There's something wonderfully old-fashioned about Mark Spears' Monsters. It's a comic that seems to the unholy union of a vintage Warren horror magazine, a Saturday afternoon monster movie, and a particularly gruesome Halloween special. With issue #4, Spears continues assembling his supernatural nightmare, and the creatures lurking in the shadows are becoming harder to ignore.
Welcome to the Crowley Estate
This chapter, appropriately titled "If Monsters Are Real…", follows Richie, Mikey, and Spaz as their curiosity leads them to the abandoned Crowley estate. Naturally, poking around a sinister old mansion turns out to be a spectacularly bad idea. Meanwhile, a mysterious drifter finds himself in police custody, and the growing number of strange incidents suggests that the local authorities are dangerously out of their depth.
A Monster Mash Made in Heaven
What makes Monsters so entertaining is Spears' unapologetic affection for the classic horror tradition. Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's Monster, and even the Creature from the Black Lagoon inhabit a shared world that feels like a collision between Universal's classic monster movies and the lurid horror comics of the 1970s. Spears isn't particularly interested in reinventing these archetypes. Instead, he embraces their familiar imagery and uses it to build an increasingly elaborate supernatural adventure.
The artwork remains the series' biggest attraction. Spears employs dramatic lighting, exaggerated expressions, deep shadows, and an almost theatrical use of color. His monsters are grotesque without sacrificing the colorful, larger-than-life qualities that make classic horror characters so memorable. There's a distinctly retro sensibility at work here, although the polished digital rendering gives the pages a decidedly modern appearance.
Too Many Monsters in the Closet?
If there's a weakness, it's that the expanding cast and multiple storylines occasionally threaten to overwhelm the narrative. Rather than concentrating on a single supernatural menace, Spears keeps introducing new characters and shifting between different corners of his monster-filled world. This creates an appealing sense of scale, but it also means individual plot threads sometimes receive less attention than they deserve. Four issues into the series, we're still assembling the pieces of a much larger puzzle.
Nevertheless, that's part of the fun. Monsters is a comic built around the anticipation of what might emerge from the darkness next. It understands that sometimes the greatest pleasure of a monster story isn't discovering something entirely new, but seeing familiar nightmares brought together in unexpected combinations.
A Love Letter to Classic Horror
With issue #4, Mark Spears continues delivering a colorful, atmospheric celebration of classic horror. It's creepy, occasionally outrageous, and filled with the sort of macabre enthusiasm that makes browsing the horror section of an old comic shop such a delight.
For readers who grew up on monster magazines, creature features, and horror comics, Monsters feels like a welcome return to familiar haunted territory.
The Verdict
A gloriously old-school monster mash with striking artwork and plenty of supernatural intrigue. The sprawling narrative could use a little more focus, but the atmosphere and affection for classic horror make the journey worthwhile.
