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Taboo #5
Taboo 5 ~Signed by Contributing Cartoonist Dennis Ellefson!
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 Ramsey Campbell & Michael Zulli, Matt Howarth, and Rick Grimes, as well as the first instalment of Jeff Nicholson's Through the Habitrails, Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls and the fourth chapter of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell.
Paperback
Published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 5, 2021
Picked this up mostly for the Ramsey Campbell/Mike Zulli piece. I have to reread the original Campbell story sometime. I like Zulli's art here, but I'm not sure it's a great fit with the story; it seems overly explicit and detailed. I'd prefer a more distanced interpretation.
Highlights are the installments of "Through the Habitrails" and "From Hell", both collected in single volumes, and a lovely one-pager from Price and Martinez. The Jeff Jones cover and Charles Burns snippets are worthwhile, not a fan of the rest. (As I may have remarked elsewhere, what is Matt Howarth's piece doing here?)
So I'm not sure if this is worth picking up for your personal library. The good news is reasonably priced copies do show up these days, including of the previously prohibitively expensive #2. (You might have a review of that foisted on you sometime.)
Highlights are the installments of "Through the Habitrails" and "From Hell", both collected in single volumes, and a lovely one-pager from Price and Martinez. The Jeff Jones cover and Charles Burns snippets are worthwhile, not a fan of the rest. (As I may have remarked elsewhere, what is Matt Howarth's piece doing here?)
So I'm not sure if this is worth picking up for your personal library. The good news is reasonably priced copies do show up these days, including of the previously prohibitively expensive #2. (You might have a review of that foisted on you sometime.)
May 29, 2023
At this point in its publication history, Stephen Bissette's Taboo started becoming the launching pad for many classic works. Aside from Moore's and Campbell's From Hell, chapters from Alan Moore's and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls also began serialization in this anthology, with the first coming from this volume. Jeff Nicholson's innovative comic, Through the Habitrails also was prominently featured in Taboo #5 and damn is it just as good as I remember. I'm definitely going to re-read Through the Habitrails again soon, since just reading the short snipped featured here brings back good memories of the first time I read it.
Outside of Taboo regulars Rick Grimes and S. Clay Wilson making contributions to this volume, the major standout was the "Again" story by Ramsay Campbell & Michael Zulli. The entire story evokes a tone of sheer dread and ambiguity, and it's amplified by Zulli's fantastic artwork. Aside from the Campbell/Zulli story, there's also a great retelling of the Black Dahlia murder by Tom Marnick and Dennis Ellefson that is well worth the price of admission.
Outside of Taboo regulars Rick Grimes and S. Clay Wilson making contributions to this volume, the major standout was the "Again" story by Ramsay Campbell & Michael Zulli. The entire story evokes a tone of sheer dread and ambiguity, and it's amplified by Zulli's fantastic artwork. Aside from the Campbell/Zulli story, there's also a great retelling of the Black Dahlia murder by Tom Marnick and Dennis Ellefson that is well worth the price of admission.
June 30, 2019
"EROTICA THEMED"
For this anthology I recommend taking the time to read the 1-1.5 "lead-ins" even though it's very annoying to have an introduction for EVERY chapter.
-I read introductions even though I often regret the time spent but if they're about the book by someone other than an author/artist I've learned to save them for the end. Text before a book should only include a contributor helping the reader better understand what they are about to read or someone else framing the work within a context- but NOT talking about the story itself.
Some Non-fiction:
Intimate details throughout a re-counting of the Black Dahlia tragedy set within yet far longer than the fiction story surrounding it.
An Adaptation:
M. Zulli "joins the rarefied ranks of those who have successfully translated the current master of British weird fiction into the comics medium" with "Again" by Ramsey Campbell.
Why didn't Howarth name his contribution "BabIES on Fire" instead of using the singular version?
For this anthology I recommend taking the time to read the 1-1.5 "lead-ins" even though it's very annoying to have an introduction for EVERY chapter.
-I read introductions even though I often regret the time spent but if they're about the book by someone other than an author/artist I've learned to save them for the end. Text before a book should only include a contributor helping the reader better understand what they are about to read or someone else framing the work within a context- but NOT talking about the story itself.
Some Non-fiction:
Intimate details throughout a re-counting of the Black Dahlia tragedy set within yet far longer than the fiction story surrounding it.
An Adaptation:
M. Zulli "joins the rarefied ranks of those who have successfully translated the current master of British weird fiction into the comics medium" with "Again" by Ramsey Campbell.
Why didn't Howarth name his contribution "BabIES on Fire" instead of using the singular version?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews