Two tales begin with adult horror.
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Danny Luckert, Leila Lizz, Bill Crabtree
Letterer: Nate Piekos
What They Say:
Cullen Bunn (Harrow County), Danny Luckert (Regression), and Leila Leiz (The Last Book You’ll Ever Read) present a brand-new horror anthology flip comic taking place in a haunted comic book shop with a twisted retailer filled with tales of terror sure to leave you with the lights on.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Cullen Bunn continues to be my main go-to when it comes to scary stories these days and the debut of Shock Shop delivers in that anthology style that I enjoy a lot. The book comes with two stories with framing by a character that’s basically a haunted comic shop where the women in it tells the tales. The first tale comes from artist Danny Luckert which has a really good deep woods distinctive look and color design while the second by Leila Lizz and Bill Crabtree hits it out of the park in working through a home with a really dark secret to it. The details in both are great but they’re distinctively different without being wildly different in look.
The first story is “Something in the Woods, in the Dark” and it sets up things in an interesting way. We basically get a small group of couples that are out on a multi-day hike in order to try and get things better for one of the couples. There’s a problem that has been idling for a while where he did something criminal at work in a white-collar way and her revenge for it was sleeping with someone else. Six months later and it’s just tense in the friend group. It still is here and we get some of the background after the problem couple heads off to try and talk a little bit. It’s set up well but also moves us into the horror side when one of the guys is in the woods taking a leak and he thinks it’s Willa in the woods coming to see him but it’s just a wild supernatural type of woman-creature that starts to turn violent. It’s obviously all setup but it’s done so well with the artwork and just introducing us to the tone that it definitely makes you want more.
The second story is called “Familiars” where we’re introduced to Trevor, a divorced father of two who has finally moved out of an apartment and into a small home. The place is a mess and is going to need work but it’s his and he just needs to get it set up for his kids for when they arrive. To his surprise, all of his boxes are unpacked and set up while he sleeps overnight and he kind of rides into the idea of being haunted and even shows the kids when they come over, going with the idea of elves that help overnight. It’s fun to see how well they’re all handling it even as we see something really disturbing in the background that’s doing all of this so you’re getting that first taste of the darkness to come that’s being accepted right now.
In Summary:
I enjoy anthology books a good deal when done like this so this is a series that scratches a particular itch – and kind of makes me miss Dark Horse Presents all the more. Bunn plays in a couple of different areas here but I like that the characters are all primarily adults that are who we follow and it’s not going for the cheap seats of scares. They’re creepy and detailed but have some neat twists as well. The artwork is great and the potential for a lot of fun depending on the length of tales could make for some really good variety as it progresses. I’m definitely on board.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: September 7th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
