The Most Fun You'll Have Being Scared... Reading A Comic

If today's entry will read kind of quick, it's because of a pair of reasons, of which I'll illustrate:

1. The subject matter of the blog is REALLY basic.  It's primarily one book, with some influence history mixed in to spice things up.  So it won't be nearly as encyclopedic as some of my recent entries.
2. It's an adaptation of a feature film, so while I'll TRY writing about it as if you... the reader... have not encountered either the film or the graphic novel versions, I can probably hedge on 85% of my readership having born witness to EITHER version.  So if that's the case, please just humor my indulgences.
3. I MAYBE only received four solid hours of sleep.  So the subject I originally reserved for today will be switched over for a hopefully far better rested tomorrow.  And if I'm still dragging my tired booty through another rough rest night, then there will be no further changes for tomorrow's NEW intended subject, and I will stick to my guns about the Friday "Funnies" Foolishness subject.

With that preamble polished off, today's entry is about a formative experience in my comic reading life.  It's surprising this book left me with such an impact, because the subject matter was FAR removed from the traditional super-heroics I grew up with.  It could also be because... for some strange reason... I was even ALLOWED to read this book at such a young age.  (I'm not joking when I talk about being "so young" for the material.  I was either all of two or three years old when I encountered this graphic novel.)  But sometimes the most forbidden of fruits leave the largest legacy to an impressionable mind...

Released the same year... and while exact dates do not show up, I'm hedging my bets it was probably BEFORE... as the film's release, the graphic novel adaptation of George Romero's "Creepshow" hit the shelves.  My research informs me that for the five story anthology, all were written by Stephen King, and two stories, in particular, were originally short pieces that had previously existed.  (Those being versions of "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" and "The Crate".)  "Father's Day", "Something To Tide You Over", and "They're Creeping Up On You" were wholly originally scripted for the film.  The film proved to be a modest theatrical success, and over the years has gained a healthy cult following, with good reason.  George Romero and Stephen King took primary influence by the Horror comics they grew up with, such as the titles EC Comics published, and DIRECTLY visually presented them as live-action featurettes.  You even had little cinematic tricks to present a "comic book" feel, like page turns, panel borders, ad pages between the "stories", and a "Horror Host" character named the Creeper to provide top page border witticisms about the terrors that will soon be discussed.

My experience with the stories is unusual, because as a child... until maybe about my fifth and sixth grade ages... I was TERRIFIED of anything to do with Horror movies.  My most vivid experience I can paint for you about that is, when I went with my parents to see "Top Gun" in the theaters, there was a trailer for "Aliens" before the feature started.  I was so terrified, my mother had to walk me out of the theater to calm me down until the trailer ended.  (Because, obviously, "Top Gun" was SO MUCH MORE appropriate for a five or six year old...)  But even as a "Baby Skeletor", I had access to this graphic novel adaptation of the movie... and I was not scared to read it AT ALL!  Though I will explain, later, that both the book, and later the movie, did cultivate a major phobia for me.  But even as a child, I could NOT deny the slightly language-censored magic of Stephen King's gruesomely fun stories, and even after YEARS of not being exposed to the artwork, the vividness that Berni Wrightson brought to the stories still lingered... even to the point of being able to remember specific PANELS!  Let's talk about the featured stories, shall we?

FATHER'S DAY- All Nathan Grantham wanted was a Father's Day cake.  All he got was a fatal ash tray blow to the skull by his daughter, Bedelia.  Forget the fact that Nate was an abusive father... and potentially a murderer of Bedelia's husband-to-be... he just wanted a FLAPPIN' CAKE!  But no, such a skull-knocker earned him a six-foot down resting spot, and the Grantham family went wild with his estate.  Cue modern day, where Bedelia's great-granddaughter, her two great-grandchildren, and the husband of the female grandchild wait for Bedelia to arrive for a Father's Day dinner.  Only... Bedelia makes a stop by Nathan's grave, starts drunkenly rambling about all the offenses that Nathan did to her, and spills PERFECTLY GOOD WHISKEY on the grave.  Apparently that's all Nate can take, because he comes back to life as a murderous skeletal assassin, that seeks the deaths of his family members... and that BLASTED CAKE!  And by various direct physical means, and even some means that could almost make you wonder if Nathan was studying at the Jedi Temple, the Grantham family is steadily cut down.  (Sadly, the comic book adaptation neglects to include a young Ed Harris' AWESOME disco-dancing moves before his character's demise.  Sigh... Missed opportunities...)  The story concludes with the granddaughter being trapped by Nathan, and having her head being severed, and decorated like a cake, to be displayed to the Grantham grandchildren by a giddy Nate. 

One brief note: I'd say between this story, and another one that arrives in the middle of both the film and the comic, my initial brushes of interest in the concept of zombies and the living dead were seeded.  But SPEAKING of things that need seeding...

THE LONESOME DEATH OF JORDY VERRILL- On a Midwestern farmland, a meteor crashes to Earth, and an elderly couple drive by to see that the meteor was actually a rocket ship.  Upon finding a baby in said rocke...  Wait...  That's NOT the story, after all?  Let me shuffle my notes...  Okay, found it!

The piece about the meteor and the farm IS entirely accurate.  Isolated "bumpkin" Jordy Verrill happens upon the meteorite on his land, and investigates.  Jordy is far from what you would consider "Harvard League", or even general community college league, so after burning his hand on attempting to pick up the fallen meteorite, he douses it with water... fantasizing about how the meteor discover will earn him "A Hunnerit Buck" from professors... and the meteor cracks open, exposing a mysterious liquid that coats Jordy's hands and spills onto the nearby ground.  It turns out this liquid actually causes a plant-like substance to grow.  Not just on the ground, but on EVERYTHING Jordy touches... Including himself.  As the story progresses, Jordy's property... and Jordy, himself... become more engulfed by the alien plant agitator, until after the night passes, Jordy has fully transformed into a full plant man.  Seeking escape from his miserable new existence, Jordy seeks relief... in the form of a shotgun blast to the head.  Jordy's luck holds out, and he dies from the suicidal blow... but the growth begins to spread onward....

I can't immediately remember if this segment of the graphic novel was played for nearly as much laughs as the cinematic version was, but I cannot help but notice a SMALL bit of irony in the fact that Berni Wrightson gets to illustrate another man that's primarily made up of growth-based plant life.  Maybe not quite the "Thing" you'd find in the "Swamp", but still, you can't help but grin at the synchronicity.

SOMETHING TO TIDE YOU OVER- Richard doesn't like Harry, because Harry's been having an affair with his wife, Becky.  And it's not a great idea to make Richard unhappy with you, because he's not only super-rich, but he has NO qualms about killing people.  But Richard doesn't simply enjoy shooting people, or any quick death resolution.  You see, Richard is a bit of a video taping nut, and he has an ongoing artistic project.  What he ends up showcasing to Harry and Becky is his preferred method of disposing of elements Richard doesn't agree with; he forces them at gunpoint to stand in a beach shoreline-dug pit, and bury themselves up to their necks, so their heads are left exposed to the encroaching tide.  While the water, and nerves, build to a crescendo, Richard places a video recorder nearby to tape the slow drowning deaths of Harry and Becky.  But Richard's a "kind person", and allows Harry and Becky to have a nearby television monitor to show a live-feed of their mutual pits, so they can watch each other be blasted and drowned by the tide.

After a hard night of murder, Richard checks on the couple the following day, noting their bodies are gone.  But of course, the tide must have washed them out.  ... Don't "hold your breath for a LOOONG TIME!!!" about that notion, because later that night at Richard's, he finds a pair of surprises from the ocean.  (I'm a poet, and I don't even know it.)  Harry and Becky have returned as waterlogged zombies that eventually deliver the same punishment to Richard.  One NEAT detail that I'm sure George Romero had influence on was that Richard... both in the comic and the movie... CLEARLY aims some gunshots to the sea zombies' heads... and it does NOTHING.  (Remember that "Uncle" George was the man to put the "shoot them in the head" rule about zombies down in stone with "Night of the Living Dead".)  And as I had previously mentioned in "Father's Day", the combination of the two stories really helped cultivate my innate love for zombies.  ... But it just took the mass EXPLOSION of the zombie phenomenon to really turn my interest away from the sub-genre.  Oh well, the good times can't always last...  Now, let's get into some crazy creature-feature territory!

THE CRATE- Sometimes dropping something, like a coin, leads to just some lost change.  For a college janitor, it leads him to an unknown storage area underneath some stairs, containing a crate that's been hidden and unopened for nearly 150 years.  Professor Dexter is notified of the find at a party, and he joins the janitor in opening up the crate that was marked as part of an Arctic expedition.  The only thing is... there's a nasty critter in the crate that REALLY doesn't want it opened, and will voraciously mangle and devour anyone that disturbs its rest.  (Before you ask, this story is NOT about a cat's visit to the vet.  ... But maybe there's also a seed of truth to that reckoning.)  A fellow student finds a crazed and manic Dexter wandering the halls, rambling about this whole incident, and follows Dex to the basement to see what he was talking about.  Sure enough, the student investigates the crate a bit TOO closely, and it's lunch time for "Fuzzy".  Meanwhile, while all this is happening, we bear witness to the "wonderful" life Dexter's friend Henry has with his verbally-abusive wife Wilma.  (CALL HER BILLIE!  EVERYONE DOES!)  Wilma LIVES to emasculate Henry as often as possible, and to drink as much alcohol as possible, without passing out or vomiting... but still maintaining her abrasive "drunken charm".  Through the course of the story, Henry has a few "happy place" mental moments where he envisions Wilma being violently murdered by himself.  But when Dexter informs Henry about the crate monster... Well, why not help out a distressed friend in need, AND take advantage of a creature that could do the offing of Wilma for him, without any of the direct involvement mess!  A little bit of trickery brings Wilma to the school after Henry has cleaned up the massacre scene, and after worrying that "Furry" has performance anxiety, the crate monster does NOT disappoint, and kills off Wilma.

The story wraps up with Dex and Henry playing chess... as they do... and they discussed how the crate monster was packed away in its "little home", and dropped down into a lake quarry.  We end the story with a closeup on the creature's eyes, letting us know it may be down, but it FAR from out.  The one REAL key note I have about this story is, as shown in the above page, the death sequence for Billie is MUCH more visceral in the comic than in the movie.  That's not to say Adrienne Barbeau gets off "easy" for her encounter of the hungry kind, but compare getting her face clawed and being dragged off for some chewing... to having her face being BIT OFF, and letting the feast commence.  Nom-nom-nom, indeed...  Last, but certainly not least...

THEY'RE CREEPING UP ON YOU- Ugh... I'm going to try and write this synopsis without thinking too much about the movie or the comic version TOO hard.  As will be explained, later.  Upson Pratt is a jerk.  A MAJOR league jerk!  He's what you get when you cross a ruthless business tycoon, with the notorious germaphobic tendencies reported of the late life of Howard Hughes.  One stormy night, he has dealings with a co-worker that he forces to stay at his office, and more importantly, the widow of a former business partner of Pratt's who committed suicide after losing it all from the severance.  Does Upson care?  NOT.  AT.  ALL.  He has other things on his mind, like money... and the appearance of cockroaches in his controlled environment living space.  He likens their appearance to all of the "bugs" in his life that, unless they're crushed and killed, they will "creep up on you".  Pratt DOES get an exterminator to visit, but he has to wait for service, because a series of rolling blackouts make for a busy night in the elimination of other clients' nocturnal nuisances.  So Pratt has to deal with the ever-increasing infestation on his own.  It's kind of odd how the little buggers are showing up EVERYWHERE Pratt goes.  The jukebox, his protein shake, cereal, the BLOODY kitchen sink.  It's almost like they're targeting him, and the massive flood of insects forces Pratt into his "safe room".  Only a weirdly-moving bedsheet gives the impression things really AREN'T as safe as he'd like.  Cut to later that night, after the blackout has come and gone for Pratt, and the exterminator is ready for business.  But wait!  No roaches!  Pratt's living space is as clean as it ever was!  However, Pratt lies motionless on his bed, and then his chest starts to twitch, and a few seconds later, a phobia for Metal Mikey is born.

Yes, not burying the lead, this comic played a HUGE part in a cockroach phobia that developed over the years.  And it's not like the ant phobia I had for a stretch of my youth that eventually faded.  No, this blasted phobia stuck like a bad RASH!  Even thinking about the comic adaptation and the movie gives me itchy sensations all over my body, and while I still can marvel at the effect of an entire swarm of roaches exploding from Pratt's body in both comic and movie form, I STILL seem to shy away from lingering on every detail.  SHUDDER is all I gotta say about that!

I do find it interesting that this was the ONLY "Creepshow" film entry that generated a graphic novel adaptation.  I realize the sequel only featured three stories, but it could have allowed a sizable graphic novel version.  (Maybe still with Wrightson as the artist, or I could have also nominated another "Swamp Thing" alum in Steve Bissette for the artistic chores.  Steve would've made for a KILLER version of "The Raft", in my estimation.)  One piece of information I don't recall about the "Creepshow" graphic novel is if it contained the film's wraparound segment involving little Joe Hill having his Horror comics confiscated by TOM FREAKIN' ATKINS, only to have the son gain revenge by fashioning a voodoo doll of his father.  But as a whole, both the graphic novel and the movie were a tribute to... and nearly an extension of... the legacy that William Gaines left us with such titles like "Tales from the Crypt", "Vault of Horror", and the "Haunt of Fear".  And it was all because of this graphic novel that provided those first cracks in my shell of sheer fright of anything Horror-related, to acceptance and enjoyment of the medium!