Two tales conclude with adult horror.
Creative Staff:
Story: Cullen Bunn
Art: Danny Luckert, Leila Leiz, 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 flipbook 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. Welcome to the SHOCK SHOP!
The terrifying anthology from horror maestro Cullen Bunn concludes with plenty of blood, beasts, and bodies that’s sure to want you to read this 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 concludes the 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 the conclusion is pretty much what you expected in a way. It’s a tense and strong piece overall as we get Barb, Willa, and Clark trying to get away from the two creatures that seem to be fighting each other. Barb gets caught up in that and goes out badly while the other two continue to flee, though Willa keeps making accusations at Clark that this is their fault. All the guilt over how their relationship was brought here and it’s killed their friends. I can see that as an interesting way of looking at it and that something here latched onto it, but Clark can’t believe it overall and pushes back against it. The creatures are definitely drawing from them and manipulating them and we see how they struggle separately until they finally escape. Or at least, one of them does which wasn’t a surprise but has the right kind of tenor for an anthology work like this.
The second story is called “Familiars” and the finale definitely plays to an interesting angle. With the familiars having made a number of kills and Nancy now being a target inside Trevor’s house, she’s getting a first-hand “feel” as to what happened all while the kids can’t understand why the familiars are being so mean. Trevor’s arrival helps to reshape the conversation as he explains how they’re misinterpreting his feelings into actions and his intent is to draw them into this plane so they can be killed. It’s a good idea if you don’t know how to close the portal between and they’re able to bring that to an end. Amusingly, you can almost see Trevor thinking this will ease problems between him and Nancy but she’s even more furious and intent on keeping the kids away from him. And to get the police to deal with him, though obviously there’s no actual evidence to be had. It has a pretty good stinger in showing how Trevor is planning to deal with any potential issues but it highlights how bad his descent will go moving forward.
In Summary:
The finale for this series is definitely fun and I liked having two different stories, even if both of them would have worked better as slime trade releases or two-issue event books that could have been flushed out a bit more with three. Cullen Bunn continues to be one of my favorite writers these days in this field of comics horror and both stories work really well without a lot in the way of actual overlap. The artwork for both is distinct and engaging so you felt like you were getting something that really does stand alone. I’ve enjoyed a lot of Leiz’s artwork before so there’s no surprise I really dug this story from them, but Luckert was relatively new to me as a whole and I’m definitely keen to see what they have next. And hopefully, both will be working with Bunn again as the collaborations were delightfully fun and dark.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: November 9th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
