I remember the first time I watched the original 1972 British Tales from The Crypt movie, it scared the crap out of me. Each story, both plausible and horrific questioning whether human beings are capable of such evil to each other. These stories, of course continued to the television show, as what people find so interesting about the Walking Dead, is not the zombies, but monsters that lived in each human being. This holds true for the movie and the TV show, which the Crypt Keeper so famously mascots for.

In the movie, my favorite of the stories from the movie “Poetic Justice,” nosy neighbors systematically destroy a person of their community, they consider a stain on the neighborhood. Eventually, these neighbors carried out this ruthless injustice, gets their just due, which explains the title. It was both well told and scary, which is what makes this franchise so endearing in the minds of horror fans. This is exactly what drew me to William Tooker and Kevin Gentilcore’s supremely told Never Send A Monster, as it follows a similar premise and is written very much in the same spirit.

In the first story, “Never Send A Monster,” we are introduced to Mister Sheckles, a monster created to look for a bride for his master, but once he realizes his master’s true intention, he destroy his master’s evil plans. In “Never Make A Monster,” we meet Precious, whose life was more than she can handle, as she goes about creating a tulpa, supernatural clone of herself, but when it gets out of control, she suddenly realizes what she was in most need of, to be in love. In the last story, “Monsters Never Prosper”, we meet Mr.Grieve,  a conjuring created to steal ideas for his master, but this last outing proves to be fatal to master and creation. By book’s end, Creephouse Comics has given the world, a universe of masters and conjurings, one in which a reader would love to get lost in.

Overall, an excellent set of stories, all interconnected, but each story just as eerie and inspired as the other. The story by Tooker is spine-chilling, clever and cuts to the bone. The art by Gentilcore is beautiful and vivid. Altogether, a book that every reader should want to get lost in, even if you are not a horror fan.

Story: William Tooker Art: Kevin Gentilcore
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy