Comic Review : DARK HORSE PRESENTS #1
In all likelihood, if you’re under twenty-five years of age, you have likely never seen a comic like Dark Horse Presents at your comic shop. You’ve seen lots of samplers, freebies distributed from the publishers with a few pages of this comic and a few pages of that one, but a true anthology comic is more common on the newsstand (Mad, Heavy Metal) than the comic book shop. Not so long ago anthology comic books were more common. DC and Marvel used the format to keep the western and mystery formats alive when there was little interest in anything but the superhero and humor genres. Archie published Pep and Laugh into the 1980s as a way not only to give readers more Archie, but also to remind readers that there was more to the Archieverse. Sabrina, The Mighty Thor, The Amazing Spider-Man, Jonah Hex, Dial H for Hero, and even Superman and Batman were all launched in anthology titles. Anthology comics do still exist at the comic shop, but have less space on the comic rack than the mainstream titles. For instance, if you walked into the average comic shop, the Dark Horse comics you would be most likely to see would be Star Wars and Hellboy or related comics, even though Dark Horse Presents has been in circulation for decades, ending its first run this past spring.
After a short sabbatical, Dark Horse Presents returns to your comic shop. The comic’s four month vacation and renumbering has shaped up this anthology into a darker, sleeker package. Dark Horse Presents has always been a showcase book, and with fewer pages, it has become even more of a gallery for the art. These are not only stories to enjoy, but pages at which to marvel. The reader has his pick of many dark tales, ranging from dark comedy to nightmares, and more mythological takes on the darkness.
In Geof Darrow‘s “Terror comes Forth on the Fourth!”, the heroic corporate robots Big Guy and Rusty make a beach safe for apathetic and morbidly obese or emaciated people that can’t be bothered to run for their lives from flying scaly monsters. This is certainly a commentary on the consumerist response to “clear and present” danger, and the blind eye turned toward the over-the-top capitalist response teams created to battle that danger. What is excellent about it is the unique form it takes, with the hard working heroes in the background of every panel, and the conspicuously ugly ingrates drawn with excruciating detail in the foreground. If Big Guy and Rusty seem agonizingly familiar, you might be remembering the short lived Fox Kids cartoon show.
In two of the stories, David Mack’s Kabuki in “Psy-Chic,” and Brendan McCarthy’s “Dream Gang,” sequential art engages with oneiricism, with Mack going for a lyrical interpretation of the dream world and McCarthy finding a narrative there. The minds of the heroes are more expressive than reality’s gunmetal tones, and McCarthy makes the connection explicit by having his hero apathetically push himself through a black and white nine-to-five until he hits the sack and a psychedelic dream world erupts. Neither of these stories would be out of place in Epic Illustrated, Echo of Future Past, or Witzend, and both are reminiscent of the hippie, trippy days of independent comic anthologies.
A wrestler and his eleven year old daughter are herded towards a demonic wrestling ring in Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, and Andy Kuhn’s “Wrestling with Demons.” While the surrounding stories are high quality, this story will make you a repeat customer of Dark Horse Presents, as it creates anticipation for its second chapter through quick character building and simple but primal stakes. There is no one who takes a figure of speech and makes it literal quite like Palmiotti and Gray.
In Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse’s “The Sam Hain Mystery,” Resident Alien begins a dual quest for American pie and American alienation by, firstly, researching a casino for the most lucrative and inconspicuous game at which to cheat, and secondly, visiting a realtor to inquire after the remotest dwelling available. Part Ford Prefect and part Howard Hughes, we find that our hero is a hedonist hermit, living the good life as inconspicuously as possible.
Last but not least, in “Colossal Casuals Crusade,” by Damon Gentry and Aaron Conley, Sabretooth Swordsman chases down his pants from some wolverine-sized bugs.
Dark Horse Presents is highly recommended. You can request it from your local comic shop, or you can buy it digitally through the Dark Horse website and Dark Horse app.