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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
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Thanks for watching!
what is up everybody and welcome to the
united states department of nerds where we
are for the people by the people and
of the people and tonight
The shadows are whispering and the ink is
bleeding and we're cracking open the
coffin to all things horror comments.
We're talking from Boom Studios to all the
Andes you can think of.
And as always,
I'm the host and joining me tonight is
my good friend and artist and talented
individual is Francisco Nilo.
We call him Fran.
You can call him Fran as well,
because he's a great guy who is always
doing his part down in Argentina.
See what I did there?
Thank you for having me.
That was my Starship Troopers reference
for everybody.
So, bro,
we talked about this show when you were
on last time earlier this year when we
were talking about Vidalirium.
Oh, yeah.
it just come about and we keep in
touch.
We talk, you know, probably, you know,
at least once or twice a month sometimes.
And,
I was like,
I built this busy schedule for October.
I wanted to get a lot of horror,
indie horror comics interviews completed
and done to stay with the theme of
the month.
And I was like,
I can't forget about Fran because we want
to do this show together.
And here we are.
Fran, how you been?
I know you're going through a move right
now and you're keeping busy,
but what are you working on right now?
Well, I'm still working on Vicalirium.
I'm finishing it.
I think I might,
actually finish the next issue today or
rather tonight uh it's which is cool
because it's a very horror cosmic it has
some very cosmic horror fueled sequences
in it that i'm very proud of they
are sort of i think they are the
best
Stuff that I've drawn ever.
And now,
is this the issue zero or the issue
two?
This is issue zero.
Okay, perfect.
Okay,
I know what we're talking about there.
Yeah.
I've gotten to paint some stuff in a
radically different style and play a lot
with the sort of horror genre,
which I love,
which is basically why I'm here.
That's why we're here tonight, man.
We arranged for these episodes.
Because we share the same passion for
horror stories,
horror comics in particular.
I'm an avid listener of horror podcasts
while I'm working.
So a huge consumer of horror media in
general.
So I'm excited.
I'm pumped for it.
Dude, let's dive into...
I don't want to say they're the
heavyweight right now,
but they may be the heavyweight of horror
comics,
and that is going to be Boom Studios.
Oh, yeah.
And we'll do one that I know you
just picked up yourself,
and that's going to be Be Not Afraid
by Jude Ellison S. Doyle.
I mean,
this story is like Children of the Corn
and The Omen.
Had a beautiful evil baby and that's what
this story is basically.
I know you haven't had a chance to
read it yet,
but I know you're excited to pick this
one up.
I only got my hands on it like
yesterday.
I haven't had the chance to read it,
but I have gotten to read like a
small preview because the funny thing,
the artist or one of the artists is
from Argentina too.
So I had him on Instagram.
I was following him and he shared it.
I got to read sort of the preview.
And I was like, okay,
this is the sort of horror that I'm
really interested in.
It's very atmospheric, very like,
just from the preview alone,
you could tell that it wasn't just the
comic book equivalent of a jump scare.
It's more like the atmospheric.
I mean, you get,
you get, like, pictures of, like,
plagues happening,
the ground burning where this child walks.
It's just, like,
children of the corn or the omen or
something like that.
And it is, um... Like,
the town itself is basically scared
shitless of this child and the terror that
he brings with him every time he is
out.
So...
and basically what we're going to do
tonight i don't want to want to put
this out here now is we're going to
basically list off comic books that we
hope everybody you know gets to read right
and to read and i kept it more
modern that way if you did want to
go to your local comic book shops and
pick this title up you could or you
could still get it off the manufacturer's
website that's why i'm going to break it
down each one by publisher that way
You know who you're going to be looking
for when you go into your comic book
shop or website.
You need to go check out to find
certain titles.
If there's something here that you are
interested in, as always,
you can drop your favorite horror comment
or comic books down in the comments for
all of us.
And more than likely,
we may have already read them or it
may be something new to us that we
want to read.
But I wanted to put that out there
now before we got too deep into our
list because I did make a pretty extensive
list.
And up next on that list is a
book that is about to come to its
conclusion.
And that is Grimm by Stephanie Phillips,
also from Boom Studios.
Fran, have you read this one yet?
I hadn't even heard about it until you
told me about it.
It looks...
Let me get this straight.
I only heard about it now.
It feels more like it's got more of
a superhero-ish feel to it.
There's a Grim Reaper who's...
There's multiple Grim Reapers.
And basically, it's supernatural...
It borderlines like the horror, sci-fi,
like a thriller almost.
Okay, okay.
But the horror element comes from the fact
that these are grim reapers who do
reaping.
And they reap the reapers of souls,
but they're just like people, you know?
They have their own issues.
It's basically...
like nine oh two one oh of the
ground reapers you know it basically gives
us their stories and what they the traumas
that they go through the reason why
they're in hell and that kind of stuff
oh no it's really fun it's it's a
fun series it's really good to read
they're stopping on issue twenty five
which i believe comes out the end of
this month or early next month i can't
remember which but i got a feeling
It is going to be a fun finale.
And you can get this one on trade
paperbacks,
which I would highly recommend you doing
versus trying to track down individual
copies because this book was pretty
popular.
And that may be get kind of expensive
if you try to track down individual issues
of it.
I'm going to sort of throw a small
recommendation here because it's sort of
this description that gave me
of Grimm reminds me of a separate comic
book that is sort of,
I'm guessing it's not very well known in
the U.S.,
but I know that it's being published by
IDW, different publisher,
but it sort of threads the same lines
as what you're describing for Grimm,
and it's called Angela de la Muerte.
And it's by a writer,
artist named Salvador Sanz,
who's from Argentina, actually.
And it's this story about this sort of,
they are an agency,
it's basically about two agencies that are
fighting each other.
There's this group of people who sort of
are able to,
send their souls into different bodies and
sort of inhabit them.
Oh, damn.
That's really interesting.
There's this Green Reaper sort of
character that is able to kill them in
spite of them being in different bodies
and being sort of...
So he's able to kill the Reaper inside
the body.
Exactly.
There's this Green Reaper character that's
able to kill this displaced soul
okay are inhabiting different bodies which
in theory he shouldn't be able as this
sort of spy thriller horror story that I
think probably falls if for those who may
know about green or maybe interesting that
sort of story I think that Angela de
la muerte will be writing to
that same space you'll have to send me
that i want to try to track that
down i can work it through with my
broken spanish but um up next for me
is going to be one of our personal
favorites i know you're a big fan of
this one too and that's going to be
hello darkness oh yeah oh yeah it's got
various writers various artists that work
on this story um i know rl stein
robert hack
are some of the other big contributors to
it i know james tinney and has contributed
to it just tons of great artists tons
of great writers yeah work on this book
and i think my favorite so far of
all the it's still uh being having issues
released i think they released like a
halloween special just a week ago uh they
did it's called uh
Hello Halloween.
Hello Halloween.
Last week.
Yeah.
Yes.
And it is an anthology series,
so it's a little bit more pricey,
but it is a hundred and ten percent
worth the sticker price on the book
because the stories are so good and they
extend over multiple volumes of books.
And I know their last Hello Darkness had
just come out,
closed out a couple of these stories from
like Robert Hack and R.L.
Stine.
And I know Francisco Frantavilla,
he was the main artist for the R.L.
Stine story.
So you know the art is, like,
superb and top-notch.
Yeah.
And the covers are really great, too,
I think.
Dude,
it's some of the best covers out there.
I think.
A hundred percent.
Who's doing the covers for that one?
I guess.
Pablo Rivera.
Pablo Rivera.
There's been so many different artists
that work on this book,
like on the covers.
I think there's like three to five covers
per month, something like that.
So they have this amazing rotating thing
of artists.
I know Genie Frism has done covers.
Weather Deladera from Something is Killing
the Children has done covers.
Robert Hack himself has done covers.
Francisco Francavilla has done covers.
Yeah.
I'm a fan of his covers in general.
They keep having this same character pop
up in every cover.
This red-haired character.
Yeah.
Ginny Frism,
the way she draws her is absolutely
amazing.
I'm a big fan of Ginny Frism's art
to begin with.
Yeah.
If I see her name on the cover,
it's almost immediately coming home with
me because she's up there with Peach
Momoko for me.
You know, it's like, I want that cover.
Yeah, exactly.
Which has been your favorite story
featured in Hello Darkness so far?
The reoccurring one with R.L.
Stine.
And then also the reoccurring one with
Robert Hack.
I can't remember the names of the stories
off the top of my head.
It's just, it was like classic RL Stein.
Yeah.
And then the Robert hack was like,
it felt like RL Stein and a little
Stephen King mitts in there, you know?
Yeah.
So both those stories have been phenomenal
in my opinion.
But it doesn't matter.
It's just a good book.
Yeah,
you get to choose from a variety of
different styles of horror.
I think my favorite was the Garth Ennis
one.
Okay, yeah.
I think the ending,
I'm not so sold on,
even though I get what he was going
for.
I'm not going to spoil anything.
But everything else, I felt,
It was depressing all the way through,
I think.
You know, depressing horror, I think.
So that's like,
I didn't put it on the list,
but Lou Anna Vecchio's Lovesick,
which is about a depressed female who gets
through life,
gets through her depression and anxiety in
her teenage years through murder and
domination of men.
And it's very much a horror book,
but I didn't put it in this one
because I tried to, that one is,
I wouldn't classify it as PG-thirteen.
That one's more of a rated R.
So I didn't really list that one,
but if you wanted to go more adult,
Lovesick is amazing.
There's a prequel to it as well.
And Luana Vecchio, amazing writer,
amazing artist.
So she's another one that I put up
there in high regards of just being a
phenomenal writer slash artist.
But next up.
On my reading list.
Next up.
This show just got announced that it will
be a TV series, animated TV series,
and also a movie made about this next
title.
And it's going to be from James Teeny
and the Fourth,
Boom Studios' Something is Killing the
Children.
And I'm going to group in House of
Slaughter.
house of cutter house of butcher because
it's all just one big long story that
you can immerse yourself into and not just
a story it's a world right there's there's
a there's the azure arc the blue arc
there's so many different arts to this
story already out that you cannot go wrong
and you can literally just i recommend
picking up the trade paperbacks of this
book
Because, again,
if you try to buy the individual issues
of this starting at number one,
before you get to the current story,
I think we're on issue fifty or something,
you're going to be in debt thousands of
dollars trying to track.
Because it is such a popular book.
I wish I was joking.
I wish I could say I was joking.
But I got really lucky with it.
And when I found this book,
I was able to get back issues pretty
cheap for it.
And then it skyrocketed again.
And now it's kind of like on the
downturn a little bit.
But I know with the announcement of the
movie and the animated series that the
prices on this book are once again going
to skyrocket.
That's why I recommend everyone,
if you want to read this,
you definitely want to read the trade
paper bats.
And they're out there.
They're available.
You can order them on Amazon Prime.
You can order them digitally from Boom
Studios.
But read it before you see it because
it is absolutely happening.
Something is killing the children.
It's getting a TV series and movies.
I haven't gotten to read that one.
It's been on my list for a while
now.
So I'm going to.
But I did get to read it.
Tim wrote this short story that is set
within that universe.
And it's actually featured in Hell of
Darkness.
And it's been going on for a while.
It's one of the continuing stories.
I think that one's another one that comes
to an end either in this last issue
of Hello Darkness or the next issue of
Hello Darkness.
I do know that they're getting ready to
kind of do a.
A hundred percent like new,
fresh stories and start a new arc of
Hello Darkness, I believe,
because a lot of those stories are
starting to come to an end.
Right.
I don't know how he does it because
he consistently puts out lots of
high-quality horror stories.
I know that you have more in your
– This whole list could have been just
straight up a tribute show to James
Tinian.
But I didn't want it to be like
that,
but I could have easily had done it.
And, um,
just because he's got such a good writing
team with him right now with over at
tiny onion,
which is his production company.
And they are absolutely on top of their
game right now.
Oh yeah.
With house of slaughter ended finally, uh,
which I think he had a co-writer on
it that finished out the story with him.
And I think she did just a phenomenal
job of closing out house of slaughter.
Um,
The next book up is going to be
a so if you're a fan of like
the exorcism and stories about exorcisms,
this is going to be a good book
for you.
And it's called When I Lay My Vengeance
Upon Thee by Gus Marino.
And it takes place in a Caribbean island,
I believe.
Or maybe in an African country.
I can't remember which one it is.
But there is a Catholic priest there who
performs exorcisms for the villages.
And they send a new priest to learn
the ways of the elder priest and how
he does his exorcisms.
And now the way he does exorcisms isn't
exactly by the book.
Okay, okay.
He has developed his own...
I don't want to say evil method,
but definitely his own method of doing it.
And it was just a phenomenal series.
I think it's a five-issue run.
It might actually be out on trade
paperback now.
But it was just such a fun series.
Gus Marino is a fantastic –
I feel like he can be out there
so much more than what he is because
he is that good.
But I want to say he also writes
books as well,
and that's where the majority of his time
is spent.
Oh, but yeah, he has that background.
Yeah, but it is a very,
very damn good series.
So if you're a fan of esotericisms and
stuff like that,
I highly recommend When I Lay My Vengeance
Upon Thee.
And it's just fun to say.
That's just a fun title.
The way it rolls off your tongue sounds
amazing.
But next up is one of our favorites
from R.L.
Stein.
It's one of his books called The Graveyard
Club, and this one is called Fresh Blood.
I believe it was a one-shot just to
reintroduce a new graveyard club.
Mm-hmm.
And I think the Graveyard Club was also
a part of Hello Darkness as well at
one point.
Yeah, I think so.
I think so.
But it's just a fun book.
I mean, it's R.L.
Stine.
You got the creepy subliminal R.L.
Stine messages in his story.
It takes place in a graveyard and it
reflects back to the original graveyard
club with the parents.
And they're trying to find this other
kid's parents who disappeared from the
original graveyard club.
So it's a really fun story.
I really enjoyed it.
And I can't wait for it to come
back out again because it was really,
really good.
I think somehow this sort of brought back
a recommendation from, you know,
it's not exactly a new book.
It's actually, I think it has,
it's a year or two,
it came out like a year or two
ago.
Okay.
um that sort of i think uh stein
actually wrote one issue for and it's this
anthology series where each issue is a
separate story they are all connected by
the same element and it's called uh the
silver coin okay fantastic horror book of
course there are issues that are better
than others but overall it's very very
consistent uh it's it features this
the eponymous silver coin that is sort of
it has this monkey paw um magic to
it but it's decidedly more evil it's like
the monkey paw finds uh meets uh the
one ring from the
from Lord of the Rings, right?
People become obsessed about it and also
sort of fucks up their lives completely.
It's very grotesque,
sometimes very depressing,
other times sort of fun in the gory
aspects of it.
Okay.
I like that, dude.
That's some of the best stuff.
Yeah, I think if you like Hello Darkness,
if you're into R.L.
Stine, um,
Definitely,
if you are into Arnold Stanton,
because I'm certain that he wrote at least
one issue.
Yeah,
that's sort of my recommendation to sort
of plug in there.
All right,
I got one more from Boom Studios.
It literally just came out, I believe,
last week.
And it is called Marion Heretic by Teenie
Howard,
who you may know from the Rick and
Morty series.
But it is about a rogue nun who
hunts witches.
That sounds fun.
I mean,
it's got covers from some of the best
cover artists out there right now.
And it's written by Teenie Howard.
It's her book.
And it is absolutely amazing.
So if you're a big fan of like
The Last Witch Hunter.
or anything related really to kind of that
D&D feel,
then this would be absolutely a perfect
book to check out.
It's got very fun covers.
The story is very action-packed.
You get to know who Marion is.
This could be up there with a comic
book of the year, in my opinion.
It could definitely be a top ten
contender, in my opinion.
up there with like exquisite corpses and
stuff like that.
Oh, exquisite corpses.
Rich,
we're going to get to that one because
that was another one that is
But so that's my recommendations from Boom
Studio.
Fran gave you some recommendations from
Argentina, which is really cool.
And some Spanish comic books,
which I'm personally going to check out
because I think it's really cool when you
get to see comic books or when you
can get your hands on comic books.
from other countries.
I think that's really cool to be able
to do.
And I've seen a few here lately that
I'm really wanting to get my hands on
from Italy.
Oh, they do great horror.
Yeah,
there's some phenomenal comic book writers
and artists over there.
I got one coming up a little later
on who I think is absolutely amazing.
But right now we're going to be shifting
from
Boom Studios over to what could be one
up there with some of the best horror
genres out there with EC Comics,
which stands for Entertaining Comics and
Ani Press.
They're kind of one in the same.
Ani Press is with the EC stamp on
it.
So I consider them the same company.
But I think they do different types of
work, but not really.
But they are definitely some masters of
horror.
And the very first one I'm going to
recommend from them is called Blood Type.
And this book is actually a spinoff from
another book called Epitaphs from the
Abyss,
which is an anthology comic book written
by various artists.
And the writer of Blood Type is Karina
Beko.
I'm probably mispronouncing her name very
badly.
but the main character from blood type is
actually from epitaphs from the abyss
which both of those comic books blood type
is about a vampire who finds her way
to the caribbean to an island like a
tourist island where people go missing all
the time so
It's going to be remiss if a vampire
starts taking a victim here and there to
feed off of because, well, this island,
this resort island is known for people
disappearing.
Right.
Whether it be a shark or what have
you, a drowning.
So who's going to miss one or two
tourists?
with a vampire feeding on people.
But what she doesn't realize is that
there's something else on the island who
has also been doing that and was there
before her and is now hunting her.
Nice.
So it is a very fun story.
Karina,
I think is a very fun writer who
brings different spins to things and,
I loved her stories in Epitaphs from the
Abyss, which, again,
an anthology series of really dark and
twisted horror stories.
Whether it was bloody or gory or
psychologically just a mindfuck,
Epitaphs from the Abyss kind of had a
little bit of everything in it.
And so Epitaphs of the Abyss ended,
and they brought out Catacombs of Torment,
which replaced it,
and it's the very same thing.
It's just different – it's just a
different name on the same book basically.
Yeah, but it's still written by –
it's the same aesthetic.
It feels very eighties horror.
Yeah.
And that's what they're very much known
for is that eighties horror feel like all
their comic books are that way.
They look and smell and feel modern,
but the content itself and the covers all
feel very nineteen eighties,
nineteen seventies.
And that's what I really,
really like about them is modern history
or modern comic books with the historic
elements.
look to them and it's really cool on
that note shout out to uh the cover
artist for epitaphs from the beast uh
liver mejo who did a great job sort
of mixing his style that is very very
greedy very very uh you can almost feel
the grease on the skin of the characters
the blood on the you know all the
textures with the sort of more
spectacular gory fantastical elements from
sixties or eighties comic books so what's
really cool is that ec comments and ani
press they have um sci-fi books like this
as well it's that that modern feel to
like a nineteen seventies classic you know
what i'm saying yeah and i was going
to include that too because it's like
sci-fi horror but i left it off the
list just to focus on the pure horror
stuff
Yeah, but they've got like Cruel Universe.
Yeah, Cruel Universe.
I think that it's more medieval oriented.
Well, it's like medieval.
There's some dinosaurs in there.
It's like Lost Planet almost,
but with a horror feel to it.
Medieval times with, again,
like a horror feel to it.
Yeah.
But they're really good,
but it's more sci-fi and medieval like
thriller.
Yeah.
But again, beautiful stories,
beautiful covers,
always great artwork that is very modern,
but also very retro at the same time.
And the last one I'm going to do
from Ani Press,
which is this story was absolutely amazing
by Michael W. Conrad.
And it is called Plague House.
Oh, I haven't heard about that one.
So basically,
it's about a group of guys who go
around cleansing haunted houses.
Oof, that sounds...
But the main guy who does the cleanses,
there's a dark spirit that has leeched
itself onto him.
So it's basically following him.
Yes,
he did the exorcism on this one house
where it couldn't be exorcised,
but he managed to...
cleanse the house and to exercise the
house but that spirit leached itself onto
him and now it's killing his friends and
those close to him and it was a
phenomenal story i had the chance to meet
michael w conrad at a recent comic-con and
i missed him where his booth was supposed
to be it was moved and i never
could find him
i was very disappointed in that because i
really wanted to get that number one
signed it is again one of those books
that felt very retro with the way the
covers were done and um it was just
such a good series i think it was
a five-part series i know it's out on
trade paperback now but it was just such
a good story it was like every time
i would go to the comic shop and
i knew it was going to be there
it gave you that brand new assignment
because you're ready for that next part of
the story, you know,
and it's not often that a story will
pull you in like that.
And just like, like, damn,
I got to wait like another month before
the next issue comes out.
That one, a hundred percent.
Is it complete?
Has it been released in full already?
It is.
I think it was like five issues.
Oh, nice.
Short and sweet.
Yeah, short and sweet.
It was like, I think,
twenty-eight or thirty pages per book.
The trade paperback is out.
And it was such a good book.
Like, highly,
highly recommend that one to people.
So next up...
We're going to IDW and they have a
new kind of spinoff on theirs called IDW
Dark.
And then also I'm going to group in
here another comic book company called Bad
Idea, which is an indie publisher.
And this is going to be kind of
a sci-fi horror-esque
But first up we're going to do from
bad idea, a book called cul de sac.
We were talking a little bit about this
before we went live and this book is
scary as shit.
Like the idea of this book is kind
of, um, the house from, uh, it.
yeah yeah the ones so imagine the whole
cul-de-sac kind of that way okay it's
those vibes but there's like one normal
family there and every and to close out
the summer they um they take all the
kids in the neighborhood on a camping trip
And on the camping trip,
it's realized that some of the parents
sacrifice their children,
like a family must sacrifice their
children to appease the demons that haunt
the cul-de-sac, basically.
Right.
That sounds like... It's a trippy book,
man.
I live in a cul-de-sac,
so it's kind of like...
The covers are very nightmarish, honestly.
Dude, that was...
It's the one cover with the monster with
the nails coming in.
I have that cover.
That was the cover I had to get.
It is absolutely a terrifying cover and a
fun...
weird quirky story that literally gives
you a lasting impression and it's amazing
so now i got two up from idw
idw is dipping their their toes into the
horror genre and the very first one i'm
going to do is a a story from
a
She appeared on Ghost.
I think the name of this TV series
was Ghost.
She's done other little smaller roles on
TV.
But her name is Hannah Rose May.
And it's the exorcism at sixteen hundred
pin.
And for those who are watching this later,
sixteen hundred pin is the White House.
Oh,
I think basically the president is a
female.
and her husband is the first man,
or whatever you want to call him,
the first lad,
and their daughter gets possessed by a
demon who wants to start World War III
through nuclear holocaust, basically.
Nice.
So the whole premise of,
I think it was like five issues or
six issues, something like that,
but the whole story is about them trying
to exorcise the demon from her daughter
to prevent World War III from happening.
Well,
they're trying to stop World War III from
happening while also trying to exorcise
the demon from their daughter.
And while they're trying to do that,
their focus is obviously on their
daughter,
but the world around us is going to
shit in a handbag.
That's great because it sort of mixes the
elements that I love from the more
supernatural aspects with the more
Yeah, like books, apocalyptic stories,
like the war in Hell of Darkness from
Garth Ennis'
Yes.
Like news from the Fallout that has just
come out.
It's really good.
I didn't list it on here.
I really didn't consider it horror.
To me, it's more of a sci-fi-ish.
But it is about zombies,
so I guess we could have included it.
It's from Image Comics,
which I think we're going to be doing
next.
But that was a phenomenal ongoing series.
So...
but also from IDW Dark.
It's a book that I was supposed to
talk about with CJ Loves Horror,
but we had to cancel that show.
Hopefully we can circle back to it,
but it is called Event Horizon Dark
Descent by Christian Ward.
It is exactly what you think it is.
It is based off the movie and the
book of Event Horizon.
but it takes place within the universe and
it kind of gives you more of the
details of the individuals from the book
or the movie as they go crazy.
Nice.
So it's giving you different character
perspectives of their descent into
madness.
Nice.
Before they start killing themselves,
you know, or killing each other.
I was curious about that one because I
know the IP from back when I was
like a kid.
And I was wondering whether it sort of
expanded the story.
They did.
It's an expansion of the story.
Oh,
it sort of adapts and expands rather than
follow up the story.
That's right.
It's literally taking place within that
universe on the same ship everything.
It's really fun.
Issue two just came out, I think,
last week.
So I haven't had a chance to sit
down and read it yet.
But that's a hundred percent on my list
to read here soon.
Probably be with the very first one I
read when I start reading October.
So...
But now we're going over to what can
only be defined as the masters of the
macabre in this image comics.
Oh, yeah.
And we're going to start with another
James Tinian book called Exquisite
Corpses.
Is it horror?
Kind of.
And here's why I listed it in horror.
Think of it as...
Shit,
what's the name of that movie where once
a year you can kill people,
you can rob?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I know.
It's basically like that.
Yeah.
But basically what happens is the power
families in the United States every year
pick a small town.
And they drop the most dangerous,
most murderous...
people that they can get their hands on
and they drop them in this small town
and basically let them run amok they can
kill they can rob and it's basically the
last man standing in the town is the
winner yeah i think it's it's cool because
it's got it's got action it's got it's
like a large uh
ensemble cast of Slasher.
Yes.
Yes, exactly.
Cream meets, I don't know,
Chainsaw Massacre meets,
and all of them sort of versus each
other.
It's really fun.
It's really, really fun.
And here's what is the coolest part about
it.
James Tinian, Michael Walsh,
the two guys who were writing it together,
they got together, created a card game,
based off exquisite corpses.
And they're playing the card game to
determine who dies next in the comic book.
Nice.
That explains it.
I'm not spoiling it, right?
But at the end of each issue,
you've got that sort of tier list with
the versus,
the name of each killer versus the name
of the other killer.
And they go to the next round whenever
each one kills another one.
It's funny because you start to see when
you're sort of anticipating who the
finalists are going to be.
So the only people who know are the
ones who are playing the game with Tinian
and Michael Walsh.
And it's literally,
I don't know if they're still playing the
game or if they played it in one
go to determine the order of the deaths.
Or if they still get together once a
week and determine, like, hey,
let's play and see who's going to die
next.
I'm not sure.
But there's also a polybag variant where
you get a card from the game.
Like, a killer's card.
So at the end of it,
if you have all the polybags,
you have all the killer's cards...
you can play the game yourself nice so
it's kind of cool and i put that
on here but it is more of a
thriller more i i consider it horror i
know some people aren't liking it some
people aren't feeling it i personally have
loved it from issue one and i will
put it in the top ten at the
end of the year easily hands down in
my top ten yeah i think if you
like flasher horror movies
Yeah,
if you like Jason and Freddy Krueger,
Michael Myers,
imagine dropping all of them in a small
town and just letting them run amok,
and the last man standing is the winner.
Exactly.
I think if you like this sort of
sub-genre horror,
you're going to love this comic book.
Absolutely.
So next we're going over to one of
my favorite streets.
And it's going to be from Ghost Machine
and Image Comics written by Jeff Johns.
It is going to be Hyde Street.
Oh, yeah.
So it's the horror comic from Ghost
Machine.
It also currently has a spinoff called
Sisterhood.
And it also has another spinoff called
Devout.
There's been a few one shots,
but Hyde Street is the main book from
it.
And that's the one I chose to focus
on.
Again, it's from the legendary Jeff Johns.
And I know they have a crossover coming
up soon with a cover crossover coming up
with Batman with Jim Lee and Jeff Johns
doing covers for each other.
And it's going to be an amazing cover.
I already know that.
But Hyde Street is really fun.
It's like a different kind of story each
week.
but it pretty much focuses on the same
group of characters.
It just has a different feel to it,
each issue.
You have the matinee monster,
which is like Frankenstein's monster.
You have Mr. X-Ray, who is a,
I think he's a time jumper,
and he jumped into the wrong time,
basically.
But he's also a serial killer.
Then you have,
I think his name is Scrappy the Boy
Scout,
who is possessed by a demon who's always
causing chaos and unrest in the city.
And it's just a fun,
fun comic book from Geoff Johns and Ghost
Machine.
And...
Dude, it's just so good.
I cannot recommend checking it out enough.
I think the first trade paperback is out
already on it.
So if you wanted to pick up the
trade paperback and read the first five or
six issues, you could.
But it's Jeff Johns, dude.
The dude is just a phenomenal writer.
And Ghost Machine as a whole has been
putting out some great titles.
just amazing titles from rocket fellers
to, to red coat to Geiger, um,
junkyard Joe Geiger is probably my
favorite red coats been really good.
Um, rocket fellers is,
is a fun one just from a perspective
of what it is.
It's like, uh,
a future family that came back into our
time to get away from somebody trying to
kill them.
So they brought all their futuristic
madness with them to our time.
And it's just a fun series.
But Ghost Machine is absolutely killing
it.
And Hyde Street is their horror book from
Ghost Machine.
Chef Kiss, Jeff Johns, check that one out.
So next up, I'm going to a...
Xander Cannon's Sleep.
That's the title of the book is Sleep.
The main character,
every time he falls asleep,
he becomes a monster.
Oh, nice.
So it is really damn good.
Xander Cannon, to me,
he come out of nowhere.
I've never heard of him before.
But this book has been something truly
special.
I cannot recommend it to you enough.
I think it's like on five or six
issues right now,
which I think the – actually,
I think I just read the finale,
and I think it was an issue six.
Okay.
But it was really damn good.
It's got these – I'm checking it out
right now.
It's got these –
very like it's not your traditional
american comic book it's not art style
either it's more in the field yes it's
very much it feels a hundred percent indie
which is something image is known for and
um i really enjoyed the way the art
was done it's kind of like a black
white and red and it was a fun
story a different type of story
And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Xander Cannon, get some kudos, man,
because that was a rock star story.
So,
Up Next is going to be something that
I think everybody will like and enjoy.
And that's going to be Universal Monsters.
So...
All of the monsters are now released,
including the Invisible Man,
which is running right now.
It was written by different artists.
The art was done by the same people
per series.
My favorite so far has been the Mummy.
If you listen to my episode with
Christopher Ford and Dark Pink Comets,
we both gave that one high regards because
we're both fans of the Universal Monsters.
And, yeah, I can't say enough about it.
Check them out.
We're all on trade paperback right now,
minus The Invisible Man.
And that's only because it's still
ongoing.
And that one is being written by Tinian,
right?
Yes, absolutely.
The Invisible Man is being written by
Tinian as well.
he's putting out a lot of work he
writes so so much and i skipped one
i didn't mean to skip it's gonna be
doug wagner's i was a fashion school
serial killer so think of it as dahmer
um gacy if they had a a young
beautiful daughter
That's what this book is.
She goes to fashion school,
and her medium of choice is human skin.
She's trying to be on her best behavior.
Her name is Rennie,
but she doesn't like when people mess with
her friends or her life.
So she's got like a dexter element to
you.
Very much a dexter element to it as
well.
However,
she will skin you and then turn you
into fashion.
But it is such a fun story.
And it's Doug Wagner.
I don't know if you're familiar with Doug
Wagner, but he is a phenomenal writer.
And this story was right up his alley.
It was perfect.
It's his story.
So it is.
God damn, it's so fun.
Like the covers were phenomenal.
The stories were phenomenal.
Just really growing as a person,
but also still having that that itch to
kill.
You know what I'm saying?
But she's trying.
She's trying really hard to change.
But God forbid you upset one of her
friends because she's going to skin you
and turn you into fashion.
I know.
Very fun story.
So the next one is one we were
talking about a little bit earlier,
and that's going to be World Tree.
Also by Tinian.
But if you thought the Internet was your
friend, you are wrong.
So in this book,
there's three layers of the Internet.
There's the Internet.
the dark net,
and then there is the under net where
our killer lives in World Tree.
So basically in the first arc of World
Tree,
a killer is in the under net and
she kills people.
Like creatively, she's a ax murderer.
She is a sociopathic killer.
But is she a real person?
She is, or she was, rather,
before she died and got sucked into the
undernet, her conscious.
In part two,
in the second arc of World Tree,
they're discovering that she was, in fact,
a real person at one point.
And what happened to her in the first
one is the reason why she is killing
people.
a fun story there's it's two arcs deep
currently and it's just such an intriguing
story with a new spin on a new
fear of the internet you know what i
love is that he picks up some of
the of the themes like i was saying
earlier he he picks up some of the
themes that dean loves which is
the sort of the memetic nature of things
on the internet, how easily they spread.
Yeah.
Cause me horror because you ultimately.
Did you ever seen a movie from the
eighties or might've come out in the
seventies called the lawnmower man?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
So if very much some similar to this
story, only modern day for the internet.
So it's really cool, really fun.
The next book up is by Marguerite Bennett,
and it is called Mommy Blog.
I didn't even hear about it before.
I'm not for sure if this was a
one-shot or what,
but basically it's about suburban moms and
stay-at-home moms who want this perfect
suburban family,
perfect suburban children, right?
And they will stop at nothing to have
that perfect child, that perfect family,
that perfect house,
even murdering those who don't fit into
their neighborhood.
Oh,
I love the sort of suburban horror sort
of stories where it's all about keeping
appearances.
And it feels like, I think there's,
There's plenty of TV series right now that
sort of touch into those topics.
I think there was a movie with Shia
LaBeouf called Suburbia,
very similar to that statement.
Yeah.
Where the neighbor thinks his neighbor is
a killer.
But he's on house arrest,
so he's not really supposed to be.
He just keeps getting himself in trouble.
but I thought it was a pretty good
movie,
but it's all about like keeping up
appearances,
but she's not afraid to spill a little
blood.
You know what I'm saying?
Right.
But it was just a fun book.
Was it really hard?
Yeah.
I mean,
if you consider suburban moms killing
people,
they're dirtying up her neighborhood.
Then yeah, absolutely.
Because it's just blatantly murder,
you know, in public, just, you know,
but next up is going to be one
of our favorite books and probably the
book that really connected us and gave us
the idea for this show.
And that's going to be the deviant.
Oh yeah.
Awesome book.
I think those who like, um, was, uh,
like the, the Zodiac movie or, uh,
the Y two K killer or B two
take killer or whatever it is.
The black Dahlia.
Yeah.
I think they're going to love,
It feels very much in the same vein.
It closed out earlier this year with the
finale.
And then they released kind of like a
prequel to it called... Shit.
Can't remember the name of it.
But it was like something Hall H.
But it takes place at a Comic-Con again.
And...
But it's a fun little – I think
it's like a one-shot kind of prequel to
The Deviant.
But The Deviant is amazing.
There's a man that goes to jail who
they think is the killer,
the Deviant killer.
However – It's great, too,
that it feels like a drama as well.
It's not just – It does.
It's a drama underneath it.
It really is.
There's some drama between the lovers who
are,
one of them's the actual killer and the
other one takes the,
I guess he takes the bullet for the
killer and goes to jail.
But it is such a fun book.
Like,
I cannot stress enough how great this book
was.
Yeah.
And next up.
Very atmospheric.
Yeah.
Main list for comics this year.
I don't want to say it was a
world build,
but it was an atmosphere to the book.
Yeah.
Like, it had that... Like,
it felt like the environment was built for
a serial killer.
Yeah.
Like, the vibe.
From book one to book, I think,
six or seven.
No, it went nine, I think.
I think, yeah.
Something around nine or ten issues.
Yeah.
But it was just such a phenomenal series.
I cannot recommend it enough.
It's on trade paperback right now.
You can get your hands on a copy.
Please read this book.
And it's just going to be perfect in
time.
If you order it now,
you can get it and read it for
Christmas and let it give you some creepy
nightmares.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
But next up is going to be Creepshow.
It's been written by various artists
throughout the years,
drawn by various artists.
It's an anthology,
usually two to three stories,
dependent on the issue.
They had a Valentine's issue.
They do one for Christmas.
He kind of ebbs and flows.
He'll end,
you give it a couple of cycles,
and it pops right back up.
They just released new issues for
Halloween.
um but it's just a phenomenal series i
think it's been around since the seventies
so it has the longevity it has the
leads and the creep is just one of
those perfect characters yeah very very
easily recognizable very iconic that's
that's the word absolutely absolutely and
if you watch the tv show back in
the day tells from the crib that's the
creep
and it dude it's a chef's kiss on
top of a chef's kiss they always have
like phenomenal writers phenomenal artists
some of the best cover guys in the
world do the covers for it and it's
always just so good it's so fun to
get to see the creep with all the
longevity that he has still going strong
yeah yeah i i think part of the
the success of the of that series
beyond the horror elements.
It's like this tongue-in-cheek element to
it, right?
They don't take themselves too seriously,
but they are still able to deliver on
the scares.
And it's never like
Like, the scares are, it depends.
They're lessons learned.
There's, like,
there's always something unique about it.
You know, the stories.
Yeah.
Like,
some type of lesson will come out of
the story.
It's just so fun.
Like, I cannot recommend.
Like,
you can just go pick up a trade
paperback of Creepshow.
Volume one, volume two.
It doesn't matter.
Just grab a trade paperback of Creepshow.
And just let it take you for a
ride.
Yeah, yeah.
Like some of my favorite ones are the
Christmas special edition.
It's like for Christmas.
But it's about greed and lust and vanity.
And it's just perfect Christmastime
horror.
Yeah.
Those will always be some of my favorite
issues.
It's like a dark spin on It's a
Wonderful Life.
or a Christmas tale.
It's that but twisted.
He's taking a wholesome story and giving
it an evil twist.
I love it.
It's absolutely top-notch storytelling.
Last up from Image Comics is going to
be what was a one-shot.
It wasn't just a one-shot.
It was magazine-sized.
And it's going to be called Blood Train
by Adam Glass.
Very much the movie with Vinnie Jones,
the last stop or whatever it was where
he was feeding the demon at the end
of the rail line.
It's very much that kind of feel.
But it was just a...
If you want blood, you want the gore,
you want a jump scare in a comic
book,
this book had everything if you're into
the gory, bloody comic books.
Because this is literally called blood
training from cover...
To cover.
It is that.
It's about a group of friends.
Who get on a train.
And they start dying.
One by one.
By one.
Not just a simple death.
Like oh he died.
Oh he was poisoned.
No.
We're talking eaten.
Ripped apart by the limbs.
Just a bloody.
Gory death.
holy shit, you know,
but Adam Glass absolutely delivered it on
the book.
It's odd because image doesn't print a lot
of magazine sized books,
but they did on this one.
It's called blood train.
If you go to image.com,
you can probably buy it,
but I thought this was an absolutely
phenomenal book.
definitely adding that one to my pool but
that's all i have for image again such
a image always has good horror and they
will always be home to the indie creators
which i love that you can just submit
a book to them and they will tell
you yes or no and they will give
you feedback if they say no
So if you submit a book to Image
Comments and they say no,
they're going to spell it out for you.
Like, oh, the art wasn't there.
Or, hey,
you need to go back and refine this
and resubmit later.
So they're very good about that kind of
stuff.
And I will always give my love and
my money to Image Comments.
So next up,
this is going to be our last stop
on the horror coffin,
and that's going to be just some indie
nightmares, man.
We're talking stuff from Vault Comets,
from The Keen Spot, some from Dark Horse,
some from Zenscope,
and a special book from DC Dark,
which really didn't need to be in...
the dnd all others but because it's so
such a new concept that dc i put
it down there and we're going to start
with it and it's a follow-up to a
previous book called the nice house by the
lake and this is the the nice house
by the sea it's written by jeff lobe
and james tinian iv of course of course
So basically these books are about the
houses, not necessarily the people,
even though the people play a big part
of it,
but it's about the house itself and the
way it has the ability to warp and
twist people and reshape people.
It was a fun series.
I think it was like five or six
issues.
I know you can get both the Nice
House by the Lake and the Nice House
by the Sea,
both of them in trade paperback.
Both absolutely worth your money.
Yeah,
I would recommend buying both together
because you can get lost with the
With a number of characters.
Yeah, absolutely.
Because the characters are not the same.
The house isn't the same.
Same concept.
Same types of scenarios.
Sort of same universe.
Yeah.
I don't want to say too much,
but it's sort of the same cinematic,
comic universe, let's call it.
Yes.
But they're both just so much fun.
Start with the house by the lake first.
I think that was a lot more gorier
and sadistic than The Nice House.
And darker, absolutely.
I like it a lot more than the
one by the sea.
I'm not going to lie.
I preferred The Nice House by the Lake.
But The Nice House by the Sea also
still a very good book.
Not to be missed.
Dude,
some of the best artwork you'll see had
some of the coolest covers,
especially The Nice House by the Lake.
yeah add some of the grimiest like
disgustingness covers that you could put
on a a comic book but they were
great reads i highly recommend you
checking both out but since i wanted to
keep it twenty twenty five that's why i
went with the nice house by the sea
right but definitely check both out
Especially also if you like cosmic horror.
Very much.
It's a very, very central stage.
Yes.
It's also,
so there's a new book out from,
I want to say it's from Ani Press.
It's called Benjamin.
It's not really horror.
It's more sci-fi.
But a guy, he dies, right?
Like he knows for a fact that he
is dead.
But he wakes up.
Okay.
Yeah.
He wakes up and finds himself in a
random building downtown.
And he makes his way back.
It's like a sci-fi...
I don't want to call it a horror,
but the guy basically gets a new start
at life.
Okay.
He remembers dying.
It's interesting because usually that sort
of setup is played from a different
perspective where
people see their loved ones come back to
life and that story is a hundred percent
told through the eyes of the character
benjamin who is the main character and
it's absolutely amazing but it's got that
that element to it that sci-fi world
element to it
But I didn't put it in here because
I did consider it more sci-fi,
even though the guy knows he's dead and
knows he's given a second chance at life
for some reason.
It's figuring out the reason why he's been
brought back.
Right.
So it's really cool.
I want to throw in a recommendation there
because it's also – Oh, absolutely.
It blurs the line between sci-fi and
horror, and that's Department of Truth,
which is also – Oh, dude.
Yeah.
and still coming out spectacular.
It's also very,
I would say it's also cosmic horror
because you've got these over,
it taps into something that is.
I mean, it explores the death.
It explores the assassination of Robert
Kennedy.
It explores the death of Elvis Presley.
It explores aliens.
Basically, dude, Department of Truth,
and I'm glad you brought that up,
it's also Athenian.
But, oh my god, it's really,
it's all over the place, kind of.
Yeah,
it's every conspiracy theory rolled into
one large story that sort of connects them
all.
Yes.
Which I have first print, issue one,
Department of Truth, signed by Tinian,
slabbed and on my shelf over here.
That's a treasure, right?
And when I found it,
it was when the Department of Truth kind
of was on that skid in the lower
price round.
So I was able to get it for
less than a hundred bucks.
So I was not upset with it at
all.
Anytime you can get a good deal on
a slab comic like the Department of Truth
or really anything signed by Tinian,
which I know Tinian is doing a sign-in
tonight at one of the comic shops,
I think,
in New York with the whole Tiny Onion
crew.
So I think that's really cool.
So if you're up there,
I think it's called One Eye Comets or
something like that.
Tania is there with the Exquisite Corpses
crew and the Tiny Onion crew doing
autographs.
I'm jealous of all of you.
Go get autographs out there,
which I've not got to meet him.
I really want to meet him and just
to be able to shake his hand and
be like, dude,
you are redefining and defining what it is
to do comic books.
Yeah.
Granted,
he gets some hits and some misses in
there, but for the most part,
I don't think he's really missed.
Yeah, no, I think for the most part.
There's another one that I haven't read
yet,
but I heard lots of good things about.
What is it?
Spectrograph.
Okay, yeah, no, I've heard about that one.
I haven't read it yet.
Yeah, and that one I sort of,
I won't read it because it, again,
it's also, he sort of, yeah,
touches on several of the same themes
along his bibliography.
But he always finds a different in for
those topics.
He does.
He has a really good way of blending
genres.
I think horror is really his...
Horror with a sci-fi edge to it is
kind of like his forte.
Yeah.
But up next,
we're going to go to Zen Scope.
It's going to be Graham Tells of Terror.
It's mainly written by Joe Bruscia.
It always has really great art,
really great covers.
And basically,
what he does is take urban legends and
puts a spin on the urban legends.
Oh, nice.
Nice.
And, you know,
he does use the female covers to his
advantage to sell,
even though they're not the characters.
Well,
they can be the characters in the book,
and they are often.
But it's, I don't know, dude.
It's one of those where he could put
anything on the cover,
and the story is going to be good.
Like he did, like,
what was the last one he did that
I can remember?
like the devil's chair in Florida.
He wrote a story about that.
It was, it's really cool.
He just takes these really cool urban
legends and urban myths and put something
in a real world scenario into a story.
If that makes any sense,
he just does it in a really cool
way.
Yeah.
It's funny because it's also, it's,
it's like the same technique.
Let's say that, that,
that he uses for conspiracy theories he
uses for for urban legends right yes yes
absolutely and he he just does it in
a way that like i don't know man
i just really enjoy what grim tales of
terror does with urban legends and like
the redefining it you know and making it
something this is the same but it feels
different you know
But up next,
I want to go to Dark Horse and
it's going to be a book called I
don't know if this came out in twenty
twenty five or twenty twenty four,
but it's by Clay McLeod Chapman,
who is a brilliant horror writer.
Like his horror books are some of the
best I've ever read.
But the name of the comic book is
called Seance in the Asylum.
So think of it like it's one of
the seasons of that show on FBATS.
Yeah, American Horror Story.
American Horror Story.
Right.
When were they in the asylum?
Mm-hmm.
Think of it like that,
only from a exorcism point of view.
Nice.
And that's what you get with Seance in
the Asylum.
And it's like, are these people dead?
Are they alive?
The lines become so blurred for your main
character that they don't know anymore.
It feels like it's a bit like a
gothic horror element.
It's very much got a good gothic horror
element to it.
And Clay McCloud, Chapman, fantastic.
Very nice guy.
Very awesome guy.
He's always full of energy.
If you follow him on Instagram,
he's just a really cool dude.
Very humble.
But I know there's been multiple short
movies made out of his books.
I think he's got a movie coming out
based off his book called Ghost Eaters,
I think is the name of it.
So I wanted a shameless plug,
not just because I love the comic book,
also just because I think he's a
phenomenal writer in general.
So shameless plug, Clay McLeod Chapman.
Check out his horror stuff because he does
it so, so damn good.
But also from Dark Horse is going to
be another Tinian book called Let This One
Be a Devil.
It's basically about the urban legend of
the Jersey Devil about a lady who gave
birth to a demon child that turned into
the Jersey Devil.
And it's just a it's basically it gives
you the story of how the urban legend
of the Jersey Devil came to life.
And I want to say he's doing a
whole
series based off of urban, excuse me,
I'm so sorry,
about urban legends like that.
But he started with the Jersey Devil.
Well, once again, you see,
it's the same thing where he's speaking
these themes that he's interested in.
He's interested in conspiracy theories.
He's interested in these sort of urban
legends.
I like that when writers,
especially horror writers, do that.
He does it better than anybody else.
Yeah,
and he's doing it consistently great.
Yeah.
I know he's got a phenomenal team with
him at Tiny Onion,
and they have put together something
special over there.
But next up,
we're going to go to what we're going.
We're still in Dark Horse.
It's going to be Mark Miller's.
Yeah, that Mark Miller of Vatican City.
Now, I'm putting it on here,
even though I was disappointed that it was
only a four issue run.
But it's about a group like basically the
world ended because of vampires.
Okay.
and there's an artifact buried deep within
the Vatican that they need and they want.
So basically,
the vampires sweep the planet of all human
life,
except for those within the walls of the
Vatican,
which is the sacredness of sacred ground
that they cannot enter on their own.
So basically,
it's four issues of them trying to get
the humans to become one of them,
By going to get this artifact that they
want.
But it got rushed.
Because I know Mark Miller.
Was trying to close out projects.
So he could go work on a bigger
project.
Which I think is a TV series.
Well he always.
The one thing that Mark Miller.
Whenever he actually sort of.
What's the expression.
Like he actually.
Locks in.
He delivers consistently good blockbuster
film.
Comics that feel like a blockbuster film.
Absolutely.
I think that's why he left.
Somebody was taking one of his comic books
and converting it to film and he's the
producer on it.
I think that's why he rushed this book
because it only got four issues.
Honestly, it was a little disappointing
It still had a good ending,
but it was one of those where if
we could have got two more issues,
I think it would have been even better.
Right.
Yeah.
So I'm recommending it simply because it's
Mark Miller.
And I think Mark Miller is probably up
there with Tinian as far as writing goes.
But with him,
he has to be locked in.
Yeah, he has to be locked in.
Totally.
Yeah.
So next up is going to be a
new one to this,
and it's going to be from Zach Kaplan,
Dark Horse Comics,
and it's called Masterminds.
And this one is another technological
horror thriller where a young
up-and-comer,
like brand-new billionaire tech genius is
invited to a secret underground club for
the ultra-wealthy tech billionaires.
and basically from there it just like
starts going to shit it becomes like
nightmare fuel from a tech perspective and
like the uh him trying to get into
this club and like what he must go
through to be a part of this club
it goes haywire basically
I'll leave it at that.
The covers are really cool.
The art is phenomenal.
Zach Kaplan, I think,
is a phenomenal writer.
Up next, we're going to Italy, my friend.
I just found this year there are a
lot, and I do mean a lot,
of really,
really good Italian writers
and artist, like, phenomenal,
like their top, top notch, like,
where have they been all my life?
And why didn't I know?
I mean, you know, there are like,
a lot of good artists in Europe,
a lot of good writers in Europe.
But I'm disappointed that I'm just now
discovering them in twenty twenty five,
when I could have been enjoying them a
lot longer.
Better late than never, right?
You're absolutely right.
So this one is going to be called
Don't Run With Scissors.
And it's by Francesca Perillo.
Yeah, I think it's Perillo.
And it's by The King Spot.
And basically it's about a small town
sheriff who, like,
all of a sudden murders start happening in
the city and that kind of stuff.
But it has really fun,
quirky covers by the main artist.
It was just such a good series.
I don't want to give a lot of
it away.
But if you're into small-town murders and
that kind of stuff,
but with a sci-fi horror twist to it,
this is the perfect story.
Francesca...
like i've discovered some of her other
writings as well since then and she's
brilliant and i hate myself for not
knowing about her sooner i have to check
that one out i'm certain that italian
comic books uh i think she writes other
things as well yeah i think i think
some european comics get here uh
I think we're being cheated out of a
lot of good comic books right now because
the postage is so high to get stuff
over here.
But I really do want to go back
and start finding more of the Italian
stuff, especially their horror,
because it's different and it's fun.
Yeah.
And not only them, but Portugal as well,
I think has some good ones.
But next up, France.
The UK, I know for a fact,
has a lot of really good talented writers
and artists.
I know a handful of them.
I've had them on the show before.
But yeah, we need more of them.
I want to discover more of them.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But next up,
we're staying in the Keen spot.
That's K-E-E-N-S-P-O-T.
Very much an indie publisher and very
much, I think,
producing some really good work this year.
This has probably been one of their best
years I've seen.
And the next one is going to be
from Mark Spears.
Yes, that Mark Spears,
who produces some of the coolest stuff.
villain covers you will ever lay your eyes
upon he has such a unique way with
how he draws villains he's okay drawing
heroes but his money to me is with
villains and monsters and that's the name
of the comic book we're going to be
talking about is monsters think universal
monsters they're all there and
This story takes place in a small town
and these kids discover Mr.
Crowley's house and the Wolfman and
Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein.
There's vampires, you name it.
It's his own really cool spin.
So basically, back in the day,
he made a board game or a card
game based off the Universal Monsters.
he then turned that card game into this
comic book called monsters.
It started out on a Kickstarter,
like issue one.
The only way you could get it originally
was through Kickstarter.
It got funded.
Then the keen spot was like, Hey,
we want it.
Can we pick it up from you and
imprint it for you and do all that?
And yeah,
Hence, now the Keen Spot has monsters.
They rolled the dice,
and it came up perfect because this book
has just been amazing.
A really cool story told from Mark Spears.
The art's amazing, of course,
because it's monsters,
and it's done by Mark Spears.
But, yeah, it's very special,
and it's very cool.
And I'm going to end this with something
from Vault Comics,
which I think Vault is very much
underrated from a sci-fi and horror
related fields.
I think they could be bigger than what
they are.
And that's just based off what they've
done this year.
And that's going to be a book called
Lilith.
And it's by Corin Howell.
It's basically about the demon Lilith.
And she's after this book that is owned
by this young lady,
but she needs that book to get herself
back to hell.
It's a fun story.
There was a hiccup with the printing on
issue three, I think.
So it almost didn't get finished because
they weren't,
I don't think they really wanted to go
back and fix the misprint,
but thankfully they did.
It delayed it about four months or five
months, I think.
But then it finally got back on track
and they finished it.
But I know it's been renewed for a
part two.
But Corinne Howe,
she's a phenomenal writer,
phenomenal artist.
She worked with a lot of really cool
artists.
cover artist on this book so she's going
to take home what essentially is my last
spot for my horror comics for twenty
twenty five but this one's literally about
a Lilith the demon Lilith and it's bloody
it's gross it's got some S&M elements to
it some BDSM type of murders to it
it was a really fun comic book
that's all comics actually has there's
there's one coming that it's it's not from
this year but i want to throw the
name in because i think it wasn't it
went over loop like you said i think
it's it came out in i was named
black stars above and it's uh very it
happens in canada i think um
It takes place within a snowstorm.
You have the spirits that the indigenous
people from Canada believe in and they
interact with it.
It's got a cosmic horror element to it.
I don't know how to sell it because
it's very unique.
But I love those types of stories,
like anything related to indigenous,
like skinwalkers,
which I think came out last year.
It was part of twenty twenty four was
a book called Skinwalkers.
And then there was.
The bone something which is very much
similar are the bone ethos or something
like that,
which is another like supernatural horror
to it that I thought was brilliantly done.
And it was a part of another story.
It was like the prequel to it or
something.
I can't remember what it was,
but the Bone Ethos, I think,
was the name of the story.
But it was kind of like a line
of a comic book that went together and
told a big story.
Oh, the Bone Orchid Ethos, right?
Yeah, the Bone Orchids, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I heard about that one.
That one was really good.
Thank you.
It kind of went along with the Skinwalkers
and that kind of stuff,
which I thought was another really
brilliant sci-fi horror adventure type of
comic book.
It's based off of the Skinwalkers Ranch,
which was a TV series.
It's basically what they think they
experienced.
So it's been some really great horror
comic books over the last couple of years.
And I kept this just to twenty twenty
five.
Yeah, because there's so many.
Because I mean,
we could do a two or three hour
show, really.
And I wanted to keep it about this
about an hour, hour and a half.
And we're at an hour and a half
now, which I think is perfect.
And I did twenty twenty five because I
wanted people to be able to still get
their hands on these books, whether eBay.
They can still probably get a lot of
these from their local comic book shops or
they can order online.
So I hope people found something or heard
something that they will enjoy and pick
up.
And let us know what they picked up,
because that would be really dope.
You got any more recommendations before we
sign off, Fran?
A little-known comic book.
There's a comic book author named Emily
Carl,
and she has put out a new book
that came out, I think,
last month or something like that,
named A Guest in the House.
Oh, sorry.
No, it came out two years ago.
Well, whatever.
I only learned about it last month.
And she does some great,
great horror that sometimes touches into
the gothic horror subgenre.
Sometimes it's more body horror inspired.
There's definitely a psychological aspect
to it.
One of her stories was adapted into a
an episode of the Guillermo del
Toro-produced Netflix series.
Okay, The Cabinet of Curiosities.
Yeah.
She's a great horror writer,
a great horror artist, too,
with a very particular style.
I guess in the house is her most
recent book.
No,
that was the one with the actor who
played Ronald Weasley.
He was the main character in that story.
Uh, no, no, it was a different,
it wasn't.
Okay.
It was one of the other ones.
Okay.
Yeah.
Um, but no, that's,
that was one of my favorite shows.
I have that one favorited on a Netflix.
Uh, uh,
I want to tell you which one he
was, uh, out the outside.
I think was the, the episode.
Okay.
It was adaptive.
I'll go back and check it out.
I have to say the comic book is
even better.
So if you get your hands on Through
the Woods.
Send that to me after the show and
I want to check that one out.
But that's all we have for the horror
recommendations for twenty twenty five.
I hope you found something that you would
be interested in and pick it up.
And if you do,
make sure you let us know, man.
Shoot us a reply on this on YouTube
or Facebook or Instagram.
let us know what you picked up from
the list if you decided to pick something
up but with that fran tell everybody where
they can find you well then you can
find me in instagram at f-a-h uh dross
uh or as francisco nilo everywhere it's uh
it starts with an h it's easy to
find um yeah
And drawing as a comic book artist on
Vitalirium, which is a great sci-fi.
Amazing sci-fi series.
You and... Yeah, Nick.
Nick.
Holy shit.
Thank you.
Nicholas Keaton Casabarro.
Phenomenal.
I know he's doing the tour right now.
He's been at so many cons this year.
I'm super proud of the dude for coming
into an element that he wasn't familiar
with.
both with this sci-fi writing in general
and making a book and going,
let's make it a comic book too.
He's absolutely killed it on both sides of
that.
I know he's working on book two while
simultaneously working with Fran here to
do the comic book as well.
So shout out to Nick.
You're a boy.
We love you over here.
I know I talked to him probably once
a month as well.
So I try to keep in touch with
people that have come on the show and
they've been two of my favorites.
Hence why Fran is here tonight.
Fran, we're going to do this again soon.
I promise you.
But until then, and to all our listeners,
keep those lights dim.
Your comic book's bad.
And remember,
every good horror story begins with
curiosity.
So until next time,
which will be tomorrow,
we'll be back for another Indie Comic Book
Review and interview with the writer
tomorrow night, seven p.m.
So make sure y'all tune in to that.
But this is the chairman signing off from
the United States Department of Nerds
until next time.
Behave yourself out there, people.