I put off posting about it for quite some time, but if you’re interested in horror comics, I heartily recommend Monster Parade #1 by writer-artist Ben Catmull. Published by Fantagraphics, this first issue of Catmull’s Eightball-style one-man anthology title employs a range of illustrative styles and storytelling tones to explore one subject and one subject only: monsters. In so doing it puts on display one of the most unique comics bestiaries going today. From a wordless “story” featuring gigantic creatures that dominate a storm-tossed landscape like a visual embodiment of Hendrix’s “And the Gods Made Love” to a laugh-out-loud extended gag strip that suddenly takes a turn for the uncomfortable and disturbing to a documentary-style look at a small town plagued with more inexplicably bizarre creatures than an island in Clive Barker’s Abarat world, it’s a wonder to behold. Tom Spurgeon posted a preview of the book and an interview with Catmull back in September; dip your toes in there, because the water’s fine.
One quick horror-comics follow-up: My post on The Abandoned creator Ross Campbell’s falling out with Tokyopop made its way through the comics blogosphere over the past couple of days; Heidi MacDonald has posted some information dug up from Campbell’s personal site (scroll down to March 9th, 2006 for the relevant posts, but beware of some colonoscopy pictures if that’s the sort of thing that would bother you) that would appear to indicate that production troubles were the source of the friction that led him to leave the company.