Drawing on Your Nightmares

    (Dark Horse, 2003)
™ and © Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

Dark Horse billed this as a Halloween special, probably only because this sampler from its recently conceived line of horror comics was solicited for October. The truth is, this comic book has nothing to do with Halloween and could have more accurately been billed a Las Vegas special, for all its content.

Niles and Templesmith take their detective Cal McDonald on a ghoulish search in Vegas, Powell’s Goon gets dragged into a case of mistaken identity in a gambling town, and Matthews and Phillips follow the journey of a vampire through the Vegas of the Buffyverse. But each of these short stories fulfills its mission: to whet the appetites of readers for more of these stories in Dark Horse’s other titles.

What’s odd about this title, though, is that Dark Horse chose to promote properties that have already received a fair amount of critical acclaim or other notice. Especially when other, lesser-known but equally superb titles (Devil’s Footprints and The Blackburne Covenant, for example) got relatively little promotion. Maybe it didn’t think of doing a sampler like this before.

Well, it’s never too late to start spreading the word about a generally well-done but under-promoted line of comic books. Hesitant readers would do well to invest three bucks in this appetizer platter; they might find something tasty.

— Jim Johnson
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  NotesWriterArtist
#1 (Regular Cover by Ben Templesmith)

October, 2003
Cover Price: $2.99
10 copies available from $0.88 		Steve Niles, Eric Powell, Brett MatthewsBen Templesmith, Eric Powell, Sean Phillips