Bloke's Tomb of Horror

Bloke’s TOMB OF HORROR #1
Virus Comix
**This actually was printed in September of 09, but sometimes you have to wait for an indie book to find its way to your local comic shop **

2.5 out of 5 Dinosaur Treats (I hate to rate it in the middle because half of the stories were good, but…well read on.)

As a fledgling indi publisher, Virus Comix recently released three new titles. This is one of them. The cover art is hilarious, and the black and white interiors vary on the story. Tomb of Horror brings to us four grid-house style horror stories, and introduces us to the ideas and probably future ongoing series. Even if they are just contained in more books like this one I see some of these stories having great potential.

We open with one of the companies main title characters, the zombie looking Bloke, introducing us to the stories that are about to be read. (Guess that is why it is Bloke’s Tomb of Horror.)

Beware the Vampiress
Art: Fernando Ignatius
Writer: Jason ‘Bloke’ Crawley

This first story is one of the ones that I liked. You are introduced to Clara and Dorina, identical twin vampires that are ravaging a town close to the turn of the 20th century. The townspeople decided to call in a pro to take care of their problem and we are introduced to Andrei Boian, Vampire Hunter.
We flash Forward to Modern times and find Clara working night shift at a downtown diner is a major metropolis, and find that she keeps herself satiated on the homeless of the city. She thought that things were fine and going unnoticed until she discovers she is being hunted by a descendant of Boian.
The art for this story was good for only being inks. Seemed like something you would expect in a Heavy Metal comic. I wouldn’t mind reading more about how Clara has adapted to society in our era and finding out more about her past and her sister.

Tomb of Bloke 1.5
Art: Ju Gomez
Writer: Jason ‘Bloke’ Crawley

This story was probably a treat for people that picked up Virus’ other book Tomb of Bloke #1. I think that it shouldn’t have been included in this selection because you don’t know much of the back-story at all leading up to the events of the issue. The art didn’t help it either. Much of the inks bled into each other and in most panels it was too difficult to tell what was going on. I couldn’t even finish reading the story, even in a horror book you don’t want your panels to bleed together. It made me know for sure I didn’t want to pick up Tomb of Bloke to go along with it.

Johnny Demonic: Curse of the Black Widow
Art & Writing: Anthony Ruggiero

Johnny Demonic is an interesting character, While I don’t care much for the art in the story, I did like some aspects of the story itself. I did however feel like the opening origin story had too many elements of Batman or the Punisher’s origin, as the character discusses how he is choosing his mask and needed it to strike fear in his prey.
The idea for the story is descent enough though. Basically you have a guy that fought demons, that trapped a powerful one inside himself, thus became disfigured and had the demons power added to his own sorcery skills.
This is a story that has potential, but I hope Ruggiero finds an artist that can compliment the story a bit better.

Djustine: The Valley of Lost Time
Art: Manolo
Writer: Enrico Teodorani

This was like an observation in comedy. The art was sharp, the story didn’t have much content, but it was enough to make the reader go WTF? This is another story that I would like to see more of just to find out why the events of this short happened. Maybe we don’t. Maybe this is supposed to be enough. I actually thought originally the title character was called “Bustline” but that was because I was looking at the art more. Djustine chases naked lady into a mysterious canyon. Naked lady turns into werewolf. Werewolf lunges at Djustine, dinosaur eats werewolf. Yeah it was that simple, but kind of comical as well.
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Overall I have to say that this book is interesting and at least worth the read, especially if you are a horror comic fan.

This book is essentially like one of those appetizer samplers you can get from pretty much every major sit down chain restaurant. When something's good you look down and it's all gone, when something's not so good you find yourself with a bit more to either suffer through or leave on the plate.

Most of the stories were entertaining enough, if not a little on the stereotypical side for a horror comic, campy dialogue, most of the stories have been done before, scantily clad ladies in every story with an occasional side of bewbs, etc... If you're familiar with genre you'll be right at home with this title.

To be fair I'll run through each story individually since this is a mix of what's currently available from Virus Comics.

Beware the Vampiress
This story made no mention of an ongoing series, although I'd imagine that the story will continue. Essentially this plays out as a shallow origin story for a modern day Vampiress named Clara who works as a waitress at an all night diner (I thought Vampires were supposed to be good with finances though, don't most of them own lavish manses and live off the wealth they've accumulated over countless life times?). The first couple of pages recount the death of her twin sister at the hands of a Vampire hunter before switching to a recounting of her everyday life of feeding on the homeless and paying the rent. Things heat up as she takes home a guy from her diner and the story takes a predictable twist as the story comes to a close.

The art was a cross between manga'ish large eyes and out of proportion figures, seriously Clara looks structurally unsound, and modern horror comic fare. It fit the tone of the story though and it was very clean to behold, there's no question about what's going on in each panel and Ignatius delivers well with facial expressions that get across the emotions the characters are feeling. The art did go a little over board on the cheesecake, as I mentioned above, with a cleavage shot or some side boob about every third panel or so.

Over all, not a particularly original tale, but the art was good and was able to deliver what the writer was hoping to accomplish in a few short pages. 3/5, an above average if quick vampire tale.

Tomb of Bloke 1.5
Alrighty, for the main story, for which this comic bears its name, this thing was a hot mess. The only way to tell what was going on was to read the dialogue boxes. If there had been no dialogue there would have been no telling what the hell was going on. I found the art to be a classic case of over inking, although without seeing the original pencils it's hard to tell, but each character bleeds into the next one and the back grounds with no clean start or finish to anything.

Story wise, equally confusing, although that would be partially my fault for having never read Tomb of Bloke #1 and part to the writer for throwing the reader into a confusing story with no preface as to what has occurred prior to the events of this issue. Bloke is apparently an indestructible zombie or something, I believe he's missing half his face, it's hard to tell; and is battling his way through monsters in order to reach a fortress or castle for some reason not made clear. The only thing really made clear is that "This is the beginning of the end of mankind!"

I'll tack an extra half a point due to my own ignorance of the back story, but from what I saw Tomb of Bloke gets a thoroughly confused 1.5/5.

Johnny Demonic: Curse of the Black Widow
Another origin story, although this tale was probably the best put together out of the whole book as a complete package.

The story, again you’ve seen this before, is about an exorcist who takes a demon into himself and gains powers and his continuing battle against the forces of hell. The title character is actually pretty likeable, if cheesy, as he pulls a pretty good Ash impersonation delivering one liners and blasting demons in the face. Not as shallow or chauvinistic as Bruce Campbell’s famous role, he still manages to snag the girl dressed like the Green Hornet with a cape sporting a Luchadore’s mask.

The Art is actually a fun throw back to horror comics past, there’s a ton of detail, the characters are expressive, the lines are clean, and everything is comes across clear as day. The demons are horrifying enough in presentation and a scene towards the end of the story where a horde of demons emerge is actually quite beautiful in its presentation.

If all of the stories in this issue were presented in this manner, story and art wise, this would have been an absolutely outstanding horror comic, in this case it’s only a fraction of the book, but as a standalone story this is the stand out. 3.5/5

Djustine
Honestly I’m not sure what to make of this one, the story was nonexistent but the art was absolutely gorgeous.

At five pages there’s really not a whole lot of plot you can expect out of a story, so this one went as light as possible: Clothed woman confronts naked woman, the two women exchange profanities clothed woman shoots naked woman, naked woman turns into werewolf, werewolf charges clothed woman, Tyrannosaurus comes out of nowhere and eats werewolf, clothed woman runs away, the end. Seriously, that’s it.

As I said, the art is a sight to behold, it’s near photo realistic, and it probably took a month to do 5 pages, hence the story being as short as it is.

The art is worth a 4 or 4.5 out of five, but with the decided lack of story I find myself taking away from the story knocking it to a Heather Graham like 3/5, it’s mighty fun to look at but there’s a decided lack of substance going on.

Overall I’d rate the total Bloke experience a 2.75/5, it’s a slightly above average horror comic that doesn’t take itself all that seriously while embracing and acknowledging it’s place in the genre.

Blokes Tomb of Horror #2
Virus Comix

This is 52 pages jammed pack of gruesome twisted fun. Again this is an anthology book and some of the stories are better than others as tales are brought to the reader by a number of different creators and artists. The seven stories in this book cover so much with stories about vampires, zombies, werewolves, necromancers, barbarians, and aliens.

Virus comix has paired with multiple Italian creators for this issue to bring some interesting stories. The art is great throughout the entire book with incredible inks and a good use of shading and shadow. Even the one artist I complained about last issue Ju Gomez has improved his quality 10 fold from last issue. There is a definite pulpy feel to the book like a horror comic should have.

Most of the stories are easily of the same quality that you would find in a Heavy Metal magazine which makes this an amazing read to have work like this collected conveniently in one short but exciting read.

The first story in the book was translated from Italian and it seemed to loose a little of its flair in the translation. I don’t know how old the original story is, but it seems like an old Detective comics issue where everything is narrated or talked about, which is depressing because the art was solid enough to get the point across. Some may be disappointed in the lead character a vampire with two retractable claws from each hand (think X-23.)

Then there is the story The Art of Dying by Jason Crawley. This story was good and definitely kept me engaged. It reminded me of something you would see on Tales from the Crypt, Twilight Zone, or the old Friday the 13th series.

My favorite Italian character Djustine pops her curvy cowboy hat wearing bosoms into this book for another quick but very well illustrated tale.

Over all this book was a big step up from the first issue and I am excited to see what thrills and chills come in the next issue.

4 out of 5 Misunderstood Tiki-Moon Aliens