Review of FACELESS: A TERRY SHARP STORY

If you love vintage horror, Livingston-Tinnell-Vokes Productions is one comic book outfit that needs to be on your radar. They've already given us classic black-and-white Universal-style horror in Black Forest and Black Forest 2, and Spaghetti Western nightmares in Wicked West. These are solid products, too--no fanboy amateurism here. In addition to broad favorable critical response, Black Forest won the 2004 Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award and Scoop placed Wicked West at #1 among the Best Comic Trade Paperbacks of 2004.

LTV's latest offering is Faceless: A Terry Sharp Story, and this one hits the groovy nail on the head. Twice. The story is an absolute treat for Hammer fans. The look is a spectacular homage to the colored-gel lighting techniques of Italian horror masters Mario Bava (Blood and Black Lace) and Dario Argento (Suspiria). If, like me, you have an overlapping love of Hammer and eurotrash, you'll really be in heaven!

For summary, I can't improve on the back cover copy:

Once Upon a Time in England--1962. By day, Terry Sharp is a hard-living, skirt-chasing, celebrated director of classic horror films. But by night the horror turns real--Terry has discovered a shadowy group of Satanists hell-bent on taking control of the British government. His knowledge has made him a marked man. Black magic or bullets--the Faceless conspirators don't particularly care which--as long as the end result is Terry's death.

Too bad for them, Terry Sharp isn't ready to die just yet. Not without taking a whole lot of bad guys with him.

Tinnell knows his Hammer. He doesn't just make references or winks; he basically creates a whole alternate world where "Midwich Studios" cranks out schlocky cult classics like Baron Frankenstein, Return of Frankenstein, Blood of Frankenstein (which I rather liked, thank you very much, Mark Clark and Bryan Senn!), and Cult of Dracula. We get stars like "Peter Lingham" selecting eyeballs from glass jars in gruesome close-up. I actually got so caught up in it, I started to wish there really had been a Midwich Studios, and then I had to remind myself--oh yeah, there really was!

As you must know if you've been reading Groovy Age for any length of time, Satanic cults were probably the top horror staple all through the groovy age. In 2006, I'll even do a whole theme month about them! So Tinnell's use of them here just ratchets up the groovy factor that much more. "The Faceless" bring a welcome vintage feel, and would be at home in any of a number of paperbacks I've reviewed.

As for the characters, what we get is tantalizing, but this is really not enough to get to know them. As with Black Forest 2, Faceless is more of an episode in something (hopefully!) larger than a self-contained "graphic novel" story. Still--so far, so good!

Now, on to the art. This is Adrian Salmon's American debut, and he clearly understands the stakes, because he goes for broke here. I've already remarked on the eye-popping colors, which are the first thing you'll notice on a casual flip-through. Salmon's drawing is just as arrestingly stylized and non-realistic, and it suits the story to a T. To a naive reader, the characters might look a bit cartoony, but the compositions prove that Ade knows what he's doing. This is a gorgeously illustrated comic.

As if that weren't enough, we get a mock retrospective article on Midwich by Mark Clark and Bryan Senn, and a mock interview with one of the actresses by Tom Weaver.

Then there's the backup feature--scenes from Return of Frankenstein drawn by Neil Vokes. This alone is worth the price of admission, and I'd love to see it expanded into a graphic novel in its own right. LTV have a lot on their plates if they intend (as I hope they do) to build on the titles they've already launched, but somewhere down the line, it would be great fun to see them do a full line of Midwich "adaptations."

My one quibble is with, of all things, the cover. It's fine, really, but it doesn't do this comic total justice. In a "Behind the Scenes" feature in the very last pages, we're privy to an e-mail where Ade voiced some ideas for how the cover should look:

The more I think about this the more I think the final cover should have more than Terry on there. I'd like a foggy London backdrop--Big Ben maybe--identifiable--I'd like some covert suggestion of the Faceless too and perhaps Elspeth--to grab the guys eyes.

MYSTERY-HORROR-COOL-60'S-JAZZ-SEX-BRITISHNESS--it's gotta say all these!

I'd certainly agree, but I think a Bond-movie-poster-style montage, with Terry and Elspeth full-length bang in the middle, might have accomplished all that better. As is, the dynamism to be found inside just doesn't come across as fully as it should.

That caveat aside, I'll go beyond my usual recommendation, and flat-out urge you to buy this book. Why? Because, in addition to getting a kick-ass graphic novel, you'll be supporting a title with tons of groovy vintage appeal and potential. The next proposed installment would be a giallo homage called Yellow. Just check out the sample image. I'd sure love to see that!

Writer Bob Tinnell has said he has a whole "epic storyline" in mind for Terry Sharp. What other directions could it take? You might be surprised! Tinnell and Salmon are great fans of Hammer and eurotrash, and deeply immersed in both, so who knows what they'll draw up when they dip the ladle in that stew for later helpings? Here's an image Ade sent me that suggests a greater range than we might expect for the far-out promise of this title. Yes, that's Jess Franco's Female Vampire!

Beyond supporting a Terry Sharp series, I'm all for supporting LTV Productions. These creators come up with fantastic conceptions born out of love of vintage horror, and then deliver equally fantastic realizations. I say, let's keep them at it!

And beyond that, I want to push these kinds of retro trends in general in horror entertainment. Imagine a Groovy Age Rennaissance . . . why not?