell” (#6): Johnny Blaze tangles with a biker gang, led by the temperamental, ginger-Afro’d Curly Samuels. When it’s revealed that Curly worships Satan, who seeks to claim His bounty on Johnny’s soul, things get worse for Johnny.

This is an interesting, okay issue story-wise, as Curly’s character (and his true identity) ring strange, when one considers that he’s eager to sacrifice Roxanne “Roxie” Simpson (Johnny’s emotionally schizophrenic romantic interest) to Satan.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “Die, Die, My Darling!” (#7): Curly Samuels, Satanic biker—revealed to be the angry soul vessel of Crash Simpson (Roxanne’s father)—is commanded by Satan to sacrifice Roxanne, something Samuels/Simpsons struggles with.

Meanwhile, Blaze/Ghost Rider, looking for his kidnapped girlfriend (again, Roxanne) evades motorcycle cops and maintains his stuntman roadshow while his surly road manager (Bart Slade) plots against Blaze.

Fun, slightly ridiculous issue: Why would Simpson sell his soul to Satan to right a minor-at-worst slight against Johnny? Still, the artwork is appropriately dramatic, as is the dialogue and overall writing.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Hordes of Hell” (#8): At the end of the last issue, GR and Crash Simpson/Curly Samuels were about to fight in front of the altar where Simpson’s daughter (Roxanne) was soon to be taken by Satan. Simpson’s strange revenge on Johnny (over an imagined “cowardice”) is reiterated by the frustrated Simpson.

Melodrama takes a downturn as a bigger threat to Crash and GR appears—a threat that Simpson/Samuels might have to fight too. This situation gets a curious, just-as-shifty-dangerous resolution.

Johnny Blaze/GR finds himself in further (possible) danger when he preps for a stunt, a motorcycle jump across Copperhead Canyon (part of the Grand Canyon). This section of canyon is a hotly contested territory, once part of Apache/Native American land: seems the Apache want it back, and they’re willing to fight for it anew, led by a fierce-minded shaman (Snake Dance), who has an intense dislike of Blaze/GR—as do Snake Dance’s followers.

Another cliffhanger finish to this action-packed, uneven but ultimately entertaining issue.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Snakes Crawl at Night. . .” (#9): Blaze/GR has a thought-to-be-fatal encounter with his Copperhead Canyon motorcycle jump.

Meanwhile, Bart Slade (Blaze’s surly road manager) tries to take over his Blaze’s traveling roadshow. Not only that, Snake Dance, the Apache shaman, with help from an ambivalent fellow tribesman (Sam Silvercloud, introduced in issue 8) mean to sacrifice Roxanne Simpson to their fiery snake god!

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Coming of Witch-Woman!” (#10): GR rushes to get Roxanne Simpson to the hospital before she succumbs to the snakebite she received during Snake Dance’s sacrificial ritual.

Meanwhile, Sam Silvercloud and other Apaches challenge the gone-wild Snake Dance—just as Linda Little-Tree (aka Witch-Woman), Snake Dance’s twenty-something daughter, shows up. Can she provide the anti-venom snake serum that Roxanne desperately needs.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “Season of the Witch-Woman” (#11): Linda Little-Tree, aka Witch-Woman—in the employ of Satan—recounts her life journey to Johnny Blaze/GR thus far while holding him prisoner in a metaphysical realm. (Is there anyone in this comic book who isn’t somehow under Satan’s sway?) She means to give him over to the dark overlord, but GR manages to escape, rushing to make his scheduled/roadshow jump across Copperhead Canyon.

 

Ghost Rider: “A Man Possessed!” (#1): Johnny Blaze, shot by police—unlike his GR alter-ego, he isn’t bulletproof—rides to protect Roxanne Simpson and winds up in a hospital.

“Several miles away” from Blaze’s “crash site,” Sam Silvercloud and Snake Dance (the latter no longer under malevolent influence) grapple with how to waken Linda Little-Tree (aka Witch-Woman) from her Satan-induced coma. To do so, Sam contacts a helpful Daimon Hellstrom, also known as a “Son of Satan.”

At Copperhead Canyon, Blaze’s treacherous road manager (Bart Slade) prepares to make the jump that Blaze can’t make (given Blaze’s injuries and hospital stay). Few, it seems, believe Slade can make that jump.

 

Ghost Rider: “Shake Hands with Satan” (#2): GR confronts Satan, who’s possessed Linda Little-Tree (aka Witch-Woman) in the netherworld while a biker gang (Ruthless Riders), led by Big Daddy Dawson—a huge, intimidating man—threaten Roxanne Simpson, Blaze’s girlfriend.

Daimon Hellstrom, rebellious “Son of Satan,” arrives at Snake Dance’s house, only to find Linda/Witch-Woman gone. But there’s a greater danger Sam Silvercloud and Snake Dance must face, one even Hellstrom can’t save them from.

 

Marvel Spotlight: “The Son of Satan!” (#12): Daimon Hellstrom, now under the nighttime influence of his aggressive alter ego, seeks Satan to usurp his power.

Elsewhere, Big Daddy Dawson and his bike gang menace Roxanne Simpson; Dawson claims the cowering young woman as his property.

This is an entertaining, good issue that brings together GR’s multiple characters and plotlines from previous Marvel Spotlight – GR issues. Unlike issues 5-11 of Spotlight, this issue ends on a less dire cliffhanger note. There’s still danger and imminent death situations for its lead characters but it’s relatively less melodramatic.

 

Ghost Rider: “Wheels on Fire” (#3): Daimon Hellstrom leaves GR and Linda Little-Tree (now free of Satanic possession) in the desert—thing is, when GR reverts to his Johnny Blaze alter ego, the wounds he sustains while GR (when he’s impervious to bullets, broken bones, etc.) afflict him when he’s no longer his flaming-head self. . . this is important, because in recent issues, GR/Blaze has accrued some physical damage. Can GR maintain his relative invulnerability to natural wounding until he and an unconscious Little-Tree escape the deep desert?

Meanwhile, Hellstrom has more pressing issues. One aspect of his alter (“night”) ego is that he wants to rule Hell as an innovative head—this means he must depose Satan first, while he’s still in his “night” self, and not in his “day” (more chill, humble) self. And since he’s in “night” mode.

GR finds a way to try and rescue Roxanne Simpson from Big Daddy Dawson, lead biker of his gang; when that rescue goes awry, Blaze (now the predominant alter ego) winds up in the hospital. Can he recover in time to track the on-the-run Dawson, who’s kidnapped Roxanne Simpson, Blaze/GR’s love? And is GR willing to commit murder to protect her?

This is one of the best GR issues I’ve read. It’s consistently solid, good, with no melodrama and it reveals a latent power GR didn’t know he had: he can create an on-fire motorcycle, one that exists while he’s in his GR persona.

 

Ghost Rider: “Death Stalks the Demolition Derby” (#4): After running afoul of a police roadblock—Blaze/GR is wanted for some of his supposed actions in previous issues—he’s arrested and hospitalized anew, his wounds still fresh. A new employer (the shady Duke Jensen) hires Blaze after he’s cleared of charges, and two months later, Blaze, as GR, rides in Jensen’s destruction derby, one that might kill GR.

Roxanne Simpson works undercover for the local Attorney General in Jensen’s office, to catch crooked operator Jensen. When she overhears a conversation she wasn’t supposed to, she’s in immediate danger again.

 

 

Ghost Rider: “And Vegas Writhes in Flame!” (#5): As cops bust into Duke Jensen’s derby-arena office, he reveals his true form; he’s Roulette, a reptile-faced demon! Alongside him, his right-hand man (Slifer) also transforms into his demonic self before they vanish into a ring of fire—Roxanne Simpson is safe from the demons, but the fire enveloping the office may claim her life.

Roulette, slinging fire bolts at GR, give him a choice: save the tied-to-a-chair-in-the-burning-office Roxanne, or save Las Vegas, NV, which is being set aflame with Roulette’s fire bolts. This is Roulette’s revenge, getting back at the crooks who ruined his life when he was a mere mortal. Can GR save Roxanne and Las Vegas, or will one, or both, be torched out of existence?

Good issue, with a villain whose backstory is interesting, and who (of course) is in the employ of Satan.

 

 

Marvel Team-Up: “If An Eye Offend Thee. . .” (#15): During one of Johnny Blaze/GR’s roadshows (poster-advertised as “Ghost Rider’s Motorcycle Extravaganza”), a new villain—The Orb, with his round eyeball-shaped helmet/mask—hypnotizes most of the packed arena while kidnapping Roxanne Simpson. Seems The Orb wants Blaze/GR to sign over ownership of his roadshow to him; years ago, he was merely Drake Shannon, Crash Simpson’s original/former partner, from decades ago, before an accident disfigured his face and nearly killed him. Now The Orb wants what should’ve been his!

Fortunately for GR, Peter Parker/Spider-man happens to be in the audience. Of course, having encountered GR in the past in a cooperative manner, he helps “flame-head” (as Spider-Man calls him) take down The Orb and his motorcycle thugs while GR tries to rescue Roxanne (again).

Good, entertaining issue, one that seeds GR with an interesting/recurring villain (The Orb).

 

Ghost Rider: “Zodiac II” (#6): In San Francisco, California, a quartet of costumed villains (Leo, Libra, Gemini and Sagittarius)—former members of Cornelius Van Lunt’s Zodiac gang—heist money from their ex-boss’s transport trucks. Their thieving tracks, character-wise, except all of them are also physically in prison!

Meanwhile, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Johnny Blaze/GR tries to rescue Roxanne Simpson from gone-mad kidnapper Dave Barnett. Dave is the son of Vegas Attorney General Barnett (also a former FBI agent). It seems Dave was incensed by Blaze/GR’s reluctance to travel to San Francisco to stop the ex-Zodiac gang doppelgängers.

This is a fun set-up issue for GR’s next showdown with Zodiac (next issue), though Dave Barnett’s motivation is especially irrational and short-sighted (even for a comic book character), resulting in a paper-thin plot for this issue (#6)—it’s almost as paper-thin as Blaze’s teen-dumb reasoning for making a deal with Satan at the start of GR’s original run: Satan, as anyone who’s Christian-biased might guess, is almost certainly going to cheat his deal-partners, especially in a Marvel universe work!

 

Ghost Rider: “. . . And Lose his Own Soul!” (#7): GR and The Stunt-Master (making an impromptu decision to aid GR) pursue former Zodiac supervillain Taurus on motorbikes. Can they stop him before his full powers—and true identity (“Aquarius. . . the one man Zodiac!”)—are revealed, and the one who makes them possible (duplicitous demon Slifer, from GR #5) succeed in their plans?

This is another fun read, a solid wrap-up to the Zodiac II storyline (began in issue 6), with a clever, character- and GR-true twist, making this is one of my favorite GR issue-endings.

 

 

Ghost Rider: “Satan Himself!” (#8): Satan works against JB/GR on two fronts: first, he torments Roxanne Simpson with  visions of her father (Crash) in Hell—he does this because Roxanne is Blaze’s pure-soul key to staying out of the Devil’s clutches. Second, Satan transforms diminutive sized demon Slifer (GR, issues #5-7) into a kaiju eiga-sized, Cyclopean hell-beast, “Inferno the Fear-Monger.” With his terror-causing hand rays, Inferno creates widespread panic in San Francisco, CA.

Meanwhile, Satan reveals to Roxanne that he was actually the robed, seemingly benevolent “Messenger” who told JB that he’d take Crash Simpson’s soul out of Hell (Marvel Spotlight #8)—a promise that wasn’t kept!

This is an exciting, firing-on-all-creative-cylinders issue, one of their best thus far.

 

 

Ghost Rider: “The Hell-Bound Hero!” (#9): GR, still warring against Inferno in San Francisco, CA, seems doomed. Satan has him dead to rights when an unexpected, but-not-entirely-egregious divine being blocks Satan’s intentions, reframing the elements, relationships and limits of JB’s life and powers: as GR, he’s no longer invulnerable to bullets and other weapons, but he’s also no longer beholden to Satan for the crooked deal he made with the giant, horned demon king.

Not only that, Slifer—no longer in his Inferno manifestation—gets a new physical form and more powers, to further bedevil JB/GR.

While the last-minute divine intervention element/character feels cheesy, bordering on writerly, this shift and its repercussions also ushers in a new, possibly more varied and exciting period for GR and those around him. . . a mixed-bag issue, it’s still above average for most of its visual and plotted delivery.

 

Ghost Rider (#10): This issue is a reprint of the August 1972 issue of Marvel Spotlight (#5), where GR battles The Incredible Hulk. See that issue review for details (it’s the first listed issue in this collection).

 

Ghost Rider: “Desolation Run!” (#11): During a desert motorcycle race—JB was told about it by The Stunt-Master (GR, #8 and 9)—GR and his fellow bikers are forced to contend with The Incredible Hulk, who’s been tricked into thinking that GR attacked him earlier that day. The trickster in question is Slifer, shape-shifting demon, and recurring GR villain (issues #5-9).

The writers included the following “Note”: . . . these events “occur between page 6, panel 2, of Hulk #184 and page 10, panel 3 of that same issue.”

Fun, solid issue, one that is “respectfully dedicated to the memory of [Batman co-creator] Bill Finger, giant motorcycle and all.”

Scary Book: Reflections by Kazuo Umezu

 

(pb; 2003: first volume in Umezu’s Scary Book series. Japanese-to-English translation by Kumar Sivasubramanian; lettering and retouch by Kathryn Renta.)

From the back cover

“The spine-chilling influence of Japanese horror cinema has taken hold of Western audiences, with many of these terrigying films being adapted from classic manga stories. The acknowledged grandmaster of horror manga is Kazuo Umezu—known as ‘the Stephen King of manga,’ with several of his stories being adapted to film—and Dark Horse Manga is proud to bring his Scary Book horror anthology to Western readers for the first time. Reflections offers two feature-length tales of terror: ‘The Mirror,’ in which a narcissistic girl’s reflection begins to take ruthless command of her life; and ‘Demon of Vengeance,’ where a sadistic warlord bent on seeking retribution for his selfish and reckless son’s injuries finds the tables of revenge turned against him. . .”

 

Review

Manga/J-horror fans may easily find much to enjoy in this first volume of Umezu’s Scary Book trilogy. The artwork is mainstream manga-realistic, plausibly slipping into its characters’ visualized mindsets and realities (veering between horror, silliness and bloody violence), its writing solid, entertaining. “The Mirror,” less traditionally violent than its follow-up (and shorter) tale, “Demon Vengeance,” provides a leavening counterbalance to “Demon”’s grim samurai tale. An above-average work (“Mirror” runs longer than I might’ve liked), Reflections is worth checking out, possibly owning if you’re into collecting worthwhile manga. Followed by Scary Book: Insects.(2003).

“Moon Knight” Omnibus, Vol. 2 by various authors and artists (Part 2 of 2)

(oversized hb; 2021: graphic novel. Collects Moon Knight #21-38; Iron Man #161; Power Man and Iron Fist #87; Marvel Team-Up #144; Moon Knight #1-6 [second run, 1985]; Marvel Fanfare #30, 38 and 39; Solo Avengers #3; and Marvel Superheroes #1.)

From the inside flap

“Moon Knight’s first solo series comes to a close, including the climax of Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz’s artwork continues to evolve before your eyes, he and Moench put their tortured hero through a series of trials—including the return of the waking nightmare that is Morpheus and the vigilante Stained Glass Scarlet, now wielding a crossbow as her weapon of choice. But while encounters with these and other deadly adversaries take their toll, they have nothing on the task of juggling the identities of mercenary Marc Spector, millionaire playboy Steven Grant and cabbie Jake Lockley—not least the strain that puts on his love life. And just as Marlene Alraune starts to doubt their romantic future, her brother gets caught up in the madness—and things go from bad to worse. When a mystery man is inspired to seek power by becoming Moon Knight’s dark nemesis, will the schemes of the Black Spectre drive a final wedge between Marc and Marlene—or perhaps destroy the silver-and-ebon-clad marauder once and for all? Though that task may fall to Moon Knight’s very first foe, the Werewolf By Night—back and more ferocious than ever, as only Sienkiewicz could draw him.

“Other creators take Moon Knight in new directions as he fights killers, super villains and zuvembies—and shares adventures with Brother Voodoo, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Power Man and Iron Fist, the X-men, the Fantastic Four, and more. But as he falls further under the influence of a certain Egyptian god, he emerges stronger than ever—as the Fist of Khonshu! It’s the dawn of a new era for Marc Spector, but where does that leave Marlene?”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 2 of the review is here. Vol. 2 (Part 1) starts here.

The creative team behind Moon Knight really upped their game in these final Volume 1-run (1980-1984) issues. A lot changed, not just for Moon Knight, but its supporting characters (e.g., Gena, MK’s diner-owning friend and mother of two energetic teenage boys), and those wild changes made equally big waves in the storylines as well as Spector/Grant/MK’s bruising, who-am-I mindset and life. The first five issues of this omnibus wrap up the Volume 1 run, leaving MK (as well as his friends and family) in a good place.

The Volume 2 run (six issues, 1985) shatter MK’s quiet life—Spector/Grant had left his vigilante lifestyle behind—and compel him to don the jet and silver spandex again, this time without his usual supporting characters (e.g., Marlene Aulrane) always close by. Volume 2 issues also bring to the fore a more supernatural element in MK’s life (the Volume 1 creators had left the extent of MK’s mystical elements open for readers to decide), and the Volume 2 really run with those elements, connecting MK (now truly “the Fist of Khonshu”) with three immortal Thebes Valley priests who regularly unsettle Spector/MK’s peace of mind as they alert him to incidents of global malfeasance and terror. The Volume 2 run ends on a solid, entertaining note.

The five remaining non-Moon Knight issues in this hardback (and physically heavy) collection place MK in a guest role.  Some of them are strange (even for a MK read), as if any superhero could’ve been inserted into his role(s)/appearances, while others are entertaining in a general way.

The quality of Moon Knight’s (and associated titles) artwork varies with who’s doing the drawing, linework and coloring. Most of it’s good (in that gritty, experimental and pulpy series-true way). The rest embraces a new aesthetic, one that may or may not grab you, depending on when you came up reading comic books (and if you grew up reading them).

Ultimately, “Moon Knight” Omnibus, Vol. 2, with its complicated, often tormented and hallucinating title character, is as great a read as Vol. 1, worth owning (despite their not-for-the-casual reader priciness).

 

Review, issue by issue

Moon Knight: “Primal Scream”/”Scorecard” (#34)—“Primal Scream”: Gena , local diner owner and Moon Knight’s [MK] friend, is viciously attacked by a young man (Frank) exposed to a dangerous chemical (the result of a secret experiment, code name: “Project Primal”—an operation MK’s alter-ego, Marc Spector, once confronted). In the now, MK must track down Frank as well as locate the source of his poisonous infection, before it spreads to others.

Excellent issue, art-, character- and writing-wise, with its planetary environment-focused message, reminiscent of elements in Dan O’Bannon’s 1985 film The Return of the Living Dead. This issue is scripter Tony Isabella’s first work for MK.

 

“Scorecard”: This fun, experimental issue is narrated by a decrepit, macabre-humored host (the Scorekeeper) in a riff on the EC horror-esque works like Marvel’s The Vault of Evil (1973-1975).

In “Scorecard,” the Scorekeeper asks readers if MK’s anti-crime efforts are effective, actually help society at large. The answer is obvious, yes, shown in an overview of MK’s street encounters, including the trouncing of two thugs pretending to be werewolves while they prey on local (New York City) shopkeepers. This mini-story also continues the storyline of “Primal Scream,” with Gena making a post-Frank-attack, life-changing announcement to her adolescent sons (Ricky, Ray).

 

Moon Knight: “Second Wind” (#35, double-sized issue): Excellent issue!

A battle with a winged thief (The Fly) leaves MK seriously injured—possibly unable to walk for the rest of his life. As if that weren’t bad enough, a Soviet mutant (Bora), with her tornado-creating powers, is on a mission to hunt down and blow into oblivion those who defected ballet dancers who betrayed her and their country.

When MK (as Steven Grant) and Marlene Alraune cross paths with her, and he is unable to stop her, he enlists the aid of the Uncanny X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Can they stop Bora? Can MK/Grant regain his ability to walk? And what is it that Gena, MK’s diner-owning friend and anti-crime ally, feels the burning need to tell him?

There’s a lot happening in this issue, even for a Moon Knight comic book, all of it entertaining, tightly penned and risk-taking (series- and character-wise) in the best ways.

 

Moon Knight: “Ghosts” (#36): A Nubian demonic necromancer (Anmutef) from the twentieth century B.C. is accidentally resurrected by MK’S Khonshu-enhanced presence, threatening the world anew, and necessitating initially unwanted-by-MK assistance from Stephen Strange, master of the mystic arts. MK and Strange should remove Amutef from our earthly realm, but MK (who’s sworn off any belief in Khonshu’s supernatural intervention and powers in his life, must somehow rediscover his wonder about the albino-statue god.

Excellent game-changing issue in the Moon Knight series, one whose repercussions are likely to ring loud in future issues.

 

Moon Knight: “Red Sins” / “Crawley” (#37) – “Red Sins”: Elias Spector, Marc’s rabbi father, lies on his deathbed while Marc/MK processes that fact by pummeling neo-Nazi punks. Once MK comes back to himself, he and Marlene Alraune go to see his father just as a bizarre turn of events sets everything on its head. Excellent, with a cliffhanger finish to this.

 

“Crawley”: Bertrand “Jake” Crawley, one of MK’s key street informants and friends, recounts how he helped MK deal with a neighborhood mob of people. Fun, okay story.

 

Moon Knight: “Final Rest” (#38): In the cliffhanger conclusion to last issue’s first story (“Red Sins”), a curiously familiar red-robed and -masked magick practitioner (Zohar), who took Elias Spector’s corpse, is tracked by MK and Marlene Alraune. But Zohar has a few insidious tricks up his voluminous sleeves. This is a particularly dark and life-changing conflict for Marc Spector/MK, especially fun (for the reader) and intense.

This is the final issue of the original run of Moon Knight, a good send-off.

 

Marvel Team-Up: Spider-Man and Moon Knight — “My Sword I Lay Down!” (#144): The two heroes come together to battle The White Dragon, a white- and red-spandex clad villain who means to take over New York City’s Chinatown district after one of MK’s friends and Chinatown leader (Do Yang) dies. Good, entertaining issue.

 

Moon Knight: “Night of the Jackal” (#1, volume 2): In this first-issue, series reboot (and sequel series to the original run of Moon Knight), Steven Grant has sworn off his MK-related vigilante activities and is living a happy life with his longtime, live-in girlfriend (Marlene Alraune). Alraune, like Spector/Grant is thrilled; she no long has to worry about her lover’s safety.

It all comes to a crashing end when a new villain, a resurrected priest (“Araamses, brother to the pharaoh Seti” and “priest to the god Anubis, Slayer of souls and dweller of darkness”) threatens to destroy Khonshu, the moon god who resurrected MK. A reluctant Grant, after a visit to Thebes, the Valley of the Kings, is (again) compelled to by three seemingly immortal priests to become “the Fist of Khonshu,” even if it means losing those he loves in the process.

Entertaining going-back-to-MK’s-roots reboot, worth reading. This first Volume 2 issue kicks off a more supernatural take on MK’s adventures, a take that was absent the Volume 1 stories (Bill Sienkiewicz preferred MK’s world and adventures to be more real-world.)

 

Moon Knight: “Deadly Knowledge” (#2, volume 2): Northern Yucatan, Mexico. Still grieving over being dumped by his longtime love (Marlene Alraune), MK, with help from über-feminist scientist Dr. Victoria Grail, tries to stop a Nazi experiment-obsessed scientist (Dr. Arthur Harrow) from completing his jungle-secret mission—it’s an especially personal quest for Harrow, whose twisted-mouth visage, the result of his “trigeminal neuralgia, tic douloureux,” might be cured by the human suffering he’s causing.

Good, fun issue; it introduces not just one (possibly) recurring villain, but several—including those working for the imposing O.M.N.I.U.M., Harrow’s financial benefactors.

 

Moon Knight: “A Madness of Dreams!” (#3, volume 2): Morpheus, within the body of Peter Alraune (Marlene’s brother), awakens anew (Morpheus was last seen in Moon Knight, #22 volume 1). The dream demon escapes Seaview Research Hospital where he was interned, his violent rampage resulting in a hospital-hostage situation, a full-blown nightmare event that the police, cordoned outside, are helpless to end.

Can MK rescue the hospital-trapped Marlene Alraune and put down, again, the contagious insanity that is the ebon-energies-blasting Morpheus? This is another good issue that ties together Spector/MK’s personal life with that of his vigilante life. Lieutenant detective Flint, MK’s New York cop buddy, last seen in Moon Knight #30 volume 1, also makes an appearance!

 

Moon Knight: “Bluebeard’s Castle” (#4, volume 2): Female Fortune 500 executives—four so far—have been kidnapped and are being held for future execution by the misogynistic, seething Bluebeard, a new villain in MK’s gallery of foes. It looks like the modern-day pirate’s crime spree will continue unless the police stop it, something they’ve been unable to do. A desperate Detective Flint asks a reluctant MK to help stop the neuron-ray-blasting, newspaper- and cop-taunting kidnapper, a request Spector/Grant struggles with.

Fun, solid issue. It’s not difficult to figure out who Bluebeard really is, but considering it’s a comic book it’s a non-issue, at least in this case.

 

Moon Knight: “Debts and Balances” (#5, volume 2): Khonshu’s three mystical priests from Thebes (specifically the Valley of the Kings), first seen in “Night of the Jackal” (#1, volume 2), compel MK to leave New York City to go to Chicago, IL to save sacrificial children from the immortality-seeking White Cobra Cult and (possibly) three black-clad assassins, who are somehow linked to the cult. Good, entertaining work.

 

Moon Knight: “The Last. . . White Knight” (#6, volume 2): An unspecified South Caribbean island. MK, with help from a junkie US Customs Special Agent (Lynora Goode), sets out to take down a heroin-dealing gang . Led by fierce and imposing Mama White, a priestess and “keeper of the old faith, protector of ancient rites,” the gang also kidnaps children for a mysterious “Sacrament” ritual—one which MK might be forced to take part in!

Solid, entertaining finale to the Volume 2 run of Moon Knight.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “Real to Reel” (#30): MK and Marlene Alraune (who was not with Steven Grant/MK in the Volume 2 run of Moon Knight), hanging out in a small backwoods town, are drawn into a crazy-weird situation where a cinema verité filmmaker draws the wrath of locals and a spectral bodied Mother Nature—the latter partially born of a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment, a “Syzygy Quadrature.” The filmmaker has accomplished this massive piss-everyone-off event by killing a herd of deer for a scene in a film shoot, then leaving their corpses to rot, waste away.

This one-off issue is a disconnected-from-Moon-Knight-Volume-2 work, a forgettable, weird and bland trifle of a Moon Knight tale (it could almost be applied to any superhero, with MK’s name filling in the character-blanks. It also has a ridiculous Marlene/MK-argument subplot, one that belongs in a teen romance work, not worthy of Moon Knight.

 

Solo Avengers #3: Hawkeye and Moon Knight—“Tower of Shadows”: MK, seeking leads on a criminal (Cornelius Van Lunt), is given a late-night address to visit by his former-foe-turned-friend Jack Russell (aka Werewolf By Night)—but when MK has to run a gauntlet of death traps as well as fight a blue-cowled and -caped phantom of sorts (The Shroud), MK questions whether or not he’s being “set up” and: is there more to this situation than he initially thought?

This issue, like the MK-visiting Marvel Fanfare: “Real to Reel” (#30) issue, feels off as a MK-centric work. When MK, frustrated by the “Tower of Shadows” traps and attacks by The Shroud, begins questioning Jack Russell’s loyalty to MK—something that Russell has repeatedly proven during the original runs of Werewolf By Night and Moon Knight—it just reads wrong. Sub-par writing as a MK-centric work.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “Whatever Happened to the Podunk Slam?” (#38): At an all-female orphanage (Danielle Clarke Home for Lost and Friendless Girls), young girls begin disappearing just as old women begin appearing in their place and a boy band (pop quintette Podunk Slam) is in town. MK, ditching his Steven Grant persona (and merged its millionaire status with his birth name, Marc Spector), investigates this strange situation, with help from his right-hand man and copter pilot (Frenchie) and his art-collection advisor (Spence).

 

“Podunk” is an especially fun and wild-for-a-comic-book issue, one that recalls some of more enjoyable Volume 1 Moon Knight entries.

 

Marvel Fanfare: “#*@%&c” (#39): Relatively light entry in the Moon Knight series where MK fights off terrorists. Fun, offbeat read.

 

Marvel Super-Heroes: “Old Business” (#1): Houston, Texas. Marc Spector, visits an old friend—Gena, former owner of Gena’s Diner (and one of MK’s “Baker Street Irregulars”) in Moon Knight Volume 1 run, now the co-owner and manager of a fancy restaurant. His visit is interrupted when he must don MK’s silver-and-jet outfit to stop a jewel thief (The Raptor).

While The Raptor feels like a lightweight villain, it’s entertaining, and the scenes where Gena and Spector are talking are heartwarming, a nice capper to the just-after-Volume 2 Moon Knight run.