I LOVE this Cover! The Theater is a series from Zenescope that for me has had its ups and downs. I found issue one to be one of the most refreshing interpretations of a zombie tale that I’ve read in a very long time. I gave that book a five—something we here at Comic Bastards take very seriously. The second did absolutely nothing for me and that made me sad. The forth (review forthcoming) followed the same suit, in where I didn’t get too excited for it. But how do I feel about issue three you ask? We’ll let’s talk about that.
Welcome back to that empty theater in New Jersey that houses horror on an epic scale. As it closes for the night two co-ed co-workers take advantage of the locked doors and clean something other than the seats. Meanwhile on the theater’s silver screen, Tim Bailey sits a broken man who unloads his problems on his psychiatrist about a messy divorce. Poor Tim’s real problem and story start off with a bit of insomnia. He explains in the mists of another restless night he notices a small hole in his bedroom’s ceiling. Tim chalks it up to his run of bad luck and gets off his ass to fix it. Now on a ladder with the tools to fix it, he puts his hand into the hole and doesn’t feel a thing. No wood, no nails, nothing but empty space that goes on forever. He blames his lack of sleep for such an outlandish thought and quickly repairs the hole. The next day when Tim awakes the whole has returned, bigger than ever.
Scared that he’s losing a grasp on reality, Tim reaches out to his nasty ex-wife for support. She blows him off and insults his masculinity but promises to stop by later. Still perplexed by the hole, Tim rounds up a local cat and places it in a box then places the box into the opening. When he takes the box back, the cat is gone and the box is covered with a black slime. Frightened, Tim burns the box and gets a second idea when finds an old camcorder in the garage. He puts it on record and places it into the void but the machine records nothing but darkness. Determined to find an answer, Tim rifles through the attic looking for anything to make sense of the hole. When he finds nothing, Tim receives a call from his daughter who is on her way home from college. By that time Tim’s ex arrives and let’s just says Tim gives her an extra close look at the hole…not like that, but you know what I’m talking about.
The best thing about issue three of The Theater is that it has this Creepshow/Tales from the Dark Side feel to it and I love that. It’s such a simple stand alone story that is so much fun to read. You know what it really reminds me of, and all of my hardcore horror fans will know what I’m talking about. In the movie, entitled “House” from 1986, when Roger opens the medicine cabinet and there is a black void and he climbs into it to look for his son while facing his nightmares. It even makes me think of Silent Hill: The Room (my favorite in the series btw) and how they too, ripped off that whole “hole” idea. The protagonist, Henry had this massive black hole appearing in his bathroom which was a gateway to his own personal Silent Hill.
When it all comes down to it this issue of The Theater: The Hole is in good company when it comes to an awesome story. Most of all, this is the kind of books I want Zenescope to do all of the time!
Score: 4/5
Writer: Raven Gregory Artists: Novo Malgapo and Robert Gill Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment Price: $3.99