by Bryce Holland
Holy shit! It’s been well over two months since I last put together an installment of “Blood Between the Panels” (or as I like to call it, “The Best Damn Horror Comics Review Column Written by Me), but I am back ready to kick ass and chew bubblegum, but since I’m all out of bubblegum I guess I’ll just review some more comics.
Now, before I really get into talking about some of the latest pieces of graphic horror fiction to cross my path, I suppose I should let …

Ah, 2009…we hardly knew ye.
The year is just about over, and what a great year for horror it was. We were given some great original films like Thirst, Drag Me to Hell, and Grace, plus we finally got some bona fide classics released on DVD with the likes of Let the Right One In, Martyrs, [Rec], and Trick ‘r Treat. But, for this writer, some of the best horror this year was found pressed between the pages of some damn fine comic books. This year was filled with some great writers …

by Bryce Holland
Horror comics don’t get a lot of press. Maybe it’s because there aren’t a ton of super high-profile writers or artists working on them nowadays. Maybe it’s because they don’t feature flash or recognizable characters of more popular super-hero comics. Whatever the reason, it’s a bit of a call for celebration when I get wind of a big horror comic coming out, and it is with that in mind that I give you all “ZombieBomb!”
Set to come out in the Spring of 2010, “ZombieBomb!” is an anthology style …

The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
Three Rivers Press
Writer: Max Brooks
Artist: Ibraim Roberson
Reviewer: Bryce Holland
George Romero: You’re on notice. It looks like there’s a new “King of the Living Dead”.
If you haven’t heard of him (and if you haven’t, where the fuck have you been and what are doing visiting this site?), Max Brooks is an Emmy award winning, former “Saturday Night Live” writer, and the son of comedy legend Mel Brooks. Oh, and he’s also the writer of arguably the two best books about zombies, and the dangers they …

The Walking Dead #62-66
Image Comics
Writer: Robert Kirkman
Pencils: Charlie Adlard
Gray Tones: Cliff Rathburn
Reviewer: Bryce Holland
SPOILER ALERT!!!
If you haven’t read any of the 66 issues of this saga of the undead, turn back now. I’m probably gonna give away some key plot points.
What is there to say about The Walking Dead that hasn’t been said already?
For the uninitiated, The Walking Dead is writer Robert Kirkman’s sprawling zombie epic about a band of constantly in flux survivors, led by resilient and downtrodden Rick Grimes, and how they cope with the reality that …

Gyo vol. 1
VIZ Media
Story & Art: Junji Ito
Reviewer: Bryce Holland
Ringu. Ju-on. Kairo. Audition.
I fucking love Japanese horror. The current masters of Japanese horror – names like Takashi Miike, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Takashi Shimizu – have provided me some of the most thrilling film experiences of my life. But, for me, the real master of Japanese terror tales isn’t a filmmaker, but a writer and artist: comic book auteur Junji Ito. Ito first came to my attention when I read his horror masterwork Uzumaki, arguably one of the …

North 40 # 1-3
Wildstorm Productions
Writer: Aaron Williams
Artist: Fiona Staples
Reviewer: Bryce Holland
Most people would agree that one of the key ingredients in any horror story is ambiance. Films, when done right, are able to craft it very directly through the use of setting, lighting, sound, and a number of other things. Books have the luxury of describing ambiance in as much or as little detail as the writer chooses, and of course the reader gets to fill it all in with their imagination. Comics, on the other hand, have it pretty …

28 Days Later # 1
BOOM! Studios
Writer: Michael Alan Nelson
Artist: Declan Shalvey
Reviewer: Bryce Holland
If you’ve been reading my column with any kind of regularity, then you already know what a freak I am for zombie stories, or anything resembling them. I suppose that’s kind of cliche to say now, because it seems like everybody loves zombies, even people who aren’t particularly interested in horror. For me though, my love of zombies runs a bit deeper. The first horror film I ever remember seeing was George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead. …

Dark Entries
DC/Vertigo Crime
Writer: Ian Rankin
Artist: Werther Dell’Edera
Reviewer: Bryce Holland
 
Have you ever watched a movie or read a book expecting it to be one kind of story, but it surprisingly turns out to be something else entirely? I find that a lot in the horror genre. Take movies like Seven or The Silence of the Lambs, for example. On the outside, both seem like fairly straightforward police procedurals, but once you scratch the surface a little and get to the meat of the stories, you find that both are pretty horrifying. …

Blackest Night # 1
DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Ivan Reis
Review: Bryce Holland
 
I have to admit, I am a little late reviewing this one, as it came out a few weeks ago, but I have a good reason. Over the last 5 years or so the “Big Two” comic companies (Marvel and DC) have fallen into a rather annoying trend. There was a time not so long ago when almost any issue of a single title you picked up from either company came with the promise that you’d be reading a chapter …