Alex De Campi is a gourmet chef of writing that works in reverse. Instead of delivering a completed meal, she feeds you well collected morsels as she breaks down all the themes of Grindhouse exploitation films of the 70s and 80s into the most shocking, tantalizing courses of perfectly cooked ingredients. There have been alien sex bees, prison ships, and fairy tale rape and revenge stories. The cover of issue 7 features a tractor-trailer bursting through a crimson set of teeth. My shorts tightened at the sight of that. Bring on the CB radios and lounge lizards!
“Flesh Feast of the Devil Doll, Part 1,” besides having a title that’s fun to say out loud, opens on a sultry blond being offered to an elder god for a little, uh, possession—if you know what I mean. There’s a little coitus interruptus from a group that I won’t mention so as to save the fun of the tale.
Flash forward a few hundred years to where a summer camp sits on the site of the offering. Renae, a reluctant young woman, joins the camp. Cut to a lone street at night where a trucker comes across a beautiful blond, the very same one from the sacrifice at the start.
All I can say about what happens next is crazy, crazy stuff goes down. Ancient demons, topless pie night, hooker decapitations, zombie truckers, and moped co-eds. Yeah, this issue went from crazy to bat$h1t in no time.
And I enjoyed every panel of it.
Alex De Campi must write each issue with a huge smirk because she knows she’s not taking anything serious—or for granted. She delivers tongue-in-cheek stories that play up so well to the grindhouse theme. I only hope people understand this genre of exploitation and not make an ignorant fuss over the content.
Aw, hell. Make a fuss. It just means more press for a book that deserves a lot more attention.
My only worry is that De Campi has left the endings of the last two arcs somewhat limited in their conclusions. The build-ups have been outstanding, yet the climaxes have not had the punch needed. I need this book to be as jaw dropping in its finishes as it is in its rise.
But I am enjoying this book and its well-executed purpose.
Score: 4/5
Writer: Alex De Campi Artist: Gary Erskine Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $3.99 Release Date: 4/2/14 Format: Ongoing - Print/Digital