Sometimes in life, you pick stuff up on a lark, without knowing really why; and I’m not just talking about sexually transmitted diseases or knife-wielding drifters. No, I’m talking about comic books. Case in point: Alan Robert’s Killogy Special Halloween Special One-Shot. I honestly have no idea why I picked this up to read and review. Sure, it has a picture of the Misfits’ Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein on it, but like the Killogy title itself, I only have a passing and very basic knowledge of the band, let alone Doyle. Shameful though it may be to admit, my only memorable collision with the Misfits came by way of their involvement with Vampiro back when WCW was still a thing. So then, why in hell did I pick this up?
What hooked me almost immediately was the art. Again, I’m not too familiar with his body of work, but Robert’s stuff really rings my ding. Sure, there isn’t much going on in his backgrounds, but that’s mostly because his fore is so fucking insane! Just to sum up the plot so we can give the art some context (which I think is probably how the story itself was approached - and that’s not a jab), Doyle finds himself in a world flooded with blood. Yeah. That happens. And it gets even fucking better...
Apparently, the voodoo apocalypse that heralded “The Red Storm” (of blood, obvs) also ensured that every living person would hunt each other for basic sustenance. With his posse captured, it’s up to Doyle to catch himself a few folks for a trade. He of course does so in brilliant, bloody fashion, prompting one of his victims to cry, and I quote, “M-M-MY INSIDES... MY INSIDES ARE ON MY OUTSIDE!” I know that feel, bro. Also? Awesome.
The true beauty of this issue happens when Doyle makes the trade for his famous friends (here there be cameos) at the Porky’s-esque “Mister Shakey’s Kingdom Cum,” the length and breadth of which Doyle once again decorates with the insides of people, who, perhaps ironically, were just feasting on the insides of people. It’s insideception! And it’s goddamn magnificent.
There’s a disconcerting, damp-cloth quality to Robert’s art that gives it this grizzly, sodden texture, which soaks up the acid greens and scabby reds in the issue’s endless gobs of blood, yuck and gore. Some of it, at the end especially, relies a bit too heavily on photoshop after effects, but hot damn I could watch Robert make someone cut through a post-apocalyptic brothel / meat farm all damn day! His art here lives in that weird place between disgust and satisfaction; and I loves it, I do!
Look, the Killogy Special Halloween Special One-Shot isn’t reinventing the horror comics wheel, but nor does it mean to do so. It’s a bare-bones hell-world story with a succinct but fun plot about rivers of blood and cannibals and horror punk icons. Oh my! As such, it’s just the delicious kind of crazy comic booking that will scratch your budding October itch.
Score: 4/5
Writer/Artist/Creator: Alan Robert Publisher: IDW Publishing Price: $3.99 Release Date: 10/8/14 Format: One-Shot; Print/Digital