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Ah. . .October. That special time of year when you can go to your local Wal-Mart to buy some Halloween candy while listening to Christmas music on the speakers overhead. It's also the special time of year when Longbox Junk features horror comics!
It's been a fun little Halloween party. So far, I've been looking at horror anthologies and their little bite-sized chunks of comic book horror. But now it's time to head over to a different neighborhood. Yeah. . .you know the one I'm talking about. The neighborhood with all the big houses, where they hand out the full size cany bars!
First stop, we've got a Halloween staple. . .the Werewolf! What's Halloween without the howling creatures of the night? It's not Halloween at all, in MY humble opinion.
And so, I present the comic at hand. A late 90s Marvel publication that was part of an ill-fated "blink and you missed it" project called "Strange Tales". The project lasted less than a year and only managed to put out two series, Werewolf by Night and Man-Thing.
Man-Thing lasted 8 issues, and Werewolf by Night lasted just 6. I guess the late 90s just weren't the right time for mainstream Marvel horror comics. But let's check out the first issue anyway, shall we?
WE SHALL!
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #1
Marvel (1998)
COVER: Leonardo Manco
THE COVER:
Leonardo Manco is an artist I like a lot. Unfortunately, this isn't that great of a cover. It's sort of spooky, and surreal, but it's also dark and muddled. It doesn't really catch the eye and make me want to see what's inside. I mean, it SAYS Werewolf in the title, but the cover doesn't sell Werewolf.
They should have gone with the cover for Issue #2 for the first issue instead. Now THERE'S a cover that sells a Werewolf story!
THE STORY:
Somewhere South of Heaven
SCRIPT: Paul Jenkins
PENCILS: Leonardo Manco
INKS: Leonardo Manco
Jack Russell is a mess. He's an alcoholic stumbling through life. He's got a girl, but their relationship is always on the edge. He's a guy without friends. . .without much of anything, really.
Oh yeah. He's also a werewolf.
Jack USED to be just a normal guy, living the normal life. . .surfing, beach babes, parties. A simple life. Until he found out he'd inherited a curse. Every full moon for three days, he'd change into a violent and bloodthirsty wolf-man.
Eventually, he learned to control the transformation, and he even became a hero of sorts. But for those three days of the full moon, Jack had absolutely no control. So during those times, he was forced to hide underground in a hideout he'd built in the sewers until the curse had taken its course.
It was a pretty lousy life.
We follow Jack as he endures yet another full moon. . .trapped in the body of a monster, hiding in the sewers. Fighting the bloodlust as best he can, which isn't very much. He suffers horrific visions of hell and wants nothing more than to kill.
But after three days, it finally passes and Jack can return to his regular lousy life. A run-down apartment in the worst part of town and a girlfriend who thinks he's cheating on her when he disappears for three days at a time.
Jack and Roxanna have a complicated relationship. They love each other, but she's afraid he's being unfaithful and is getting deeper into the alcohol. He's afraid that he'll lose control and kill her.
They want to be together, but both of them are pushing each other away. Neither of them know how much longer they can go on this way.
Jack decides it's time to do something. He can't go on like this.
He's tried and failed before, but he HAS to try again. He stays up until 3 a.m., scraping through the garbage pits of the internet. There has to be something, anything. There has to be a cure!
Finally, he discovers a crumb. . .a thread. . .a clue! A tiny bit of hope. He calls an acquaintance, a priest who is an expert in the occult. He needs information on something called "The Third Moon".
He learns that the Third Moon are a mysterious group of wolf cultists that supposedly have been active for thousands of years. They worship a nameless demonic being that feeds upon fear. The modern version of the cult is supposedly in possession of an ancient artifact. . .a knife that could possibly control the demon.
The knife was last known to be in the hands of a cultist named Walter Clark, a wealthy movie star of the past. It's assumed his estate still has the knife.
Jack doesn't know if it is what he's looking for, but a thing that can control the best within seems like something he needs to look into. And so the dark adventure begins. . .
To Be Continued. . .
THE REVIEW:
Not bad! Not bad at all. It's a dark, gritty story. . .mostly setup, as this IS the first issue of what was supposed to be an ongoing series, but still a pretty darn good read.
Jack Russell is pathetic, violent, desperate, and dangerous to those around him. There's some brief reference to the Bronze Age anti-hero version of Werewolf by Night, but this story establishes Russell as a broken, tragic figure desperate to find a way to escape his curse before he kills the only good thing in his life. He's not a hero, he's a monster.
So. . .this is the first issue of a series, so I'm going to do the Longbox Junk thing I do with EVERY first issue. I'm going to ask just TWO questions. Two simple questions. . .or at least they seem to be simple. You'd be surprised how many first issues fail to answer one or both in a good way.
FIRST: Does this comic establish the characters and their situation in a new reader-friendly way?
SECOND: Does it make me want to read more?
I think those are two fair questions for the first issue of a series. Let's see how Werewolf by Night does.
Does this issue establish the characters and their situation well? I say yes. Paul Jenkins gives us the origin of Jack Russell and sets the grim tone of what's to come in an engaging way. The story hooked me in and before I knew it, I was at the last panel.
Speaking of the last panel. . .does this issue make me want to read more? Yes it does! I actually have the other issues in this run (and could probably have done a full review of it, but I want to keep to single issues for now) and I already know where it goes, but this first issue made me want to pull out the rest and read it again!
So, two for two on the first issue questions! That's a hell of a lot better than a lot of other comics I've read. But story is only half of a comic book. How about the art?
I know Leonardo Manco more for his art on Hellblazer, but he swings for the fences here! His dark and gritty style PERFECTLY compliments Jenkins' story of a desperate man trying to control a raging beast inside. Manco's nightmarish version of the werewolf is one of the best I've seen. I mean. . .just LOOK at it!
The art in this comic is simply a feast for the eyes on every page. Marvel picked the perfect artist here.
CONCLUSION
It's a dark, brutal tale of a desperate man fighting the beast within, backed up by nightmarish artwork that perfectly compliments it. This is a comic book that I can't find anything wrong with. It introduces the main character and his nasty situation quite nicely, and makes me want to read more.
If you're looking for a good werewolf comic, this is it. I can actually recommend the whole series. I don't really see these in the bargain bins. Like a lot of other horror comics, you'll have to get into the regular back issue boxes and pay a few bucks more for the individual comics.
The first four issues of this series have been collected in a trade titled "Werewolf By Night: In The Blood", but for the other two issues (as well as two more that continue the story in Strange Tales vol. 4) you'll have to go on the hunt. But no matter HOW you get your hands on these comics, I give them the Longbox Junk gold seal of approval!
Good stuff! So what's next for the Longbox Junk Halloween party? Vampires? Monsters? Witches? Maniac Killers? So many choices! Stay tuned and find out!
