Given the last time I had an issue of this I wasn’t all that impressed, I’ve decided to give it another go. So this week, I’m reviewing Zenescope Entertainment’s Grim Tales of Terror Volume 2 #12. In this issue, the story we’re given centers around a bunch of missing little girls who all have one thing in common: poor taste in shitty mobile apps. A private investigator gets brought in by another private investigator to try to solve where these kids have gone… As you can guess, things go south for the dick and he doesn’t resolve jack shit. It takes a pretty sharp turn towards the end which I wasn’t expecting, but that’s probably because it’s borderline ridiculous.

“The App” is a story concocted by Ralph Tedesco and Joe Brusha and written by Troy Brownfield. I’m not sure how this is working but I would like to know. I’ve never had to write someone else’s story before, I’m guessing Joe and Ralph just gave Troy an outline of what happens and Troy scripts it. I didn’t mind the story too much but the execution wasn’t all that great. Some of the dialogue is downright diabolical.

The artist for this issue is Edu Menna, and I have the same feelings towards the art in this issue as I did the last. Edu does okay with it. Some of the faces look a bit rough at times but other than that it’s fine. Some of these characters, though… they look a lot like other people. There’s a part where the P.I. is interviewing a black couple and I was thinking to myself, “The dad looks a bit like Lionel Ritchie.” And as I’m reading this at my day job, one of my colleagues walks up behind me, sees the page and starts singing “Hello” without me even saying anything. I shit you not.

You also get Shaggy from Scooby Doo in this issue. The P.I.’s intern, it’s straight up Shaggy from Scooby Doo. You first see him wearing a white t-shirt and then the next time you see him, he’s wearing a green shirt. I’m sure colorist Robby Bevard was having some fun there. No complaints about your color work either, Robby. You’ve done a decent job there.

The issue was a little better than the last one, but I’m still not really feeling it. I think it has the potential to be a great book and a great platform to show what modern horror comics can be. It just needs a bit of a kick up the arse.

[su_box title="Score: 2/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Grim Tales of Terror Volume 2 #12 Writers: Ralph Tedesco, Joe Brusha & Troy Brownfield Artist: Edu Menna Colorist: Robby Bevard Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment Price: $3.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital

[/su_box]

SHOCKING! TERRIFYING! BLOODY HELL! This week, I’ve decided to review Zenescope Entertainment’s Grim Tales of Terror Volume 2 #11. This title caught my eye for two reasons. For one, I like horror titles; I like seeing what’s on the market and how other people make horror comics. The second reason was that a friend of mine had drawn stories for this title previously and from the quality of his work, I thought this book would be ace… I might have picked the wrong issue to review here, ha-ha.

This issue’s story has a well-trodden trope; you should guess that from the story’s title, “Vanishing Hitchhiker.” Ghost of a hitchhiker haunting a road, looking for the person who killed them. Done. I’ve seen this story done across various forms of media a few times, so it would’ve had to have done something really special to impress me. I think this is the first comic I’ve seen in a long time that has someone who came up with the story and someone who’s written it credited to two different people… Joe Brusha came up with the story, and Marco Lopez has written the issue (I think this is the first time I’ve encountered anyone on this title’s work.)

It’s a pretty bog-standard tale, and I’m sure it could have been done in far fewer pages. Some of the dialogue is pretty stilted and Marco… he… really like using those ellipses. The main character is like a less charismatic Captain Kirk, who happens to be a home security salesman and also, a really cheap bastard.

The artist for this issue did alright I guess. Though Roger Bonet’s art at times is a bit hit and miss, there are some nice panels in here; it’s just a shame that there’s some duffers in there too because it drags down the rest of the art in the book. The color work is lovely throughout from Sonia Moruno, though, even on the panels that aren’t drawn particularly well. So well done, Sonia!

There’s not much else I can really say about the story in this issue. It wasn’t really scary or horrific in any way. There was some gore and some swearing. Overall, a pretty disappointing introduction to the series for me. The variants are probably the highlight for me. I have a guy who buys a lot of Zenescope titles from my shop who I’m pretty sure doesn’t even read them, ha-ha. He just buys all the covers. So keep doing the variants, Zenescope. I have a customer who loves them…

If you collect the series, I’d like to know what you thought about the issue in the comments section. And if you do collect the title, tell me about previous issues for that matter. Maybe I just picked a bad issue, eh?

[su_box title="Score: 2/5" style="glass" box_color="#8955ab" radius="6"]

Grim Tales of Terror v2 #11 Writer: Marco Lopez Artist: Roger Bonet Colorist: Sonia Moruno Publisher: Zenescope Entertainment Price: $3.99 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital[/su_box]

[/su_box]