MySpace Dark Horse Presents Volume 3 by Various.
Title: MySpace Dark Horse Presents Volume 3.
Author: Mike Mignola, Becky Cloonan, Dan Braun, Mark Wheaton & Joshua Hale Fialkov, Josh Dysart, Kitty Remington, Andrew Mayer, Sarah Oleksyk, Jamaica Dyer, Colleen Frakes, Stan Sakai, Larry Marder, Famous Mysterious Actor, Chris Onstad, Brian Sendelbach, Mitch Clem, Keith Knight, Liz Greenfield, Ananth Panagariya, Dean Motter, Jim Krueger, Jane Espenson, Steven S. DeKnight, Zach Whedon.
Artist: Ben Stenbeck, Becky Cloonan, Jeff Preston, Rahsan Ekedal, Ron Wimberly, Buzz Parker, Lukas Ketner, Sarah Oleksyk, Jamaica Dyer, Colleen Frakes, Stan Sakai, Larry Marder, Todd Herman, Chris Onstad, Brian Sendelbach, Mitch Clem, Keith Knight, Liz Greenfield, Mohammad F. Haque, Dean Motter, Will Conrad, Karl Moline, Camilla d'Errico, Farel Dalrymple.
Genre: Fiction, graphic novel, anthology, short stories.
Country: U.S.
Language: English.
Publication Date: August, 2009.
Summary: This collection includes a short graphic intro, 23 graphic short stories, many spin-offs or parts of existing canons, and 1 poem. In the short intro graphic, 7 True Tales of Internet Horrors the writer of The K Chronicles talks about the 7 "horrors" that haunt you thanks mostly to the permanency of things put on the Internet. Murderous Intent, a part of the Witchfinder universe, takes place in 1879, and tells of Edward Grey, and how he got his knighthood for his investigations of "occult matters", and gained his official title by foiling an assassination attempt by the Witches of Farnham. In I See the Devil in my Sleep, Nathan suffers from self-induced insomnia, because throughout his life, whenever he would drop off to sleep, the Devil would make him see and commit violent atrocities. In Meet the Creepys, from the Creepy Comics archives, the Creepy family is introduced by one of the family pets - Creepy Cat. In The Body Colony, a part of The Cleaners universe, ex-surgeon Robert Bellarmine is tasked to clean up a scene of a brutal multiple homicide by a part man, part plant, until he comes face to face with the perpetrator himself, and he's not as malicious as his crimes would suggest. The Stain is an autobiographical sketch about the author and artist of the comic paying a visit to Athens Lunatic Asylum, known as The Ridges, and discovering the story of "the stain" - a place where one of the inmates died of exposure in 1978, leaving a mark on the floor that can never be washed out. She Moves in the Dark is a poem in the Emily the Strange universe, about Emily prowling the dark and encountering beasts in the shadows she knows well. In Om Nom Nom!, another story from the Creepy Comics archives, a young caregiver is hired to care for an eccentric invalid Polly Presser, the wife of a convicted serial killer, but when the young woman and her husband decide to rob the old lady of the "treasures" she mentions she's hiding in the basement, they're in for a gruesome, violent shock. In Previously Possessed, a young woman purchases a dress in a used clothing store, disregarding the warnings of the sales-lady, and finds out that the previous owner of the dress, an annoying socialite just like her, is bound to haunt the new owner forevermore. The Nightmare of the Wine Hobo is a surrealist cartoon about a man falling in love and starting a family with a bottle of wine, though their love affair ends in violence. In Hunger for Knowledge, a band of bears have chosen a little girl to be their future king, but in order for her to gain the necessary knowledge and wisdom, they believe they have to slay a dragon and feed her the brain... except their understanding of the word "dragon" may be a little skewed. In Saya, a part of the Usagi Yojimbo universe, Usagi is forced to give an entitled, rude samurai itching for a fight a valuable lesson in honour. In ? and I, a part of the Beanworld universe, Beanish and Professor Garbanzo go in search of suitable slats, and when the journey takes a very long time, the Professor gets obsessed with the idea of needing to re-use their resources. In Couch Fort, a part of the Famous Mysterious Actor universe, the F.M.A. builds a couch fort with only one rule - No Nurds! In One Dollar Genius, a part of the Achewood universe, Cornelius Bear, Téodor, and Roast Beef take a road-trip and decide to sample every item on the Taco Bell menu. In The Best Job in the World, from the Smell of Steve strip, President Carter and his alien advisor Kenny decide that due to economic set-backs, the President has to get a real job, and after several unsuccessful attempts finds the perfect one. In Getting Hip!, a part of the Nothing Nice to Say strip, Blake and Fletcher decide to join the hipster movement because the girls are so "easy," until the truth of the matter, over-tight pants, and the ghost of Joey Ramone knock some sense into them. In the K Chronicles, Keith expounds on how having a daily comic strip is very similar as having a first child. In Steak and Kidney Punch, a woman's teenage daughter brings a friend over foe dinner - a young wrestling star about to become world famous, and he has an interesting plan where the woman's family is concerned. In Robro, a part of the Applegeeks universe, Hawk creates a new robot, but when he sees his fellow robot Eve, he becomes an obsessive, sleazy creep. Mister X in Slumberland tells of the The Ninth Academy, an institute for advanced and higher learning combined with mental health treatment facilities, where "mad scientists" invented and built a city out of their dreams, but after inhabiting it, the city drove them insane and they all inexplicably vanished. In The Other Half, a story in the Serenity universe, tells of the crew trying to deliver their seriously wounded passenger to their destination whilst under attack, but while helping him stay alive, River detects that their passenger is an Alliance agent who tracks smugglers and leads Alliance soldiers to kill them, and earns her way onto the crew. In Harmony Bites, a part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, Harmony has an interview for a job she's not qualified to do, has a spat with an ungrateful vampire she sired, and a fight and failed assassination attempt on Clem. Vampy Cat Play Friend, also a part of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, is a commercial by Santorio Corp. for an adorable Vampy Cat, who is show protecting the little girl Sachiko from bullies. Moist: Humidity Rising is a story in the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog that tells about how Dr.Horrible's henchman Moist became, well, moist, and joined up with Dr. Horrible.
My rating: 7/10.
My Review:
♥ You must understand... I came here hoping to be scared. Hungry for something horrible. And now we were staring at the last remains of a dead woman. Perfectly etched. And yet... Nothing about the stain, nothing about this place, felt frightening. The whole asylum reeked of tranquility. Serenity.
Later I discovered that Margaret had taken off her clothes, folded them neatly next to her, then laid down to die. No longer was the stain a woman riddled with panic. Yanking at her hair. Gnawed by madness. She was lovely now. Lying down with meticulous ease, inviting the cold into her. Letting go willingly.
Later than night, as I went to sleep in Dr. Milton's attic (where the visiting artist stays), I imagined I was dying. Not afraid. Not sad. Just slowly, sweetly rendered blind to the hopes and fears of my own skin.
~~The Stain.
♥ SHE MOVES IN THE DARK
On a dark and creepy night
Who here is afraid?
Not Emily
Who in dark delights
And in the shadow plays
Under clouds of black, deep, moonless sky
Under stars aligned
Comes Emily
With her cat-girl eyes
To haunt you for all time
She moves through woods alive and dark
She moves without a sound
Fly, Emily!
Witch, bat or lark
Fly when danger is around
There s no danger here for me!
She howls into the night
I'm Emily
The dark was made for me.
I live beyond the light!
Fearless she journeys on her way
Draws nearer to her home
But Emily
Doesn't see what waits
Within the shadowed grove
A hunched and hooded nightmare beast
A freak with eight huge eyes!
Run, Emily!
Before your soul it eats
As you meet your foul demise!
I told you once I'm not afraid,
I know the night beasts well.
I'm Emily
What lurks within the shade
Is a shadow I know well.
The creature lurches, falls apart,
and takes four different forms
And runs at Emily!
Who, without a start,
Reaches with her arms
She takes hold of the black beasties
And carries them away
So Emily can take them home to keep
And sleep away the day.
♥ Oh, please, Mr. Samurai, don't draw your sword today...
The rain will rust it's edge, and the sheen will fade away!
The keenest blades are sheathed, and that's where they should stay.
So please, Mr. Samurai, don't draw your sword today!
♥ "No -- Stop! Please! I give up! Don't hurt me! You admired my sword - keep it! Just let me go!"
"Yours is a fine blade, but the sword reflects the soul of the samurai... It is the samurai's soul. You cheapen your soul."
~~Saya.