A young boy puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. The police don't care - not about his death or the death of his best friend two months earlier. The dead boy's mom seeks help from an old flame that's employed as a detective. What she doesn't know is that he suffers from a physical deformity that manifests at midlife. Will the detective's freakish appearance get in the way of uncovering the terrible secrets of these two teenagers? This collection features additional art by Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Ryan Sook, and Tonci Zonjic.
John Arcudi has made a name for himself by scripting comics that manage to combine long-running subplots with impeccable characterization and action sequences, making for some of the most exciting and consistently good comics out today.
i may have enjoyed this more if i hadn't read it on the computer screen. there is something about graphic novels that demands a tactile appreciation. a holding onto and turning of pages, a scrutiny of the art and the shading of a line, even to an art-moron like me, who doesn't know a chiaroscuro from an achromatic. (okay, i do, but is just example)
i have learned that reading it on a computer, squinting as the zoom-in feature causes the words to get a little blurred-together, is just not as immersive an experience as reading a book-in-hand.
and i didn't even realize that our detective-hero had acromegaly until so many characters were responding to his appearance. i thought he just had an exaggerated noir-head.
so that's my review of the experience of graphic-novel-on-ereader.
onto the book itself.
oxel karnhus is a sad and lonely private eye who left his job at aetna to strike out on his own once his disease began to seriously hit him, with its migraines and fatigue. he hunkers down to live the rest of his life with the small comforts of alcohol and prostitutes and braves the taunts of hooligans and the stares of children on a daily basis.
one day, he receives a letter from his old college flame telling him her teenage son has just killed himself, on the heels of his best friend doing the same. the local police do not see a mystery here, but a mother knows. and she wants oxel to figure out what really happened.
the answer is not one i saw coming, so it gets points for that. there are plenty of red herrings, and some pretty bleak commentaries on mental and physical disorders and the way we remember people in our minds vs. the reality and the ravages of time.
i loved the cover art - it has that haunting air that made me think this was going to be a supernatural tale in some way, plus arcudi's track record suggested this would be the case. but no. it is just a straight-up detective story with a starkly realistic and depressing tone throughout.
so for noir-fans who like their graphic novels on the dark side, i would just say, wait until it comes out as something you can hold and appreciate, because i think it will be better that way.
Promising premise aside, the story is muddled and, frankly, not as interesting as first indicated. It's simply NOT one of the better graphic novels I have read of late. (Plus, what's the deal with the protagonist's disfigurement? It does NOTHING for the "meh" plot.)
A private detective of freakish appearance, his grieving old flame who has lost her son to suicide, the mysteriously related suicide of the son's best friend, an estranged car-dealing father, a mentally disturbed grandfather... Arcudi and Case deliver a character-driven, brooding, stylish noir that takes the genre's outsider theme to the extreme. Bottom line: not as splashy as something like Miller's Sin City, but with its own charm.
Me ha gustado mucho este cómic. Me esperaba una historia de terror, por el título y la portada. Y he acertado, además de las que me gustan a mí. Es sangrienta y tiene unas escenas muy buenas. El argumento atrae desde el principio, al menos a mí, porque desde que empiezas a leer estás intentando averiguar qué será lo que ha pasado... Se te ocurren las cosas habituales pero, desde luego, no creo que a nadie (o a casi nadie) se le ocurra lo que realmente pasó.
Me sorprendió y por eso me gustó. El final es duro y las imágenes que lo representan no se saltan un detalle.
Este cómic, además, trae al final distintas portadas que diseñaron diferentes dibujantes y también bocetos y explicaciones (es una miniserie de 5 cómics, pero este que pongo es la historia en un solo tomo). Eso me suele gustar, está bien ver cómo avanzó la cosa y cómo podía haber sido.
Lo único que no entiendo es a qué viene lo de la acromegalia del protagonista. No sé, no es que aporte mucho, o es que tiene una trascendencia que yo no he logrado ver.
Lo recomiendo al que le gusten los cómics negros, policíacos, de terror, intriga o misterio. Es corto y se lee en un ratito, así que no puedo contar mucho más sin desvelar la trama.
I was not familiar with Jonathan Case. But something caught my eye on The Creep. Well, the art is OK, it's something that leaves you without any stronger feeling, a good or bad one. The story is somehow OK too. This guy with disability (over-growth deformity) becomes a private detective. One day his old high school love (who more or less friend-zoned him back there) wrote him a letter and eventually guilt-trip him into investigating her son's suicide. There are not many clues for the almost entire book and we only watch Oxel, the private detective, to struggle with himself. His pain, anxiety, dull life. So if I would be reading this by issues, I would drop it with first or second issue tops. But here it is, the whole thing. Luckily, it's not super talkative, and it read quickly and eventually, there could be some satisfaction. Soft spoiler ahead: I would dismiss this ass dull existential depressing mediocre story. But there is that thing, which turns your reading experience around instantly. And I liked that. Except for boredom and loathing, I can appreciate when book or comics can stir my emotions. So there are few extra points to The Creep for that.
Solide gezeichnet und erzählt, musste ich THE CREEP in einem Rutsch durchlesen. Es ist die melancholische Story eines an Akromegalie erkrankten erfolglosen Privatdetektivs, der einen Auftrag annimmt, den er bessser abgelehnt hätte: Nach 20 Jahren schreibt ihm seine große Schulliebe, nicht weil sie nun geschieden ist, sondern weil sich ihr Sohn Curtis das Leben genommen hat. Unter Teenagern ist die Suizidrate skandalös hoch, doch in diesem Fall könnte es andere Ursachen für den Freitod geben, denn Curtis Freund hat sich zwei Monate zuvor das Leben genommen. Was hinter den Suiziden steckt ist eine schreckliche Geschichte, die John Arcudi langsam und empathisch erzählt. Bis kurz vor Schluß habe ich mich gefragt, was geschehen sein könnte, und dass die Auflösung schließlich nicht an den Haaren hebeigezogen ist, hat mir besonders gut gefallen. Eine düstere, zuweilen vielleicht etwas pathetisch erzählte Geschichte, die mir gut gefallen hat und die darauf wartet, verfilmt zu werden.
Here's a book that could've had a better title. My associations with a title like 'The Creep' have little to do with what this actually is - a mystery regarding a double suicide.
The characters and story are nicely grounded - our main character is an appealing private eye who suffers from a hormonal disease that causes his facial features to be exaggerated, which makes him an automatic outsider.
The mystery seems to go down an obvious route, but then takes a sharp, surprising and quite gruesome turn.
Really enjoyed this. I don't read a lot of graphic novels - very few in fact - but this was very well crafted. I wasn't expecting such a well rounded story from this medium and the climax is actually quite tragic. The characters are engaging and the artwork is beautiful. Highly recommended
A subtle mystery with lots of really nice touches. Pay attention to art styles as the protagonist envisions who he's speaking to. Isn't your typical whodunit where there's a singular villain, speaking to a more real-world, complicated array of events that leads to tragedy. Loved the way they illustrated "first person limited," where sometimes how a person or scene looks is not necessarily how they actually look. An exceptional morsel that I enjoyed greatly.
Here I go again, reviewing yet another graphic novel. Yup. I'm a fan. And while I do like a lot of different comics, I am an especially huge Dark Horse fan! How can I not be?! The comics hold a certain dark mystery, and The Creep is no exception.
I have to start out with our protagonist, Oxel Karnh, as he is not your typical detective. (I apologize if I'm getting the last name wrong here. It isn't used often in the story, and I only had a digital copy. The quality degrades when I try to zoom in and read it) I object a little to the synopsis describing him as having a "freakish appearance". He suffers from acromegaly, which is an excess of growth hormone. There are many manifestations of the deformity, but in this case, Oxel is large, and his face and hands are a different proportion than most people would be used to. Hardly what I would call "freakish", though Oxel's self esteem has clearly been affected by the public's treatment of him. Despite all of this, or maybe because of it, he has become a great detective.
The plot is obviously dark, as Oxel investigates a suicide, with no apparent motive. Oxel gets a letter from an ex-girlfriend, beside herself with grief at the loss of her son. She has nowhere else to turn, since the police don't think it warrants investigation. Oxel, however, decides to help. While the dialogue, itself, is solid, the plot contains a few holes. On the plus side, I wasn't aware of them at all while reading. I was completely drawn into the story, and it wasn't until afterwards that I started to question how the story was built.
The artwork is where I truly felt pulled forward. Jonathan Case presents some fabulous work, but there are also the individual issue covers by guest artists. First off, Case's work is pretty standard on the most part. What got me were the past scenes, where the drawings felt more sketched. Here is where the true artistry was displayed. Although the lines were less defined, I felt like there was a clear emotion being conveyed.
For the graphic novel aficionado, this volume contains a series of artwork at the back. I only wish I had my hands on a hard copy, so that I could bask in their glory. As it was, I am thankful to Netgalley for providing me with the digital copy. Certainly better than having to wait until the release date in May!
"The Creep" on the cover appears to be a typical monster mystery. Someone...or something, has caused two boys, best friends, to kill themselves a month apart. The police...don't care or connect that the deaths might be related. Why would they when they have enough other things to worry about? But the mother of one of the boys wants answers. Why did he kill himself? She calls on an old flame that is now a private detective and he finds that the monster that he's looking for...might be the worst one of all.
Arcudi weaves a powerful story together one that will lead the reader to an unexpected ending. When I started the book I thought I was looking at a typical monster mystery, that something dark and gruesome demon would have caused the death, I mean Arcudi writes for Hellboy why wouldn't he continue it? But it's clear that he's learned lessons from Hellboy and instead of giving us a typical monster, introduces our worst fears and leaving us hanging on the edge of our seats. The artwork in these issues are fantastic, with just the great character designs, and even better color choices that let the reader feel the darkness creeping in.
If you like horror/mystery then you'll def. want to pick this book up. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
"The Creep" by John Arcudi manages to combine various elements that elevate what could be a typical story regularly churned out on television shows into something that is succinct and poetic: its noirish quality adds that dark menacing tone to a tragic story, which makes for a rather depressing tale, but whose sympathetic and quiet main character, who is suffering from a physical deformity, makes the experience of reading this surprisingly and thankfully not fully unpleasant, expected from its depressing sensibilities; instead, it is more of a painful melancholic unraveling. It is a short read, but its brevity makes it more haunting and sorrowful. One of the best stand-alone graphic novels I have read. Highly recommended, specifically during fall, when the season's inexplicably bittersweet ruffles of the falling leaves correspond to the tale's pervading autumnal sadness.
A private detective who suffers from an illness that causes physical deformity from mid-life sets out on a case to investigate the suicides of two friends, one of which is the son of his old flame.
The Creep is predominantly about appearances, and how appearances can deceive. It is a very human story, revealing aspects of its characters slowly, through the detail, rather than presenting a thundering, action packed narrative. It is, in short, evidence of what graphic novels do best: using art and narrative to reveal something of ourselves through the lives of others. It’s a graphic novel for those who love good storytelling, managing a select small number of characters well, holding back and revealing key information with skill. Highly recommended.
Picked it up on a whim based on the cover art alone because I very much believe that you CAN judge a book by its cover.
This was a quick, and good, read! The art was straightforward and complemented the story well, and the story itself kept unfolding to spread new light on its small cast, which I appreciated. Arcudi did a good job injecting humanity into his characters.
It fell back on cliches of the Private Detective genre a bit for the setup, but I enjoyed our flawed protagonist's backstory so much that I was able to forgive it.
There's actually two different books called "the creep" written by John Arcudi one from 1990 and one from 2012. I almost reviewed the 2012 one by accident. Damn comics always making things 10x more complicated than they need to be anyway this was really enjoyable. It super duper short you can finish it in probably 20 minutes but it packs quite a lot into that. Four separate short stories. I enjoyed the two later stories, they had genuine pathos rather than just plot and the art is absolutely fantastic. Definitely worth it for any noir fans.
Two young boys kill themselves months apart. Nobody seems to care, so the boy’s Mom calls in the help from a deformed detective. Atmospheric reading, a noir graphic novel where tragedy meets mystery and suspense, and one of the most intriguing casts of characters I’ve read about in a while. A definite recommendation for fans of horror / mystery.
The first chapter of “The Creep” made its debut in the pages of “Dark Horse Presents,” which is where I was stumbled across it. I read the first eight-page installment, and then stopped. Even at that early stage, I realized it was something I would enjoy so much more as complete book. So I set it aside and waited for the trade.
I’m glad that I did. The wait between installments, from the first in April 2012 to the last in December, probably would’ve killed me otherwise. This is a spectacular book, one of the finest I’ve had the pleasure to read.
The story follows Oxel Karnhus, a private detective. Oxel has a rare condition known as acromegaly, a disease that causes excess growth hormone, disfiguring the face and extremities. The most famous case of acromegaly was 1930s and 40s Hollywood monster man, Rondo Hatton, known for playing a character called the Creeper, which is where this book gets its title from. Acromegaly does not play a major role in the plot though. This isn’t a story about acromegaly, but rather a story about a character that just happens to have acromegaly. That’s not to say the disease could easily be stripped away from this book altogether either. It is in fact tied deeply to the core theme of perception versus reality in this book, a constant physical reminder that things are not always as they seem.
Most of the best comics find a way to tell the story that is unique to the medium. “The Creep” has artist Jonathan Case employ two distinct art styles, one for literal reality, the other for a constructed reality, whether it be a memory, a dream, the visions of the mentally ill, or an imagined reconstruction of past events. The mechanics of these dual styles are explained very early on when Oxel receives a letter from his high school sweetheart, Stephanie. He applies what he already knows about Stephanie, then adds and subtracts elements as he learns more from the letter, such as when he learns she’s divorced, she takes her wedding ring off her finger. Right away the reader learns that this stuff is subjective, that it’s about what the mind’s eye sees.
I found this was a great way to visualize Oxel putting the puzzle together as he replays different versions of the same scenes. It really got me engaged in his process, but also showed him repeatedly hitting walls. There was a great moment when he was looking through the sketchbook of a dead boy, and Oxel is thinking, “What was he really thinking about? Is that here? Can I see that?” And of course he can’t. This book is full of characters trying to put themself in someone else’s shoes, but for all their trying, they come up short. This disconnect is beautifully handled.
I should mention Jonathan Case. His work on this book is beautiful. He redesigned Oxel for this story, as the previous version from the early nineties was very much a caricature of Rondo Hatton. Oxel’s design in Case’s hands is appropriately monstrous without crossing the line and becoming a monster. Case has a sensitive approach to the character, with a focus on making him relatable, and great care has been taken with Oxel’s eyes. I read this book much slower than I normally would. Something about the combination of Case’s art with John Arcudi’s script demanded that I linger a little on each page. I enjoy an artist that understands body language, and Case really gets this. The way a person stands says so much about the scene, or in the case of the constructed reality sequences, it says so much about the person who is doing the imagining.
John Arcudi blew me away with this book. He took on the difficult topic of suicide, and he handled in such an honest way. He isn’t interested in judgment, or solving the issue at all. This isn’t an after school special. Each of the characters Oxel interviews in the course of his investigations has been touched by suicide and is coping (or not coping) in their own way. Each of the major characters in this book are all motivated by the same thing, a need for catharsis, especially Oxel. He resists it, but that need is what propels the book forward. It is a melancholy book, but I wouldn’t call it bleak. I found the reading experience to be meditative and cathartic.
As for the trade itself, it’s a digest-sized, hardcover. I hadn’t noticed the smaller pages until after I finished it, and I don’t think it in any way harms the presentation of the work. The volume features a nine-page sketchbook in the back with notes by John Arcudi and Jonathan Case with a focus on the various covers for the single issues. The last two pages present various takes to a single chilling panel from the final chapter, which I found to be incredibly cool. I wish a few more pages had been spared for material like this, but that’s a very minor quibble.
This book isn’t going to be for everyone, I know that. It’s moody and sombre, and firmly rooted in the real world. However, I absolutely loved it. I think this is one of the best things John Arcudi’s ever written, and in Jonathan Case he found the perfect artist to compliment the story he wanted to tell. I cannot recommend this enough. “The Creep” is a beautiful book, one that has found a place of particular pride on my bookshelf.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The Creep is one of John Arcudi's projects outside of the Hellboy universe and BPRD with Mike Mignola. In this book, he teams up with Jonathan Case for a mystery tale following detective, Oxel, as he searches for an answer for why an old flame's son and his friend died in tragic circumstances. Complicating matters is that Oxel has acromegaly, which pronounces more extreme facial features, making all bystanders trepidatious around him. In the end, he finds out answers but they're more horrific than anyone first thought.
I came to Arcudi's writing from BPRD and Rumble as a fan already. People reading this comic and expecting a supernatural setting will instead find a noir pulp detective story. Arcudi isn't pushing too many boundaries in the book, but he's damn good at presenting a mystery that will leave you guessing until the end.
Case is tasked with creating two art styles for the past and present with a frenetic sense of motion and grace in the brush strokes and pencil lines. He works masterfully in line with Arcudi's script and experiments a bit. His colors are subtle yet highlight key parts of the story while further separating past from present. He manages to look like two artists in perfect sync as one person with the different time periods.
Check this book out if you're an Arcudi fan. It's not necessary reading, but it's a good story done by a great author. Prepare for the cock of a gun as this story descends into terror that only man can create.
Oxel is a private investigator who receives a letter in the mail from an old college sweetheart. Her son has committed suicide six months after his friend has and she wants to know why. Oxel suffers from Acromegaly and looks like, well, a creep. His investigation leads him to Stephanie (his old flame)'s father, Jeff, who is a homeless man out of sorts with reality. Jeff's meeting with Oxel snaps him back into the real world for a bit. There's something that he must do, a secret that must remain a secret. That secret is...ah, but that would be telling, and that's something that I seldom do in this blog.
The Creep takes place in the early '80s, although I'm not sure why. Aside from a few “set pieces” (rotary phones, old cars, walkie talkies) there isn't a whole lot that couldn't have not occurred today. That very minor concern aside, John Arcudi has written a rock solid suspense story. Jonathan Case's artwork is equally effective, moody and clearly laid out.
I know that the seemingly endless parade of new titles on the racks can seem overwhelming, but if you are sick and tired of reboots, “New” this and “Now” that then don't give up on comics altogether; try something new. Something like The Creep.
This is one of the “Graphic Novel” sized books, meaning that it is smaller than a standard trade paperback but larger than a digest.
A tight, engaging little mystery that does everything it set out to do in five beautifully rendered chapters.
Mild spoilers ahead, but nothing major:
It's tough not to root for Oxel Karnhus, a 1980s Manhattan private eye who suffers from acromegaly. There's so much humanity (and humility) in this character. Although this story wraps up in a really satisfying way, I'd love to see where Oxel goes next. I think it'd be interesting to see how he fares as a P.I. while his illness gets worse and worse, grinding down his body and distorting his mind further than we saw here, perhaps culminating in one final "Old Man Oxel" style mystery. Additionally, although I like where this story ends, there's some emotional fallout from the case we're left to imagine which I would like to see the effects of firsthand.
But not everything needs to be a series, and this is a really cool and unique standalone story. I had read this in my teens, and revisited this week to see if it still held up; it does! The case has twists and turns, the supporting cast are all nuanced and fully realized characters, and the art is gorgeous, appropriate, and thoughtful.
I had higher hopes for this one. Maybe that was the problem? Aside from (to its credit) a fairly shocking ending, I wasn't getting a ton of "feels" out of this one. The main character is supposed to have a rare disease that bloats his features or thereabouts, but he just looks like Dick Tracy if he played linebacker. There's nothing particularly out of sorts with his physical appearance in this artwork. As a result there was a notable disconnect for me when other characters commented on how he looked. This is strange given that Arcudi claims the artist nailed it..
The story has some mystery to it, but was never gripping. I didn't get all the sweeping emotions that were quoted on the back cover. A pretty ho-hum private detective story with a bit of a surprise near the end and okay emotion on the part of the characters.
Nice little suspense story. The ending had me baffled, in a good way of course.
Problem is, the protagonist feels very trope-y. Troubled relationship? Check. Addiction problem? Check. Problems with decision making? Check check check. Oxel is practically a copy & paste of modern fictional crime investigators. Any attempt to make him special/stand-out adds more to this problem.
Another glaring problem is the unnecessary focus on smaller characters. Laura & Stephanie, both got significant screentime but serves little to the plot. On the other hand, we barely knew anything about Curtis & Mike till the final chapter.
This is an EXCEPTIONAL noir! Probably the best noir comic I've read thus far, evocative of the kind of really good noir detective movies that I eat. It makes you think of an alternate reality where Rondo Hatton got to play detective characters instead of thugs. The drama is superb, and the mystery itself keeps you guessing and puzzling right up to the revelation at the end. Makes me sad that this came out over ten years ago and there hasn't been any sort of followup, I would EAT UP a regular monthly comic of this.
A PI with acromegaly does the whole mean streets/man who is not mean bit in pre-clean-up New York. The cases are inconsequential – though by the last and shortest stories, vignettes of a lost dog and a lost love, you can see that becoming a virtue, if only it had had more time to blossom. Certainly the attempts at snappy noir dialogue in the earlier stories don't suggest that was a strength of Arcudi's. But the Eaglesham art is so convincing you can almost smell it, and I'm wondering if, this tragedy repeated as farce, The Creep might have been an influence on The Goon.
This aptly named book was very creepy. The hero is the best part: he has acromegaly, which complicates his life. He investigates the suicides of two boys, a fascinating tale that involves a crazy homeless grandfather, a smarmy used car salesman father, and two grieving mothers: one who wants to know the truth, and the other who wants nothing to do with it. It packs a lot into a short story. Well done.
I liked the story and the plot development, although I felt like they left a couple of the threads hanging with no resolution. The mystery itself was really good, I didn't see the resolution coming. As for the art, overall I liked it, but the main character was apparently supposed to have a physical deformity, but I didn't even realize there was anything wrong with his appearance until the other characters started commenting on it so it kind of took me out of the story. 3,5
A quick graphic novel noir about a private eye with acromegaly (where the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone) who gets drawn into the case of a young man's suicide by the boy's mother, who once upon a time was the private eye's college sweetheart. Given its brevity, it's not too complicated, although I had not guessed the solution to the mystery. It hits the right noir tone and is a good read if you're looking for something quick and moody.
This is not what I thought it was going to be. It's a very different type of horror. It's a grounded, human horror story. This story touches on very real themes of mental illness, guilt, loss, and trauma. I highly recommend it, but be prepared to have the wind knocked out of you. The emotional weight this story carries is real.
Ha estado entretenido y está bien haber descubierto que existe una enfermedad llamada "acromegalia". Pensaba que, con el título, se iba a explotar esto un poco más,pero ha sido un poco irrelevante. Entiendo que es una novela gráfica, pero el final ha sido tan rápido que te quedas un poco frío, un poco... bueno, pues eso era.