Hello, my friends. The world is full of random kinds of terror, whether they manifest & strike during the Season of the Witch or any other time of the calendar year. Other times, there’s all kinds of otherworldly beings that can either be lurking within the shadows or are more than capable of striking in the light of regular grounds. No matter how those creatures mingle within their creepy corners, some of their ventures are worthy of being brought to light within various forms of story-telling media. That’s exactly what I intend to do as I welcome you back to the spooky celebration known as the…
Last time, we began a special theme for 2024 called the “Oops! All Anthology Edition” as the initial entry saw members of a superhero group share some spooky stories with several semblances of the supernatural. While that comic was a joint publication between Image Comics and its former imprint WildStorm Productions, we’ll be seeing Image venturing on their own and carving out a few small tales focused on physically uncanny beings. On that note, I’ll set my critical eyes upon a singular comic called…
Published in August 2008, this one-shot featured some original short stories from four series that the company was releasing at the time. As for the kinds of various outings that these unique beings would ultimately find themselves in, let’s shamble our way inside and find out.
We open on our first tale involving a heroic lycanthrope known as “The Astounding Wolf-Man” (Story & Co-Creator: Robert Kirkman, Art & Co-Creator: Jason Howard). Specifically, we kick things off at a cemetery where a funeral is being held. While that’s going on, two agents are waiting at a nearby car and discussing about how a husband and wife had decreed in their will that their family butler named Dunford will not only become a legal guardian upon their demise, but also gets financial control over the mother’s assets. While it seems that the mother is deceased, the dad known as Gary Hampton has been missing for the past several days and that his identity as the Wolf-Man is known. As such, they assume that this graveyard would be a good place to look for him. They even mention that until they’re able to get any kind of key eyewitness sighting, they’ll be keeping an eye on the daughter. We then move into a quick flashback where it seems like a different man was the one who murdered the wife before Gary showed up as the Wolf-Man to maul him, yet the bodyguard’s description makes it seem like Hampton was the murderer. Either way, the daughter walked in on her transformed father and mistakenly believes that he killed her mother. From there, the flashback ends as a bodyguard reveals his handgun while mentioning that because of what the Lycan is capable of doing, he’s not leaving anything to chance. We shift to a store miles away as Gary tells the employee that he’s looking for Tony before being told that the guy is waiting for him in the back. From there, Hampton meets up with his man who informs him that his new identity of Gary Simpson is all set before receiving his I.D. card. Just then, Tony tells Gary that he’s aware of his actual last name and that he’s the Wolf-Man, since it’s his business to know about these things. Hampton says that he didn’t kill anyone and that he hasn’t turned himself in due to him thinking that no one would believe his story before requesting to fully explain himself. However, Tony and the employee hold him up at gunpoint as the former says that they assume that he either has some cash or has some kind of key that leads to a cash box. Either way, he tells Hampton to hand it over before reminding him that as long as the sun is still in the sky, they’ll be able to murder him as this tale concludes with a notice about this story actually continuing into the accompanying series’ eighth issue. From there, this segment ends with a full-page reminder to go check out the aforementioned series.
Next up, we have Duncan Rosenblatt a.k.a. “Firebreather” (Story & Co-Creator: Phil Hester, Art & Co-Creator: Andy Kuhn, Colors: Bill Crabtree) having to deal with a potential superpowered felon in a tale called “War Wing”. We begin with Duncan casually reading his Geometry textbook when he’s suddenly attacked by the titular figure while his hovering sphere is doubling as a video camera and records his actions. From there, War Wing keeps up his assaults, including a blast of charged ions, before the sphere accidentally reveals his first name: Todd. He then tells his hovering tech named Megabyter to call him by his codename before Firebreather says that he’s not a superhero or that he even remotely gets a thrill “on fighting random armored wannabe villains” before suggesting that he takes on actual heroes like Invincible or Shadowhawk. However, War Wing resumes his attacks as Duncan says that he doesn’t have time to properly engage him in a proper fight since he has to do his Geometry homework in order to prevent his grade from slipping, thus forcing his mother to forbid him from getting his own learner’s permit. Thankfully, Todd calms down and learns that Rosenblatt has been stuck on a certain problem for a long while and that he originally came to this park in order to get some proper peace & quiet. War Wing then deactivates Megabyter before he finally explains why he attacked him in the first place. Because Firebreather was the only hero within his general area, he decided to use his hovering tech in order to record an audition video of his fight in order to try and join a syndicate called “The Elite”. He goes on to mention that it’s an elite group of science villains and that it’s hard to acquire the proper membership into their organization. While Todd now understands his situation, he still says that he can’t help him out. Fortunately, War Wing is able to come up with a compromise. Later, Todd has helped Rosenblatt out with his Geometry homework before they prepare themselves within a struggle position. Firebreather then asks him why he wants to join a supervillain team instead of offering his efforts on an actual superhero group such as the Dynamo 5, to which War Wing simply says that “being bad” allows him to receive a strong financial payment. From there, he reactivates Megabyter as their pretend conflict gets recorded before Todd is able to defeat him and head out. From there, Duncan calls up the United Nations’ Special Operation Strikeforce unit and gets in contact with Cl. Frank Barnes. As such, this story ends with Firebreather explaining what he just went through and that they can go track down War Wing over within a nearby desert since he managed to put “a thumb hole” onto the fuel tank upon Todd’s jet pack.
For our next narrative, some otherworldly encounters will be shared across the auditory wavelengths in this particular tale involving the “Perhapanauts” (Story & Co-Creator: Todd Dezago, Art & Co-Creator: Craig Rousseau, Colors: Rico Renzi) called “Voices In The Night…”. We open at a radio station called KBLA where a DJ named Art Ring is hosting a twilight-hour program called “Voices In The Night AM”. She mentions that his show has an open forum format which takes calls from various listeners who proceed to share their supernatural experiences. From there, he takes a call from a Philadelphia area teenage woman named Lisa who shares her story about an incident from her Prom which occurred two months ago. She was at the dance with her friend named Mags since they were unable to individually get their own dates and that by going together, they wouldn’t have to deal with their other classmates. Suddenly, Lisa spotted a female ghost on the other side of the locker room doors. Before she’s able to get her friend to notice, the apparition simply vanished in time. Just then, another call is waiting for her as the DJ isn’t able to wait for her to deal with it and decides to move on to another caller. The Puerto Rico-based male named Chayen proceeds to talk about an encounter that he had four years ago where he and his brother Riali were woken up from their slumber by what they assumed was a cat fight occurring outside. They could barely make out anything from their window due to a single streetlight providing their only luminary source, but then they notice that the neighborhood cat named Kayla was running from a Chupacabra (who’s actually a main character in the series called Chuppie). The cat managed to escape into a house via a doggie-door as Chuppie rams into the door before a small group of black-dressed men arrived to capture the otherworldly being before their vanished within their van. When the next day arrived, Chayen mentions how he and Riali thought they their encounter was all a dream, but they were able to remember it all in addition to finding a clear mark on the door where the Chupacabra rammed its head into. Art then thanks him for sharing his story before he decides to take one last caller, which turns out to be a Pacific Northwest-based person named Martin Hull. He proceeds to share his experience from a few weeks ago where he was hiking in the mountains before he caught a certain scent from within the nearby bushes. It turns out that he had an encounter with a Sasquatch (who’s also a main character in the series known as Big) as the being walked up to him before they simply stared at each other for several hours. Eventually, they both took their separate leave as Ring concludes his broadcast. From there, the story ends with the reveal that Chippie & Big were listening in the program and that the latter was actually the one who called in as Martin in order to share said encounter, even mentioning that it was the human man that he came across that smelled bad.
Our final story deals with a historical encounter within the grander series known as “Proof” (Story & Co-Creator: Alex Grecian, Art & Co-Creator: Riley Rossmo, Colors: Adam Guzowski) as a famous expedition will ultimately come across a “Manifest Destiny”. We begin at a cabin in Fort Clatsop, Oregon on Christmas Day in 1805 as Lewis Clark writes in his diary about the rain-soaked day and that the group was unable to properly celebrate the festive Holiday due to low spirits and their poor food supply. Just then, he spots something outside as he goes to investigate, yet he’s able to notices some footprints. Elsewhere within the fort, a man is secretly with a Native American (presumably Sacagawea, though she isn’t named) who tries to get her into speaking some English, yet she’s gets uncomfortable from just being near him. She’s then able to run away as the guy tries to go after her, yet he trips on a stick and falls over. We then shift ahead four days later as Clark writes about living off of spoiled elk before Meriwether Lewis summons him outside. To their surprise, they discover some fresh elk placed right in front of them. Suddenly, they hear some shuffling before they’re met upon by a Bigfoot (who turns out to be the main character named John Prufrock a.k.a. Proof) as he says that he’s a man. As Lewis demands for a runner in order for them to proper inform President Thomas Jefferson about this, the book ends with Proof saying that he brought them the elk as food.
Overall, this comic is light on the scares and more about getting its readers interested in these featured characters. With what we’re presented here concerning the Astounding Wolf-Man, he has a narrative that was going on at the time where he’s been framed for murdering his wife and has been forced to go on the run in order to prove his innocence. Similar to the Hulk however, there’s a least two different factions that’re after him for different reasons. One is the law who want to arrest him for what he supposedly did and the other is the criminal underbelly that Gary tried to turn to in order to lay low but are now looking to financially exploit him before rubbing him out. Because this seems to take place between Issues 7 & 8 of his mainline series and I haven’t read it at the time of this review, I can’t comment on the personal journey that Hampton has gone on leading up to this moment. At least the comic is kind enough to bring up and recommend the prior issues before telling its audience that its ongoing tale continues into Issue #8, so it should succeed at anyone who’s curious enough to get invested. Out of all of the presented stories, the artwork in this opening section is the most professional of them all. Jason Howard helps the characters stand out, the color palette is bright & pleasant and the snippet of a narrative that it decides to go with should entice some people to delve into its featured series in order to learn how it got to this point before finding out where it goes from there. Aside from that, it’s neat to learn that over a decade before Robert A. Multari’s Night Wolf came around, we had another example of a heroic werewolf and one that had spun out of Robert Kirkman’s more-famous creation known as “Invincible”. All-in-all, those connections should make for a unique way to get individuals interested in what this particular Lycanthrope has in store. With Firebreather, it introduces us to a young boy whose genetic makeup from his regular human mother and his Kaiju king father turned him into the humanoid being that he would become. Even though he’s been a member of an actual superhero team called “The Pact”, which is where his connections to the early Image character Shadowhawk along with the more well-known hero Invincible come from, he’s not interested in engaging an up-and-coming villain. Fortunately, they’re able to help each other in different ways as Duncan gets some tutoring with his Geometry homework and he returns the favor by allowing War Wing to look like a competent antagonist in a superpowered fight who deserves to join a secret villain group. However, Rosenblatt is still a noble figure as he ultimately uses his military connections to allow them to go after Todd (and maybe The Faculty as well). It’s somewhat hard to gauge our main character here with just this comic, so it’s most likely that his mainline books properly characterizes him to a greater extent. On a quick side note, Firebreather actually got his own CG-animated movie on Cartoon Network in 2010 and it’s something that I found out about while researching this character. As such, it’s possible that I’ll review this film at some point. Getting back on track with what we have here, the presented players are engaging, the pacing is on par with the rest of the other tale within this book and the artwork is colorful, even if a bit rough in spots (especially when it comes to faces). It may be worth checking out given its ties to the more-famous superhero, but it seems like its own premise where he’s trying to deal with his human mom wanting him to stick to his studies while his Kaiju dad is more concerned with his son taking his place as the king of the monsters would make this engaging on its own terms. Moving on to Perhapanauts’ quick tale, it only seems to feature two (maybe three) members of this otherworldly team of investigators within a story device of people calling into a certain radio show in order to share their own supernatural encounters with each other. It seems like there’s something of a comedic touch with this series, while the main books sees our main team probing into the various paranormal perils. If there’s anything here to entice new readers into checking its comics out, then it seems to be that it’s a real world with a supernatural element that’s dangerously close towards teetering within the main space that regular society inhabits. Whether or not the radio DJ becomes something of a supporting character within the mainline books, he’s definitely the most prominent person here since he helps anchor our narrative format here. While the pacing is equal alongside the other tales within this comic, I will say that the artwork is both colorful and detailed in a quirky way. Its palette is varied and the pencilwork is actually working wonderfully in order to give it its semblance of an identity. Seeing how there’s not too many various comics within this line, it can be possible for anyone to easily collect these tales and it can get something of a recommendation in that vein. While it only presents a small slab of its actual characters and they’re not the most focused here, it still works itself to a fairly funny conclusion. Finally, Proof has the closest thing to potential horror vibe, mainly due to its muted color palette and somewhat sketchy pencils & inks. Because the famed explorers Lewis & Clark are presented here, it initially sets up something of an alternate history setting for our actual main character to somehow get his start, especially given how he’s a sentient creature who’s also a few centuries old, most likely given his genetic makeup. While the discovery of footprints does originally show some sign of a terror vibe that could be built up, it turns out to be the named Bigfoot named John Prufrock himself who actually helps Meriwether & William’s group with some fresh elk for them to eat. How his inaugural interaction with them leads towards him gathering an initial opinion on the human race before eventually working for a government agency is most likely explained in the mainline books and I’m guessing that’s how this short story gets potential readers interested into checking this work out. It’s possible that Proof’s experiences with past events will come back into play once he’s within his agency and that’s all covered with the comics, but the presented tale has something of a horror vibe before our main reveal. Given the crew member who tries to have his way with a nameless Native American woman, maybe some kind of terror could’ve shined through here with him getting a bigger comeuppance aside from him tripping over a stick. Other than that, it’s fairly well-handled and should make for a more-expansive read once the rest of the mainline books are also consumed. All-in-all, it’s something of a different breath of fresh air to see these creatures engage in stuff other than straight-up horror, especially since “Grumpy Old Monsters” also did that within its own mini-series. That seems to be its main goal since it also wants to bring new people into these different series who may not be already engaged in them. Given how this is a quick read, it allows those individuals to do so. While I do wish that one of these series gave more of a horror hint, they’re all introduced in pleasant fashions and is worth shambling towards in order to make your picks. As for this spooky season, the haunting chill is still growing. On that note, come back next time as I delve into another horror anthology comic in order to stir up some personal thoughts within my critical cauldron. Until then, jam on within your personal Monster Mashes!
Astounding Wolf-Man (created by Robert Kirkman & Jason Howard), Firebreather (created by Phil Hester & Andy Kuhn), Perhapanauts (created by Todd Dezago & Craig Rousseau) and Proof (Alex Grecian & Riley Rossmo) are all owned by Image Comics.
