Dark Horse Book of the Dead

    (Dark Horse, 2005)
™ and © 2005 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. and respective creators

Following precedents set by previous entries in this colorful hardbound horror anthology series (Dark Horse Book of Hauntings and the Dark Horse Book of Witchcraft), this volume focuses on death and dead things. Several creative teams from the earlier books return and the diverse aesthetic visions produce narrative tones and textures that run the gamut from humorous to heartfelt to horrific.

Kelley Jones’ gruesome tale “The Hungry Ghosts” kicks things off with a plot that twists three times in six pages. Canine zombies attack in “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson. David Crouse and Todd Herman offer that story a spiritual rejoinder with their entry, “The Ditch”, which describes the sad aftermath of a car collision. Scott Allie’s “The Magician” reprises his Devil’s Footprints franchise and Mike Mignola’s “The Ghoul” reprises a Hamlet soliloquy, à la Hellboy. Supported by Gary Gianni’s illustration, Conan writer Robert E. Howard visits the Old West in “Old Garfield’s Heart” while Jamie Rich and Guy Davis visit feudal Japan in “Kago No Tori” and Eric Powell visits the Arctic with “The Wallace Expedition”.

Two of these stories could serve as the basis for new series: “The Queen of the Dead” by Patrick McKeown and “Death Boy” by Bob Fingerman and Roger Langridge. In the former, the sudden fulfillment of deathly omens signals the apocalypse drawing neigh and in the latter, the Grim Reaper passes the baton to a goth kid named Richie who wakes up in the hospital with a startling new vocation.

— Leland Burrill
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