Taboo is a comics anthology edited by Steve Bissette, designed to feature edgier and more adult comics than those published through mainstream publishers. The series began as a horror anthology, but soon branched out into other genres as well.This issue features work from Phil Elliot & Paul Grist, Joe Coleman, Jack Butterworth & Eric Vincent, the first (to date, only) instalment of Neil Gaiman and Michael Zulli's Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, as well as continuing instalments of Jeff Nicholson's Through the Habitrails, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls and Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell.Pre-ordered (Direct Market) copies feature a 28-page bonus of SpiderBaby Comix #0: A Life in Black and White by Stephen R. Bissette.
Stephen R. Bissette is an American comics artist, editor, and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He is best known for working with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC comic Swamp Thing in the 1980s.
Every great series has a weak volume, and for the fantastic horror anthology Taboo, it's this one. Serialized stories like Moore's & Campbell's "From Hell", Nicholson's "Through the Habittrails", and Moore's & Gebbie's "Lost Girls" take up the bulk of this volume, with limited original pieces. The best one was probably "A Good Christian" by Joe Coleman, which is oddly enough another Jack the Ripper story (if "From Hell" wasn't enough for you!). The Gaiman & Zulli "Sweeney Todd" story was pretty decent as well, though I think I was mostly just taken by Zulli's artwork. Phil Elliot, Paul Grist, Rick Grimes, P. Foerster, Jack Butterworth, and Eric Vincent all contribute stories as well, though most of them were not very memorable.
Contains installments of classics like Jeff Nicholson's Through the Habitrails and Moore/Campbell's From Hell, and also some less than classic strips. Probably one of the weaker issues, despite the lovely cover.