With Dark Horse Books’ Shadows On The Grave, Richard Corben returns!

This new collection of Corben’s recently published comic series is a big big one. For the most part, it’s a great big pile of undead stuff, shovel-fulls of decaying, rotting, … well, you get the picture.

Many of the 24 stories, as explained in the foreword, get their inspiration from the old EC comic stories of the 50’s. Corben clearly enjoys this format. A creepy host tells us the story of a person or persons who are up to no good, and how they encounter someone or something more evil than they are. Fun stuff, and well handled here both in tone and dialogue.

There are the recurring themes of ‘our car broke down, so let’s stay at the nearby creepy house, ‘granny is rich and old, so let’s kill her’, and ‘we were told that these gems are cursed, but don’t believe it’. The stories are short, and the shadows are long.

In addition to the short stories is Denaeus, a full-length fantasy story.

While the stories are a bit repetitive in the long run, all of the art is absolutely compelling. By turns creepy and well executed, we are brought into monstrous surroundings, with genuinely disturbing human and inhuman companions. Corben is a master!

Most of the book is black and white, with colour images, one-pagers, and covers at the conclusion of this collection.

Corben and horror fans will love it!

Dark Horse Books, Shadows On The Grave, $19.99 for 294 pages, Mature horror content

By Alan Spinney

After a career of graphic design, art direction and copywriting, I still have a passion for words and pictures. I love it when a comic book comes together; the story is tight, and the drawings lead me forward. Art with words... the toughest storytelling technique to get right. Was this comic book worth your money? Let's see!!