Review: Ripley’s Believe It or Not #1
Television of the 1990s usually get a bad rap, as most critics including myself tend to celebrate 1980s more than any other decade. The thing is that the decade deserves to be revered for the many excellent genre shows it introduced to the world. This was the decade that brought the world, The X-Files and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. As these shows are not only cultural milestones but worldwide movements, as these characters often spoke to audiences who have never been heard.
One show that premiered in the crux of these two wunderkind decades is Tales From The Crypt. I wasn’t old enough to even remember these comics, but the stories that came out of the series, made the horror accessible to the mainstream. As the shows were well told but still was scary enough to creep out viewers. In the debut issue of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, we get a series of vignettes that will remind readers of the landmark show.
In “A Tale As Old As,” we get the true story behind Beauty and The Beast, one which proves to be far more interesting than the fairytale readers around the world have gotten to know. In “I’ve Been Working on The Railroad,” a man survives an accident which would have killed anyone else but became one man’s strength. In “The Ride of His People,” one man wins a race only to die once he reaches the finished line. In “Mother Nature Blew Her,” one father foretells his daughter how the world will be if world continues with pollution of the land and water. In “49 Lives,” one cat predicts the death of a patient.
Overall, it’s an interesting set of mostly true stories are as bizarre as they are riveting. The stories by the different writers captures the eeriness of the show. The art by the different artists is both captivating and alluring. Altogether, one of the best horror books to come out in a while.
Story : Howard Mackie, Ben Meares, Dale Mettam, Victoria Rau
Art: Hakan Aydin, Marcelo Basile, Pat Broderick, Deivis Goetten, Daniel Maine
Story: 10 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy
“Nosferatu” is a dark, edgy tale inspired by the film of the same name. This modern spin on the timeless horror story follows Tommy and her roommate Elle as the nefarious vampire Count Orlok draws them into his obsession with death and disease. Old-world magic combines with technology and terror alerts when Orlok, the Nosferatu, pays our shores a visit.
Albert Lopez, Jr. is a struggling LA stand-up comic who still lives with his parents. One night while drunk on tequila, Albert falls violently into a mysterious agave plant and becomes “The Blue Agave,” Mexican superhero! With the help of his best friend and sidekick Tony (aka Worm), a 500-year-old burrow and copious amounts of tequila, Albert just might save the world!
For years Orpheus, the world’s greatest escape artist, has defied the odds, wowed audiences and challenged Death. Now, during his final performance Death has accepted that challenge. If Orpheus is to perform his greatest escape ever, he will have to question everything he knows, and pay a price even greater than he could have imagined.
