October Scary and Fun Book and Comic-Book Reading: Scarlett Hart, Graveyard Shift, The Immortal Hulk, Semiautomagic, Border Town, The Thrilling Adventure Hour, Infidel

Get your October reading on with these spooky titles, ranging from YA books to comics. Here's what I'm digging into this month.

Scarlett Hart: Monster Hunter
Marcus Sedgwick and Thomas Taylor

I don’t know why this graphic novel or comic book hasn’t garnered more attention. The art’s gorgeous, with hints of Kevin O’Neill’s work from Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (first two volumes). The steampunk feel, too, with gadgetry abounding, and a solid parade of monsters, are also parallels. Scarlett is an Agent-Carteresque character, or an impoverished Bruce Wayne. She has her own family butler, Napoleon, with whom Scarlett hunts beasties for much-needed cash to lift them out of poverty. They even live in an estate reminiscent of Wayne Manor and make their getaways in an antique car (in a sense, her own Batmobile). Taylor stunningly deftly employs simple panels to evoke the truest and most dramatic of moments and expressions.This is a YA comic-book trade, but a great and pithy read for adults, too.

Thomas Taylor's Scarlett Hart. 

Graveyard Shift (A Hauntings Novel) 
Chris Westwood

Also known as The Ministry of Pandemonium (U.K. edition, I believe) 

Ben Harvester’s gift for drawing serves him well as he helps souls find their way to the afterlife. But Ben also has much to contend with; he's a newcomer at a school, living with his single mother, and they are down on their luck in Hackney (Fun fact: Where I once resided! - Editor's Note). Kudos to Westwood for depicting a character with lymphoma and the complications and heartbreaks that it metes out. Westwood's style is also clean and compelling. With the help of the mysterious Mr. October, whom Ben meets in the titular graveyard, Ben encounters a variety of macabre entities. Not suitable for kids under nine, I’d venture. Some truly scary and gory instances inhabit this volume, inspired by a goodly dose of Stephen King, but also J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and arguably Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere and even Michael Moorcock. A YA title.

Joe Bennett's rendition of The Immortal Hulk.

The Immortal Hulk 
Al Ewing and Joe Bennett and various other artists

It’s spooky and unnerving. The art, even when guested by others, is compelling and creepy and delightful. Each night, Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk to exact revenge on wrongdoers. And if Bruce is dead, the Hulk rises from the grave or, more accurately, the slab in the mortuary. He’s more devious than even the Mr. Fixit incarnation back in the early 1990's, able to smell a lie and possessing a singular preternatural intelligence. This Hulk incarnation also finds great inspiration in the 1970’s  and 1980’s T.V. series of five-years' length. Even a young female Arizona Herald reporter, Jackie McGee (does the name ring a bell?) pursues the stories of sightings of the titular green monster. He should, by rights (and at the hand of Hawkeye shooting two arrows into him), be quite dead. In addition, Ewing is building an underlying mythos regarding gamma radiation, and a green door through which other entities have come into this world. It's a whiff of Lovecraft, but it's enough to add discomfiting texture to the story. Bruce Banner also sees the Hulk in the mirror. I could go on, but you get the idea. The Immortal Hulk  is one of the most interesting ideas coming out of Marvel Comics right now, aside from anything Chip Zdarsky or Mark Waid are doing.

Jerry Ordway's beautiful work in Semiautomagic.

Semiautomagic 
Jerry Ordway and Alex de Campi
(Re-reading - Ed.)

Still so good, this Dark Horse comic (in trade paperback now) features fallible warlock Alice Creed, an avatar for John Constantine. Alice is fighting demons and the general supernatural at a great cost to herself and others. It features simply beautiful art from Jerry Ordway and a razor-sharp and merciless script from notable comic-book scribe Alex de Campi. As always, de Campi is worth watching, whatever project she is writing.

























Border Town 
Eric M. Esquivel and artist Ramon Villalobos

This is the first book out of the gate of DC Comic’s relaunching Vertigo Comics line. Border Town's half-Irish, half-Mexican protagonist, Frank (Francisco) trounces a skinhead bully in issue one. Writer Eric M. Esquivel suggests timely provocative ideas, with nods to Grant Morrison. Artist Ramon Villalobos does gorgeous work, reminiscent of Frank Quitely. And, to top all that off, readers get to feast their eyes on monsters from Mexican folklore, possibly for the first time in this medium. Step aside, chupacabra, the Latin American beastie that purportedly preys on animals, particularly goats. Border Town serves up a slew of other monsters that we've never seen in comics. Take my money, Border Town. Any comic series opening with armed American shitkicker right-wingers declaring “Make America great again, mother-f*^#*@s!”, chasing runners in border-town, Devil’s Fork and suffering karmic justice deserves, it. 

Thank you, artist Ramon Villalobos, for this.

Phil Hester's work on The Thrilling Adventure Hour,
exhibiting its dry sense of humour.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour: A Spirited Romance
Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and illustrated by Phil Hester

Based on the successful podcast of the same name, Frank and Sadie Doyle, members of the upper crust, see ghosts, kick butt, and take names. Much witty patter and booze abound. Think The Thin Man series meets Ghostbusters. Thank you, Boom! Studios.

Infidel 

Pornsak Pichetshot and artists Aaron Campbell and José Villarrubia
Writer Pornsak Pichetshot and artists Aaron Campbell and José Villarrubia portray a young American-Muslim woman who is tormented by entities that feed off xenophobia in her multi-ethnic apartment. Racial tensions and smart writing abound, showing each character’s points of view, even as they fall under the malevolent influence of racism.  Extra points for portraying a struggle with faith on all sides. Image Comics delivers on this subversive and fresh horror tale of five parts.

Aaron Campbell's art is exquisitely detailed, showing a mastery of the classic human figure.
The characters' faces are stunningly true-to-life.