Tragic Tales of Horrere is an anthology of horror shorts. There are four tales written by Rob Jones and Michael Sambrook with different art for each story. I’ll tell you right away that if you like horror and anthologies then you should just pick this issue up. Since spoiling all four for you would be shitty I’ll just talk about the two I enjoyed the most. The first I’ll mention was “You Are What You Eat.” I’ll be vague because this one wasn’t too hard to figure out, but it’s a zombie story mixed with another popular sci-fi franchise. Even though it’s obvious what the twist is and they basically hand it to you in the beginning, it was well-written and a great journey. That can save any story, making the read worthwhile even if your twist is spoiled or obvious. The artwork was also my favorite of the issue. Gareth Sleighthome’s style is very detailed, but had an alternative future punk look to it. Dare I say it reminded me a little of Tank Girl at times. Overall this was the best story of the issue in my opinion.

Another story I enjoyed just slightly more than the rest was “If You Go Down To The Woods Today…” which was a demented tale. It’s about a little boy that seems as normal as any other little boy. He talks to his stuffed bear as if it were real and gives us the impression that he has quite the imagination. Then he spots something outside and in the middle of the night he gets dressed and heads out to see what it is. He’s even considerate as he doesn’t wake his parents. As he approaches the object he saw, we see that it’s a huge man beast looking thing. I’ll stop there, because there’s twists of course and you’ll likely be caught off guard by what happens. It’s a solid story and I really enjoyed the writing and the idea behind it. The art is clean and in all black and white. The use of black is very dominate, but does add to the tone of the story. My only gripe with this one was the last page which just seemed out of place.

For anthologies, this was a solid compilation. I think having the same two writers for each story gave it an overall consistency as they all had a similar construction, but still managed to stand on their own. Horror anthologies have been pretty meh this year so it’s nice to see one that wasn’t a dud. Check it out if either of these tales sound interesting or if you’re interest in piqued on the other two.

Score: 4/5

Tragic Tales of Horrere #1 Writers: Rob Jones, Michael Sambrook Artists: Neil Ford, Alastair McLauchlan, Gareth Sleightholme, Alisdair Wood Publisher: Madius Comics Price: £3.99 Format: One-Shot; Print Website