The medium of comics is perhaps not one which is well suited for horror titles.  Although horror focused stories were a mainstay of comics in the 1970s, and were popular enough for an extended time, the medium doesn’t benefit from its usual advantages in story telling.  The combination of writing and art generally makes nearly any story possible to tell, even stories that could not be told in books or on screen, but horror is a medium that is more conducive to other mediums, either through the slow buildup of tension in a book, or through the theatrical tricks of cinema.  As a series Grimm Tales of Terror has been generally good enough at overcoming that handicap.  At times the stories are pretty regular, as though they came out of any 1970s horror anthology title, but the addition of Keres as a cruel arbiter of justice has helped the series as well.

This issue represents the final issue of the first volume of the series, and true to most of its inspiration for stories thus far, focuses on an urban legend.  This urban legend is one of the more grisly, choosing the urban legend of being drugged and waking up in a bathtub with organs missing.  While that is here, there are some parts of this issue that go a bit further.  Gore based horror and even torture porn, even though they are not the best that the genre has to offer by a long shot, are also done much better elsewhere, and as this issue incorporates a bit of both, it gives the issue less of a chance to succeed.

The end result is a bit disappointing, but the series still deserves some credit for trying something else.  It is not a story which is ever really eerie, nor does it give any sense of great tension, but it at least captures some of the elements of the genre.  It has succeeded in other issues in its run, but it falls a bit flat here.  Perhaps the best thing about this issue is the blurb at the end, indicating that Zenescope intends to return with the series for a second volume, as this series has been pretty good overall, even when individual issues, such as this one, don’t really succeed.

Story: Joe Brusha and Ralph Tedesco Art: Ferran Sellares
Story: 7.0 Art: 7.0 Overall: 7.0 Recommendation: Pass