Val Reviews SULLENGREY: CEMETERY THINGS

Boasting artwork resembling the lovechild of Tim Burton & Ted McKeever, the Ape Entertainment trade paperback SULLENGREY: CEMETERY THINGS would look at home on a bookshelf filled with many of Vertigo's earlier offerings. It's a bittersweet love story/Zombie Hollolcaust told by writer Jocelyn Gajeway and artist Drew Rausch in a frenetic Jhonen Vasquez style that fairly drips from the page with human effluence.

The plot: Intrepid amateur reporter Salem seeks to unravel the mystery behind a spooky little town and an enigmatic fellow named Grey, the bottom half of whose face is covered by a scarf in a manner reminiscent of the 1928 silent horror film The Man Who Laughs. Grey is haunted by the memory of his beloved/feared fellow mental institution roommate Halo, a young woman with a penchant for chainsaws and ultraviolence.


SULLENGREY is an unique work that definitely deserves more attention. Drew Rausch has created an elaborate self-contained gothic-cum-screwball universe that is so rife with eyeball-twitching detail that it looks like it must have been a motherf**king epic effort to draw. Jocelyn Gajeway's writing is filled both with a darkly comic sense of timing and a talented facility for horror.


SULLENGREY: CEMETERY THINGS collects the first four issues of the original Sullengrey limited series plus contains bonus materials like a never-before-published story, an interview with the creators, and artist sketches. Its $19.95 in full color and you could purchase it at your better-stocked local comic shops or just be lazy and just get it here.

PS: Some of the consistent spelling mistakes in this book are unforgivable, but you can still enjoy it. I was pointed out the wrong one, but I am assured they are there.