Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: The Underburbs (issues 1 through 5) by T.J. Dort and Joe Haley ::
by William the Bloody
Underburbs is an independent comic published in black and white by Roiling Boil Press. It is a tale involving supernatural evil and world domination! You see, every Halloween the gateway between our human world and the evil dimension opens. Our story begins with Angela Morgan, a young girl who is just turning too old for trick or treating. She looks out her bedroom window at her older brother and his friends attempting some pathetic ritual when a magic doorway suddenly opens out of thin air. Enter The Countess and her henchman demon The Hammer! The Countess unfurls a magic scroll and unleashes a mist upon the small town and anyone caught in it (re: Angela's brother, his friends, and trick or treaters) are turned into monsters. After the monsters have spread out, Angela isn't exactly sure what's happening, but knows it can't be good, so she does the only thing she can think of: she goes through the mysterious doorway and into the evil dimension to investigate. With a bit of luck, Angela stumbles upon a knowledgeable and helpful werewolf (who would rather eat squirrels and raccoons than people unless of course they're Canadian) who gives her a little advice about trying to fight the evil consuming her town as well as The Countess. If Angela can somehow obtain supernatural powers of her own, she just might be able to stand a chance, but how?
The Good: When it comes to independent comics, you can never really be sure what kind of art you'll be in for, and I'm pleased to say that The Underburbs has art which is cute, entertaining, and full of talent. Sure, it's not the sort of thing you'd find in your garden variety superhero comic, but it would fit right in along side Gloomcookie, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Serenity Rose, Patrick the Wolf Boy, the Mighty Skullboy Army, and other spooky-cute offerings. The writing is also quite good so far. All of the characters have their own personalities, goals and motivations, and have characteristic speech patterns, something many overlook. There is a great deal of clever dialogue and plot points which are fun and inventive. I also really like how The Countess feels the need to change her outfits constantly depending on the stage of her conquest, and the artist's attention to detail on them is outstanding. Oh, and The Hammer is simply hilarious.
The Bad: Issues 1, 2 and 3 are unfortunately magazine sized. This may pose a problem when it comes to storing them for some people. After the reformat to be a more standard comic book dimension with issue 4, the printing quality of the interiors seemed to suffer a little. See, every page has a black border bleed to edge, and in the magazine sized issues, it is a very crisp and dark black, but after the reformat, the black looks a tad washed out and is more of a dark grey. Also, being independent, these guys don't really have any sort of set release schedule; Issues more or less come out when they come out (issue 1: 2006, latest comic issue 5: 2008).
Overall, if you like supernatural, world domination comedies, this is the comic for you! And with a zombie infested mall in issue 3, can you really go wrong? The best way I can think to describe this comic is one part Courtney Crumrin and two parts Invader Zim put in a blender with a heaping tablespoonful of Halloween. It's fun, silly, spooky fun that's bound to brighten your day.
A-
