Crossed #1

Halloween 2019 Post-A-Day 30

Horror-ible

Crossed #1

Terror! And not for the squeamish

"The Devil’s Bride!”

Story – Garth Ennis

Pencils – Jacen Burros

Inks – Jacen Burrows

Colorist – Juanmar

Letterer– unknown

Chief Mechanic – Ariana Osborne

Editor – David Marks

September 2008

I found Crossed late last year, both in and out of the Crapbox. Issue one fell with a bunch of other horror books and I read it with all the fear and terror that this one issue generates. Given it is an Ennis story, I was sucked in immediately. When a few weeks later, I saw the first trade on a Half-Price shelf, I grabbed it as well, with a feeling that mixes excitement with discomfort.

Let me get this out of the way: Crossed isn’t for everyone. It is harsh. Brutal. It is every worst nightmare you’ve had given comic book form. It will fuck you up, and if you are turned off by that language SKIP THIS REVIEW. Because Crossed will make you infinitely more unsettled than a few bits of harsh language.

With that buildup I should explain what Crossed is before dredging up the pages that will follow. Crossed is Ennis doing a twist on the zombie outbreak thing, although it has possibly more in common with David Cronenberg’s Shivers movie. The infection in Crossed doesn’t make someone the living dead, instead it…I’ll let Ennis explain it:

“The Crossed are people who – through infection – have given in to the absolute worst instincts that human beings can: murder, rape, torture, cannibalism, all of the most cruel and inventive kind imaginable. They are out of control, really. Their number one urge is to get their hands into normal people and commit every ghastly act they can think of – they can't fight it, and they don't want to.."

Basically everyone infected is a homicidal maniac, of the variety even our worst horror movies haven’t prepared us for. The tell-tale sign of infection? A rash that forms a cross like welt across the infected’s face. It’s a neat visual cue and it inverts all that religious iconography as well. You can’t fault Ennis for his story idea.

Where you may be able to fault him is with his no-holds barred approach to the plot of these books. Ennis and Burrows pull NO punches, creating one of the most terrifying dystopias I’ve come across in many a moon. It is so graphic and cruel that I feel a large number of my audience even on HERE during the month of Halloween will be turned off. It’s not because you are squeamish. It’s because it is that bleak. I can tell you that beyond issue one, the story only gets darker.

So bail out now or hold me harmless for trying. From this point forward I will be reviewing issue one in all its many, many atrocities. If you can’t finish up, don’t worry. It takes a strong heart to make it through a reality this screwed up. No harm-no foul.

We begin with no preamble, no idea what has happened. We have two people with rifles, Cindy and Stan, looking down upon a city using binoculars. The pair are trying to see if it is safe to go down. We get that immediately because this is the setup of every zombie apocalypse comic. Stan says it looks clear until it suddenly doesn’t. Then he pulls the glasses away, weary at having seen too much brutality. Cindy just curses their bad luck at being unable to resupply.

While we pull back and find out Cindy has a son, Patrick, with her, we also catch a glimpse of the atrocity going on in the town square as infected men and women perform terrible acts on non-infected victims.

Cindy, Stan, and Patrick make it back to the underpass they are hiding out in. The group is larger than just them, and that either gives them a greater chance of survival or more chance for all of these people to become victims in some mortifying way. Stan tells the guard that he will relieve him as soon as he gets a bite.

And we meet the rest of our group, huddled in the dark and hiding from the world outside. Stan has a vividly horrifying recollection about an ex-Marine he traveled with who was captured and killed. His only thought on it now as that he was glad that he didn’t tell the Crossed where he was hiding. The future in this world is bleak.

 

As he eats the meager can of beans that is supper, he reflects on what he knows about them. You can’t bargain with them. They will win in most firefights. Looting the losers is the only way to come out ahead. No one had faith or hope anymore.

No one except Joel. Joel has faith in salt.

If you listen to his story it sounds rational, almost sane. Joel had an experience. It is improbable and everyone knows it. But Joel believes. He’s a believer. He’s a believer because he has to be. It is all that is holding him together. A way out of this mess of a world he’s found himself in. People do this all the time. They believe in religion, they look to celebrities for hope, or put their trust in guns and government. We’re going to see how Joel’s hope works out for him.

As for Stan, he hears Cindy and puts his faith in something different. In staying alive and in staying human. With those thoughts, he relieves the night watchman.

…and drifts back into memories of a not to distant time. A time right after all hell broke loose. He was helping Thomas and his girlfriend Kelly, who had recently been blinded, escape from the madness that had just broken out. In the distance a large explosion goes off, but right over the fence is madness…

…and it is a madness that is right on top of them. This woman breaks through the fence. She’s completely given over to the disease and someone has shanked her good in the kidney. But even though she is bleeding out, she still wants to harm others. 

And she is enraptured by her own mutilation. The Crossed are some sick, sick people. At that moment though a savior to these people appears…

Cindy crushes the woman under her wheel and picks up all our survivors. As quick introductions are made as our characters pile in the truck. As for our Crossed, the disease removes most of our reason centers and amps up the libido. Humans reduced to less than animals.

Cindy and Stan know each other and in their chats as they jet out of town they mention recent history. They were both at a diner when the virus swept through and both of them are running on adrenalin. 

 

Cindy isn’t letting anyone stand in her way. She left the diner to get her son to safety and that’s her goal. Unfortunately her ex-husband was infected. He held Cindy’s ear and head to the stove. Right now, no one knows where to go, but Cindy isn’t waiting on anyone to solve that riddle for her. She is the series tough guy and her relationship with Stan works in that she is closed off on so many levels. Stan is not just along for the ride, but he is definitely struggling to maintain his own humanity in the wake of all this.

And speaking of waking, back in the present Stan is woken by Cindy. They have to move as the Crossed are heading their way in a sweep. Unfortunately, one of the party has an accident making it up the hill.

Joel’s wife Amy is injured and will not make it. She begs Joel to carry their daughter, shoot her in the head, and go. But Joel has another idea…

Because remember Joel still has faith that this will all work out. Amy begs him not to…

…and curses him as they are all torn apart in front of each other.

There is no hope to be had in the world of Crossed. None. Don’t bring it with you. Just run.

Stan starts to look back for them. Cindy tells him not to. He takes her advice.

And that’s where this issue ends. Brutal and unrelenting and things only get worse from here.

Crossed puts the Crapbox in a tough position. It is compelling in the way that the Walking Dead is at the best of times. You want to root for the characters to survive against insurmountable odds. You need to see them overcome this obstacles placed in front of them.

However, Ellis doesn’t let up and the story is not one that leans on giving you a happy ending. It is as Stan says, the happy ending is staying alive another day and staying human. In these type of books that is a hard fought test.

Normally I would say buy, but I’m going to be clear that what you have here is a very violent, gory, and adult story. It isn’t for the squeamish or the easily upset. But if you can deal with the bleak universe that Ellis has created, these are some of the best that the apocalyptical survival drama has to offer.

The House of Secrets #106

Halloween 2019 Post-A-Day 29

Horror-ible

The House of Secrets #106

The crème in the middle

Assistant Editor – E. Nelsoen Birdwell

Editor – Joe Orland

March 1973

I personally never saw much of the Silver Age first series of House of Mystery. Not certain I would have been much impressed with it, to tell the truth. The title ran for ten years, from 1956 to 1966, but seemed to bend more toward mystical superhero shorts than horror anthology. Featuring bits showcasing modern-dress sorcerer Mark Merlin, the dual (and dueling) personality super-villain Eclipso, and Prince Ra-Man the Mind-Master, the title bears little resemblance to the book I grew up fondly afraid of.

What’s that you say? Me, the son of an Elder God AFRAID of something? Oh, most certainly!

Because you see that second series that began in August of 1969 bedeviled me to no end. I only had a couple of issues, but they were on the spinner racks when I visited the store every other weekend. With their covers by Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, and Michael Kaluta the books were as instantly iconic as they were terrifying in aspect. And the insides proved the proof was in the pudding, so to speak. Tales that tickled the hairs on the back of your neck…at least for a lad of slim years.

Series two took off with issue 81 introducing an actual edifice called the Senator Sanderson House, which had been built only from Kentucky materials and only pure blood Kentuckians could live there. A new owner attempted to move it out of state and for his trouble the haunted house drove him off a cliff, where it is now perched for eternity. It sits across a graveyard from another structure, the House of Mystery and 81 also introduced caretaker Able who acted as story guide. His brother Cain would often visit as he was caretaker of the House of Mystery.

The biblical allusions in their names were often played upon, with Able remarking that the last time they did anything together he wound up with an enormous headache.

With storyteller in place, House of Secrets would belt out horrifying anthology tales that got my young imagination stirred up. For many EC horror represents their touchstone, their introduction to the genre. For me it was House of Secrets and House of Mystery. Some covers evoked such emotion in my young mind that I couldn’t bear to pick them up. Thus I retreated to the safer super-hero fare of Marvel. Those issues I did buy were read cover-to-cover though, multiple times.

So, it was a no-brainer to include this issue in our Halloween rundown and its placement near the end should tell you something. I try to save the “good” stuff for when we get nearer Halloween. I would rather end October providing you with a few “treats” and no “tricks”. One day the Crapbox may fail me in that regard, but I see enough new horror inbound that I have faith that it won’t.

For the moment, let’s all be eleven years old again. Let’s let the cover image (from no story in the actual book) terrify us with its possible implications, allowing our own imaginations to run wild with the multitude of possibilities of what is occurring. Gaze upon that haunted scene of ghouls descending upon that poor man and wonder what they will be doing next to the woman who has discovered them. And once you are in that state of belief and thrilling terror, we will open the book to see what is inside…

"The Curse of Harappa”

Story – Maxene Fabe

Art – Ruben Yandoc w/introduction page by Bernie Wrightson

Colorist – unknown

Letterer– unknow w/introduction page by Ben Oda

Bernie provides a slim single page of art to this issue, but it is a doosey as Cain sits on a moldering couch next to the centerpiece of our first story, the titiular (and tit-tacular!) girl from Harappa.

One turn of the page later and we encounter our victim, er…hero. Frank O’Conner has a thing against superstition, going out of his way to confront others beliefs about the mystical. Basically he gets in people’s faces about it.

But all that is about to change when he meets this turbaned individual who “invites him to see a village where real superstition rages, the village of Harappa. There it is said that a beautiful girl is held captive for she is the bride of death. Frank has heard this superstition, that anyone who courts the bride of death will dig his own grave. With that the stranger departs leaving Frank to find his own way to Harappa.

Which of course he does, even with his newly minted “death smell.” Once there he sees the girl, who the local monks call a statue. He attempts to “unveil” her, which starts and altercation. 

As the momks gong for backup, Frank pulls off her veil and is seized by the urge to sexually harass her. A kiss without consent is not good manners, fair reader. And with that, Frank rushes out of Harappa leaving the “statue” behind. He seeks out the stranger who first told him about Harappa, but now the man doesn’t recognize Frank, nor has he any memory about his wild story.

Which doesn’t bother Frank that much because he sees the woman from Harappa wandering through the market and he is seized by the desire to chase after her. Once he reaches her, he vows to marry her even though she admonishes him with oaths that no living man might possess her and that she will be the death of him.

That’s just pillow talk though, and Frank marries her right away.

Wedded bliss is not to be, as the girl from Harappa has a way of making every man feel like Frank feels. All these come-hither looks lead Frank to proclaim that he will lock her away, but the girl has to have these attentions, thrives on them to be exact. And she’s willful enough to brush Frank aside to get them.

Frank becomes so filled with jealousy that he grabs a giant knife and takes off after her. He finds her in the embrace of another man. He is too far gone and confronts the pair. Boiling over with rage he kills them both, plunging the knife in them over and over.

Seeing what he has done brings him back to his senses a bit. Frank realizes he will have to bury them if he is get away with his crime of passion, so he begins digging…Unfortunately, just as he has dug a hole too deep to easily climb out of, the pair appear by its side resurrected and whole. Frank falls on his own shovel, is gravely (ha! Pun!) injured, and dies as the man predicted: after having dug his own grave. 

And the girl goes back to Harappa to away her next non-believer.

Great art and a good story. Love the layout in this piece and the colors are still bright and vibrant. What’s next? (rubs hands in glee)

"The Island of No Return”

Story – John Albano

Art – Alex Nino

Colorist – unknown

Letterer– unknow

Now we move on to this twisted bit of logic called The Island of No Return. We are presented with a mystery by a dead man. The dead man was captain of a yacht who five days ago went missing with a millionaire, his wife and two of their friends. The captain is the only one who came back, giving this detective and this newspaper man an unsolved riddle.

And that riddle’s destination is this unmapped island where the five-some washed up. Once temporary shelter was erected, they bedded down for the evening. From there the captain’s tale goes into nightmare territory.

The detective thinks the rest of the story is the ravings of a deranged mind. That the island doesn’t exist and the captain’s story a product of having clung to piece of driftwood too long trying to make it back to civilization. The newspaperman decides to see for himself and charters a plane. He hasn’t shared the story with the pilot, so he does at this point.

The kicker being that millionaire Craxton and his wife were actually vampires and they had opted to drain their friends and the captain since they were all shipwrecked. Only the captain escaped out to sea.

Sure enough the pair soon finds the island and the shelters, and while reporter Walker goes off to find his story, the pilot waits on the shoreline. 

Its there that he notices the that there are plenty of dead fish washed up on the beach. And each fish has been completely drained of blood.

With that discovery he gets nervous and takes off to find Walker. But what he comes across…

…is the passengers of the boat, now all four of them hideous vampires. Not only that, but they have Walker pinned down while they take turns at sucking his blood. The vampires see the pilot, but allow him to return to his plane in hopes that his story will draw even more curious victims to the island. However, what the Craxtons don’t know and our narrator shares with us, is that the island will soon be used for target practice…for a nuclear bomb.

This one…I had some problems with. It breaks a lot of the vampire myths in that they can be out during the day. As well, it would seem that being on a continent full of people would be better than suffering through months of drinking fish blood and waiting for a curiosity seeker to fall into their grasp. The planning behind their staying seems a bit messed up. However, the idea of radioactive vampires is unsettling. I, in no way, believe that an indirect bomb blast would kill them.

Still, the art is fantastic.

"This Will Kill You”

Story – Jack Oleck

Art – Alfredo Alcala

Colorist – unknown

Letterer– Alfredo Alcala

We wrap this issue up with this very nice bow of a story. It starts here, as Charley races from the graveyard having seen what appears to be two ghosts. The specters in question happen to be two acquaintances of his, Dolly and Pete, the town’s practical jokers. Charley is their favorite target.

Don’t believe me, just watch as Dolly lays it on thick when they beat him back into town from the graveyard. Charley is the town mortician, and he’s a good soul if a mite superstitious. As for Pete and Dolly, they both seem a touch crueler, especially playing with poor Charley’s affections for their own amusements. Wonder if this will be a tale of just desserts?

If it doesn’t at least we will have a dinner meal with Pete and Dolly as they watch a new arrival at Charley’s mortuary. Of course this sets Pete’s wheels a’spinning and next thing you know he has roped Dolly into a plot to scare Charley to death. It begins with Pete dropping some specific hits around Charley about old man Hanley.

Specifically that Hanley might be a vampire. After laying this trap, he meets back up with Dolly so she can apply some makeup and a fright wig, making him appear like Hanley. The payoff will be watching Charley run away in fright as Pete dressed as Hanley pops up out of the coffin looking like the living dead. The thought of which has the couple rolling on the ground, it is so wicked.

And putting their plan into action, Pete takes the corpse’s place and then begins making loud noises while Dolly hides nearby. Before too long Charley is alerted and rushes down to find Pete/Hanely getting out of his coffin. However, unlike the way the couple envisioned it, Charley doesn’t run, but instead forces Pete back down into the coffin.

And seeing Dolly is there too, Charley strives to protect her the only way one could from a rampaging vampire…

…and this particular joke ends in tragedy, at the pointed end of a stake hammered straight through Pete’s very living heart.

We end with one practical joker dead and the other driven quite mad for their part in his demise. Nicely done.

Thus we end our visit to House of Secrets. Sad it was so brief, but the door there is always open…if you dare brave to cross the graveyard that makes up its grounds.