Bloke’s Terrible Tomb Of Terror

- By Dave McCluskey

Bloke’s Terrible Tomb Of Terror is a retro style horror anthology. We are secure in the company of Bloke, a crafty cockney with a penchant for wearing a top hat and carrying a cane. As we are not here for fashion advice we should do what we came here to do and review his latest comic: Bloke’s Terrible Tomb of Terror: 2nd Bumper Edition

I am reliably informed that this is a compilation of Bloke’s normal Terrible Tomb of Terror anthology (currently up to #10 which is more than impressive for an independently produced title), which is available from his etsy (see above) account or from Amazon. This one comes in at $19.99 (or about £12 to us Limeys), which for the impressive page count of 218 pages, does not come out at bad value at all.

So what does the Tomb hold for us then?

Well, quite a lot it seems…

This book is so retro that it would not surprise me if the pages had come stained brown with age (or spilled tea, not coffee as the Bloke is British, and everyone knows that us Brits only drink tea, right?).

The tales come thick and fast, and the artwork is like something from an old comic that you might have found underneath your uncle’s bed… NOT THAT TYPE OF COMIC YOU PERV… but a really old one from the 50s or 60s.

Each story is between 6 – 12 pages in length with one exception at 19 pages. This means that the stories have to cram a lot in the opening panels, in order for the reader to get a gist of the tale, and also to make their mind up about the characters.

Almost every one of these tales managed to do that exact job for me, in a short time I managed to care for the protagonists, weather I liked them or not is another story, but I got a feeling for them, I kind of knew their motivations.

This is not easy to do in a short story format and I have to tip my own top hat towards the writers for succeeding to do this time and time again.

There are some delightful tales in here, but also, as with most anthologies there are also a couple of ‘also rans’ in the mix where I was able to deduce the ending before I got there. Please note that this does not at all deter from the overall readability of the comic, on the contrary it actually enhances the really good tales.

All art is in B&W with the exception of a beautiful, full colour front page. This works with the nature of the retro theme, and in most places the pencil and ink working is brilliant. One tale in particular jumps out at me where the addition of a letterer might have made the difference, but in all it is generally of a very good standard.

In summary, I really liked this anthology; it was good fun sitting off and reading it in short, sharp bursts, and I will definitely be delving back into the murky depths of depravity that Bloke keeps in his Terrible Tombs of Terror.

If you like your curvaceous women, and things that can jump out at you from the dark, then this bumper edition is well worth stumping up you’re hard earned…

I give it 4 McCluskeys out of 5

Available: www.etsy.com/shop/BlokesTomb
www.amazon.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/blokes-terrible-tomb-of-terror
Twitter: @blokesTomb
Instagram: www.instagram.com/the_bloke_uk

Written by:
Jason Crawley AKA The Bloke
Mike Hoffman
Michael Mitchell

Drawn by:
Mike Hoffman
Nik Poliwko
Rob Moran
Scott Shriver
Rock Baker
Jeff Austin
Sam Agro
Michael Mitchell
Juan Carlos Abraldes Rendo
Fernando Ignatius Martin
Antonio Di Cicco