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In Sanity, AZ

iSA_1-COVERAlex Wilson writes;

I feel a certain amount of responsibility to those who read this site and others like it to bring comic books to attention I feel merit notoriety. The hardest genre of publishing to perform this task for is independent. Most folks who read comics only read from established publishers and fall under the impression independent publishing just means "not quality enough for mainstream publication" and to varying degrees I would agree. Piles upon piles of rotting comic book shit exist in this world from people who don't have the sense to realize their books are not becoming the next Watchmen or Sandman.

iSA_3-COVERUnder these piles of shock gore and Tijuana Bibles exist some quality books, which have a sort of charm to them if nothing else. A reader can peruse them, realizing within a few pages why they aren't at a mainstream publisher.

One of these series is "In Sanity, AZ." This collection of short horror comics perfectly reflects the attitude I bring to Halloween and the creepy season in general. This book's stories usually don't last more than a few pages, perfect for poop breaks at work.

iSA_2-COVERI moved to Arizona just over a year ago and decided to check this book out since it bared the dual letter symbol for the state I currently reside in. To be completely honest and up front, I'm not the largest horror reader in the world. I would rather sit down and reread Y: The Last Man but sometimes you have an itch. Usually this itch for horror stories comes around Halloween out of some misguided need to feel like I participated in the holiday in some fashion so let's jump into this anthology.

iSA_1-PREVIEW4The art reflects the book well. If this was any other style of story telling I would be writing how the art wasn't my style but the creepy nature of the stories is complimented well by the cartoon like art. They bump up the fear factor a bit. The art bring the stories together in an unsettling way, conveying the emotion to the reader of something terrifying just out of peripherals, waiting for you to turn your head another inch and finally gaze upon it.

iSA_1-PREVIEW2The stories are creepy enough, tales of stuff you can tell your friends around the campfire to give them a few chills. Nothing in here kept me from sleeping but maybe this fact says more to my jaded nature than the book. This book's filled with short stories but characters seem to recur a few times, building a little bit but not necessarily allowing for character development. This book is much more about the stories than the characters.

iSA_1-PREVIEW3To a certain point the shorts a terrifying in a comical way. The memories of hiding with friends in the basement while growing up, freaking each other out for the terrific fun of it pop into my head.

The series is only three issues long and you can buy each issue for $2 on Amazon or you can buy a print edition of the book for around $17, which has all three issues included.

The book has a lot of people working on it so I thought I would break it down to give everyone their due credit.

iSA_1-PREVIEW1Writers: Michael Drace Fountain, Marcel Losada, James Ninness, and Joe Pezzula

Illustrators: Chris Burkheart, Courtney Camacho, Chris Collins, Collin Fogel, Kevin Gemser, Scott Irwin, Rich Kuhaupt, Frank Luna, John Narcomey, Donald Poquiz, Jorge Sevilla, Brian Soriano, Jed Soriano, Lance Sawyer, Mike Temple, and Daniel Touchet

Covers: #1: "Big" Chris Wood #2: Joel Gomez and Beth Sotelo (colors) #3: Jesse Toves TPB: Vincent Kukua

Lettering/Coloring: Ben Gilbert

Design: Shannon Forrey


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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.
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