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Review by E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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Editor: James Aquilone Moonstone $29.99 US ISBN: 978-1-946346-14-8 |
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There are many times in this old webmaster's life, that I've had authors, filmmakers, even musicians approach me. They want me to see their wares, hear their tales, they're looking for a review: Independent people all of them.
More than half the time I do my due diligence only to deny them that review. They were too small, just starting out and, to put it graciously, their work didn't "appeal" to me. I wished them well in finding their audience and I meant it.
But then there was that one day.
January 8, 2023, and an editor name of James Aquilone put out a notice I'd found on Twitter for reviewers of his comic anthology, KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER. I was wary.
The book had a wildly successful run on Kickstarter back in 2021. James hoped to raise $14,500, and instead wound up with nearly 2,000 backers and well over $100,000. Everything was unlocked. The late actor, Darren McGavin, whose face has remained throughout nearly every single Kolchak comic book, showed yet again that Darren McGavin embodied - became if you will - whatever role he was given (who else could play the "Old Man" Pop in A Christmas Story?).
So yeah, the fact that I know all this, and told you all of this, means I'm a fan of the TV show. I found the James' Twitter call to be irresistible.
Still, I offered to review the pdf instead of the physical book. It'd be less out of pocket for James that way. James wanted me to talk about the quality of the printed book as well and snail mailed it to me.
So here we go and I believe my view of this comic anthology can best be summed up as,
Wow!
And this is why.
It was Monday, February 6, 12:30PM and I was finishing up this review. I found this graphic anthology to be so inspiring, heard the voice of actor Darren McGavin as Kolchak in my mind with every word balloon, that I was compelled to return to the scene of the Night Stalker and Night Strangler movies for sake of comparison.
Throughout the many decades of Kolchak comics, one thing that rarely stands up is the quality of the comic stories compared to Richard Matheson (HOUSE OF USHER [1960], THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM [1961], TALES OF TERROR [1962], THE RAVEN [1963], THE COMEDY OF TERRORS [1963], THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, THE NIGHT STRANGLER, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, STIR OF ECHOES, I AM LEGEND, and way more). The man was known to be a bar so high that he even gave writers like Stephen King pause.
For this reason or any number of others, the Estate of Jeff Rice, named after the real life person who Matheson used as a jumpboard in creating the fictional Kolchak, put their trust in James Aquilone, owner of Monstrous Books and keeper of a favorable repute as editor of small comics featuring some of the biggest names in Horror literature, many of them featured in this anthology.
There's writers Jonathan Maberry, R.C. Matheson, Kim Newman, Tim Waggoner, Steve Niles, Nancy A. Collins, and that's just for starters.
The art side ranges from the cartoony Warwick Johnson-Cadwell to the minimalist hard lines of Marco Finnegan to the near photo realism of J.K. Woodward.
Like many books, this one begins with Introductions. The first was August 2022 by Jeff Rice's son, James Rice.
The second was also August, 2022 by R.C. Matheson, Richard Matheson's son. This was followed by a Message from John Updyke, but I'll spare you the details. It was the first story by David Avallone (TWILIGHT ZONE: THE SHADOW, ELVIRA MEETS VINCENT PRICE) and art by Julius Ohta (VAMPIRELLA [2019], MADAM SATAN, SACRED SIX). Ohta's style is an endless array of angles. Rarely do the characters not take full advantage of the depth of a space and their bodies are always in motion. Avallone and Ohta often work together on their Bettie Page comics and are at home with each other, as David begins Karel Kolchak's future as a reluctant reporter at his high school newspaper in, The Funny Place.
Karel got sick of non-polish people mispronouncing his name as Carol, and re dubbed himself as Carl as he re-entered the world for a second time in the rebirth known as adulthood.
According to writer, Jonathan Maberry (THE DRAGON FACTORY, ROT & RUIN, KAGAN THE DAMNED), in his tale, The White Lady, as Carl entered one major life change he left another: his country, to cover as a real reporter the war in Europe. One day it would be named World War II, but that's not what they called it on June 14th, 1940, and it was in France, running from Nazis, that "Carl" had his first brush with, perhaps not the supernatural, but definitely the unexplainable. Artist Marco Finnegan's bare bone style is as spare from detail as an old memory, and it fits that Kolchak would never try to imagine the details he forgot. Yet the monstrous punch of Maberry's writing, like an emotion, remains.
Being more of an agitator and activist than a reporter, it's possible that Carl may have found a future crossroads where he gave up the unrewarding life of his style of journalism for one of politics or lobbyist. After all, Carl was developing a knack for becoming part of the story instead of only observing it. That's a fourth wall that should never be broken, but often is in Western Media where complacency in cooking the story that your colleagues want, over reporting the facts as you saw them, takes precedence.
Unlike his peers, Carl refuses to cook a story. A presumptuous, blow-hard coward, Carl only finds his courage where lives are immediately at stake. He can't bring himself to be a mere observer at that point and it is in writer Peter Allen David's The Enemy Within that Kolchak meets the legendary (and now extinct) American journalist Edward R. Murrow. Ed cut's through Carl's self-delusions and gets to the heart of why Carl is a reporter and why it might be the only way he can live the life he's writing for himself. This sets Carl on the path we repeatedly saw throughout both Matheson movies as well as the TV series. David's story is where Kolchak fully becomes himself and there is no turning back. J.K. Woodward's nearly photographic style gives it that 50's feel, nearly as if we're looking at still from the poor resolution video of the era.
As with all Kolchak stories, a monster figures in but I personally found it rather ridiculous looking. Of course, if Pennywise can bite you in half, it doesn't matter how ridiculous the clown looks.
And so it goes throughout the rest of this anthology. Like all anthologies there will be some stories you like better than others, but editor James Aquilone was finicky in his choices of writers and artists and there's not a clunker or throw away in the bunch.
As for the book itself, it feels right with a matte flat finish to the cover and satin finish to the interior pages.
If I was to be picky, it's that the Courier typefont, letterer Tom Napolitano used as Karl's narrative is, as a serif font, tiny. It often fades into the yellow color of the boxes that hold it. It's a grey instead of black color, although I don't know if that was Tom's choice or someone else's.
I looked through the pdfs that are available online and the problem is there too: It's not a printer error. The text in the word balloons is san serif with a standard solid black against white. If this should go into reprints - and it should - Carl's courier narrative should be solid black as well. It's legible, but difficult enough that after a few stories, it becomes distracting.
February 7, 2023, 2:53PM. I've re-read this book two more times now and I'm starting to fall in love with it. KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER - 50th Anniversary anthology is a fan's dream and the best Kolchak comic I've yet read.
Five Fanboys!
This review copyright 2023 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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