Joyride

By Jack Ketchum (1995, Berkley, 245 pages, ISBN #0-425-14566-2)

Jack Ketchum (nom de plume of dashing Dallas Mayr) is one of America's fiercest horror novelists, and JOYRIDE is another lean, mean, and genuinely relentless fifth-gear excursion from the author of ass-kickers like OFF SEASON and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR. Among the victims of this fictional roadside murder-spree is a passionate TABOO reader who "liked number 4 the best because of the Moebius "Eye of the Cat" and the S. Clay Wilson" (page 123, followed by a reference to CRY FOR DAWN). Dallas -- uh, I mean, Jack proves once and for all that horror comics CAN be bad for you herein. JOYRIDE was originally published in hardcover in the UK by Headline Book Publishing (1994) under its original title ROAD KILL. Dallas snuck this one in without my knowing, but Poppy had already done the same in:


Drawing Blood

By Poppy Z. Brite (1993, Hardcover: Delacorte Press/Abyss, 373 pages, ISBN# 0-385-30895-7; Paperback: Dell/Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 403 pages, ISBN #0-440-21492-0)

A profoundly unsettling slice of contemporary Southern Gothic laced with homoeroticism, sadomasochism, and rich razor-edge characterizations. The protagonist of Brite's second novel happens to be a cartoonist named Trevor, whose famed cartoonist father took his own life after butchering Trevor's mother and brother. Haunted by his past and the atrocity-ravaged the home he fled, Trevor and his disturbed lover, fugitive "hacker" Zach, pause briefly on their headlong plunge into hell and road to redemption in a bar, where Trevor gets a phone call with Yankee TABOO editor yours truly (!) in a bar (page 261 of the paperback edition; funny thing is, one of TABOO's prominent contributors COULD only be reached via phone calls to a bar!). Y'see, one of Trevor's stories gets accepted for publication in TABOO, only Trevor never wrote or drew such a story... I can't say more without giving anything away.

[JOYRIDE and DRAWING BLOOD are available from Amazon.com.]


Love Beyond Death: The Anatomy Of A Myth In The Arts

By Rudolph Binion (1993, New York University Press, 168 pages, ISBN #0-8147-1189-8)

I haven't seen Michael Zulli in years, but there was a time when we were very close, and TABOO played a vital role in our relationship. Sandwiched between Michael's marvelous collaborative work with writer Stephen Murphy on PUMA BLUES and his extraordinary later efforts for DC/Vertigo on SANDMAN and other titles, Zulli created some of TABOO's most exquisite images and stories, including the agonizing "Mercy," a potent adaptation of Ramsey Campbell's perverse "Again," a couple of Neil Gaiman masterpieces (including the launch of their sadly aborted collaborative novel SWEENEY TODD), and a dark slice of whimsy based on a tale by Neil's daughter Holly.

Of all the people involved with TABOO over the years, Michael alone seemed to truly understand what I was up to. There was no sense of closure to an issue's publication until I'd received that Sunday morning phone call after Michael had received his copy, during which he would run through his reaction to each and every piece -- and, most important to me, the issue as a whole. It was treasured feedback, and without a doubt what I miss most about leaving TABOO behind.

Which brings me to the subject at hand, LOVE BEYOND DEATH. This dense academic overview of "the many and diverse linkages of love and death in the arts" correctly perceived Michael's affinity for the "nineteenth-century trend [within the arts] reconciling love with death," and places his extraordinary back cover painting for TABOO #5 within that context. Panels from Michael's harrowing story "Mercy" (Taboo #2) also appear, ignobly framed by images from the notorious crucified prostitute issue of DC's GREEN ARROW #17 (1989) and, within the text, a welter of images from horror movies, heavy metal music, and other examples of "the slaughter component of the love-death mix." Michael's work deserves much closer scrutiny, but I must credit Rudolph Binion with singling out Michael's work among the sea of comics obsessed with Binion's chosen subject. If he'd only taken a closer look at the work apart from the context of the industry it had been published within -- alas, such is the plight of the serious comics artist!

Nevertheless, Binion's study is compelling, casting a wide net over the five centuries of art and illustrating many of his key points with fine black-and-white glossy illustrations... including Michael's.