Flinch: Book One

Flinch #1

by Brian Azzarello, Joe R. Lansdale, William Messner-Loebs

It's the little things in life that matter most: tiny leak in the fuel line; the faint smell of decay that won't wash off; the way a knife blade catches the light. These are the things that stick with us, no matter how much we want to forget— the things that make us flinch. No one is more familiar with this unnerving territory than the twisted souls whose hallucinatory work is preserved between these covers— an unprecedented gathering of fever dreams and waking nightmares scraped directly from the darkest corners of the greatest minds in comics.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Anthologies, Fiction, Fantasy, Graphic Novels Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2015

About the author

Brian Azzarello (born in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American comic book writer. He came to prominence with 100 Bullets, published by DC Comics' mature-audience imprint Vertigo. He and Argentine artist Eduardo Risso, with whom Azzarello first worked on Jonny Double, won the 2001 Eisner Award for Best Serialized Story for 100 Bullets #15–18: "Hang Up on the Hang Low".

Azzarello has written for Batman ("Broken City", art by Risso; "Batman/Deathblow: After the Fire", art by Lee Bermejo, Tim Bradstreet, & Mick Gray) and Superman ("For Tomorrow", art by Jim Lee).

In 2005, Azzarello began a new creator-owned series, the western Loveless, with artist Marcelo Frusin.

As of 2007, Azzarello is married to fellow comic-book writer and illustrator Jill Thompson.

information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Az...

Reviews

[Amanja · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flinch is a horror anthology graphic novel by various authors and artists. When I picked it up I thought it would be about 4 stories, turns out it's dozens, but I made it exactly 4 before deciding to not finish this book. With any anthology you're going to have some that you just don't like as much as others but I feel that if i really dislike the first 4 it's not looking good for the rest of them. Here is a brief rundown of the ones I did read:

Rocket Man
Story, Richard Bruning Art, Jim Lee
A man wants to build a rocket suit so that he can fly, when trying it out he blows up his whole family instead. That's it, about 2 pages long.

Nice Neighborhood
Story, Jen Van Meter Art, Frank Quietly
A viagra like pill turns old men into savage rapists. Women fear for their lives and seem apparently helpless to save themselves in any way. Yeahhhh.... gross. Once again we see sexism work both ways. Women weak and fearful and men unable to control their baser urges.

Wolf Girl Eats
Story, Bruce Jones Art, Richard Corben
This one is offputting in both the story and art. It's drawn like a sepia toned School House Rock and a lot of the characters look more like ventriloquist dummies than humans. It's about a group of missionaries that comes to a small town to save them from hell. The discover a "wolf girl" trapped there who is basically just a naked woman in a pit. The priest cannot control (this again) his urge to rape her and his young disciple who may be romantically involved with him doesn't want him to give into sin so he tries to murder her. Then the town sticks the priest in a viewing stadium to be eaten by wild animals for their amusement.

Maggie and Her Microscope
Story, Dean Motter Art, Bill Sienkiewicz
I usually love Siekiewicz's art but here it looks like it was done on an etch a sketch. Maggie is a young girl who has been diagnosed with autism. Her father is some sort of germ scientist who takes his deadly work home with him. Maggie and her cat get exposed and also somehow create an antidote. Her nanny is an abusive harpie and her father is neglectful. Neither of them try to talk to her about anything ever and just want to send her away. A confusing story more than anything else.

I wouldn't recommend this book and I will not be continuing it.

for more reviews and content please visit my new blog amanjareads.com

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the level of creators involved, I expected a lot more. Most of these were boring or pointless. It wasn't so much horror in most cases, as just being mean spirited. The one story that did stick out to me was the one from Bill Willingham about a costume shop that rents out actual monsters.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mixed bag with mostly lame entries. Issue 3 stood out among the rest. I particularly loved ‘Satanic’ and ‘A Walk in The Park’ (both from issue 3). The former was creepy and funny at the same time (that punchline was hilarious). The latter had an awesome twist. I didn’t see that coming.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the old EC horror anthology comics, so I miss this type of comic in the marketplace.

While the stories were hit and miss, I thought there was much more good than bad. Some of the top creators in comics contributed to this anthology. The stories sometime overreach and try to accomplish more than they need to, but at least there's some ambition there.

I'm probably biased because of my love of horror comics, but overall I really enjoyed this one.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of course bought it for Azzarello and being open minded about a fucking horror anthology, but yeah, Azzarello's story and maybe one more story from someone else were good. The rest wasn't even decent. Stories throughout the book that were terrible. Some weren't even horror-like. Some weren't even stories. The artwork on half of these stories was terrible too.

So... yay for the awesome cover and making me give money on something that's bad.

NOT Recommended!

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with most anthology series, there is some good here and some real garbage. I'd say the best 4 or 5 stories here are awesome. Then there are probably about 6 or 7 awful stories. The rest are okay or better. Some big names are involved to varying effectiveness, which can also speak for the art. It's not bad but definitely didn't blow me away as a full collection. There are a lot of better sources to tap for horror comics.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some really great creators here, I just started flipping through each issue looking for art I liked or names I'm familiar with already. It's sort of EC comics for the late 90s. Most issues have 3 stories, none really do much - ~8 pages really isn't enough to tell a complete tale in this style (without the text heavy approach EC took).

Some cool stuff in the 16 issue run:

Issue 1 Wolf Girl Eats Bruce Jones by Richard Corben
Issue 2 cover by Richard Corben
Issue 6 Dead Woman Walking by Duncan Fegredo
Issue 11 Red Romance by Bruce Timm
Issue 14 Resolve by Bernie Wrightson

[Cale · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mean-spirited. That's the best term for this anthology series. Yes, horror comics are usually violent and feature lots of death, but they also usually serve as morality tales. Not so much, here. Random people are dying for no good reason in many cases, and very rarely do the stories make the journeys worthwhile. From a man trying to fulfill his dream of flying to a child whose anxiety about witches makes him susceptible, there are a lot of people who don't seem to deserve the ends they get here. As an anthology, quality always varies, but even the best stories here (Bill Willingham's monster rental service was my favorite) aren't particularly strong. Garth Ennis tells an alternate history Titanic which basically looks like the impetus behind Crossed. Jim wooring's 'The Toy' was nigh unintelligible and I don't get the point at all. A few stories were intended to be darkly comic and vaguely succeed, and the story about foot binding just disturbing (mainly because of its historical accuracy). some of the art is effective, and some is really weak. It's like finding costume jewelry in a garbage can - even the best doesn't really justify the time spent digging.

[Valéria. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was.. interesting. I can't even choose which one of those short stories was the best and which one was the worst. Okay, maybe I do not want to see Greg Rucka's Guts ever again. And I am not going to spend my time on longer review, because it is not worth it. Let's say I kind of regret now I bought it.

[Devon Munn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

While alot of the stories were ok there were some stories that were pretty creepy (one involving a boy with night terrors and some others i can't remember at tge moment) and there were some funny moments too.

[destiny ♡ howling libraries]

Meh. This started off as a mixed bag and gradually got less and less interesting.

[Nate]

Surprisingly mediocre, given the talent involved. This is a horror anthology series with three stories an issue. Out of the 24 stories only two or three are memorable. I liked the ones with dark humor, but they’re few and far between. If you were thinking of picking this up I suggest skipping right past it.

[Lucy Batson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent horror anthology from Vertigo. The best stories seem to be front-loaded in the first three issues, but still worth checking out.

[TrudyKJP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked some of the stories. A lot of dark and macbre... a lot of humor. Definitely not for everyone, but I enjoyed it very much. I love the short story format. Executed wonderfully.

[Ignacio Senao f · Rating 2 out of 5]

No es el clásico cómic de terror de los 80. Historias muy cortas y la mayoría modernas.

[Alex Sarll]

Flinch, 'the Vertigo horror anthology' – and who would have guessed back then that Vertigo itself would be dead and buried by now in an incident as gruesome as any here, slain with Batman's willy? Personally I'd call a lot of these brief shockers contes cruels rather than horror per se, but I suppose there was never a contes cruels comics scare, with covers on which Flinch could lovingly riff, so I'll allow the elision. Like any anthology comic, the quality is all over the place, although often it's noticeable that the American contributors don't have the training ground of 2000AD teaching them how to pull off something satisfying in eight pages or so. Here, on the other hand, Garth Ennis can only provide one joke which feels very stretched even at eight pages (despite being bolstered with some effective gore from Kieron Dwyer), whereas the highlights for me were stuff like Phil Hester's eerily beautiful yet surprisingly grounded story of the man who one night finds a seam on his sleeping wife's neck. Other contributors range from names I don't recognise at all to the likes of Quitely, Sienkiewicz, Hempel, and John Rozum, and the overall hit rate is high.

[Paulo Vinicius Figueiredo dos Santos · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flinch é uma obra muito complicada para se comentar a respeito. Claramente o objetivo dela era tentar replicar parte do legado deixado por revistas clássicas de terror como a Creepy e a Eerie. Foram lugares onde gênios como Richard Corben fizeram fama. O problema é que mesmo se tratando de um espaço como o selo Vertigo, da DC, há muitos complicadores para dar liberdade aos escritores. O resultado é uma revista caleidoscópica por demais com apenas algumas histórias mais memoráveis. E a maior parte das histórias são de figuras que já sabemos que vão entregar ótimas narrativas.

A edição da Panini é bem simples, em capa cartonada. Para uma revista tão alternativa como essa se tornar mais vendável, deveria ter algum material extra no final. Um material produzido por aqui que destacasse o legado das revistas de terror ou até falasse de caras como o Richard Corben ou o Joe R. Lansdale. É complicado jogar uma revista tão mix como essa nas bancas e esperar que ela se venda sozinha. Comprei porque era uma semana parada e acabei pegando por falta de opção. Salvo algumas histórias bem legais que eu vou comentar, é um mix completamente esquecível.

É óbvio que eu vou falar de Garota Lupina Devora com roteiros de Bruce Jones e a arte do incomparável Richard Corben. Acho que poucos artistas possuem uma mente tão deturpada para o terror como o Corben. Cada vez que eu leio algo dele sinto algo de clássico nas suas páginas. Ele consegue dar personalidade própria à sua arte. E o Bruce Jones tem um roteiro excelente aonde aproveitar a arte dele. A história se passa em um vilarejo afastado onde os locais mantém um circo de horrores. Um padre vai até lá para investigar alguns acontecimentos estranhos e ao adentrar no circo não fica lá muito impressionado com o que vê. Até que o dono do circo cisma para que o padre vá ver uma estranha garota que ele mantém trancada em uma espécie de anfiteatro. A garota é de uma beleza exótica e maravilhosa misturando uma parte lupina com uma voluptuosa ruiva que parece encantar o padre. A partir daí a história começa a dar uma guinada para o bizarro com o coroinha do padre fazendo uma revelação estarrecedora. Aqui temos todo o terror e o estranhamento típicos de boas histórias de terror. O trabalho com o lado obscuro do ser humano é inacreditável e tirando a ideia da garota lobo, a história é muito pé no chão. É realmente tudo o que tem de podre no coração humano.

Garth Ennis é um autor com a mente muito perturbada. Só pode ser. Só ele para conseguir criar algo tão bizarro a partir de Titanic. Satanic é uma clara paródia, com a arte do Kieron Dwyer e nos coloca diante de um grupo de satanistas que acabaram por ocasionar o naufrágio do famoso navio. Enquanto eles realizavam seus rituais macabros e suas orgias sem fim, algo dá errado que leva o navio a afundar. O autor reconta a história em moldes macabros e somente no final descobrimos por que disseram que o navio tinha fundado por causa de um iceberg. Tudo o que podemos esperar do famoso autor de Preacher está ali: personagens bizarros, narrativa com toques de ironia macabra e o humor negro tradicional dele. Um prato cheio.

Saímos do humor negro do Ennis para logo a seguir termos a narrativa poética do mestre Kent Williams. Ele nos coloca diante do desaparecimento de uma mulher e vai contando de trás para a frente o que realmente aconteceu. A arte dele tem um estilo bem peculiar e próprio que somente o Williams é capaz de entregar. Além disso, ele foi o responsável pelos roteiros. O Dom da Amizade faz a gente ter lampejos desse estilo de narrativa que eu li em Blood, publicado pelo Pipoca & Nanquim. Gosto de como o Kent transforma as páginas em aquarelas onde letras e desenhos se mesclam para formar algo com múltiplas interpretações. Será que a pessoa que vive ao nosso lado é tão inocente como achamos ser? E se ela foi a responsável por aquilo que nos destruiu completamente?

Impossível não falar de Parada, com roteiros de Devin Grayson e a arte do incrível Phil Jimenez. Ele nos coloca diante de um pai revoltado porque o filho o obriga a levá-lo em uma parada gay. O pai tenta fazer o filho desistir desta "vida". Logo logo percebemos que ele é um hipócrita e que já teve relacionamentos homossexuais. Mas, para agradar uma sociedade que exige outra postura dele, acabou enterrando sua opção sexual em um armário e fingindo ser quem ele não é. A narrativa é muito simbólica mostrando como essa couraça que ele criou vai se despedaçando pouco a pouco diante das pessoas com quem ele se envolveu. As hipocrisias vão se somando uma a uma até que o personagem é despido dela. O que sobra você vai conferir na narrativa. Uma ótima metáfora sobre o quanto buscamos agradar algo que nem sempre queremos. Trancar nosso verdadeiro eu dentro de um baú e trancar a chave.

Como podem ver, é até possível encontrar boas histórias no meio dessa coletânea. Mas, são muito poucas para todas as outras que você não é capaz de se empolgar. Das vinte e quatro histórias que tem nesse primeiro volume, eu gostei de umas 5 ou 6. É muito pouco. E a qualidade da arte é bem questionável em algumas delas. Para mim, não vale a pena eu indicar a menos que vocês sejam fãs de algum dos roteiristas ou artistas da coletânea e desejam de todas as formas ler o material aqui. No mais, passem longe.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very short stories that were too short to really develop into anything worth reading.

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where's the horror here anyway? The covers are cool, but entirely unrelated to anything in the stories. I was quite worried when I chose the book that it would be filled with blood and guts. Instead I got some comedy, some love triangles, some mild scares, but nothing riveting. I can't tell what they were thinking when they created this pile of short, unimpressive fiction. There are some gems in here, but they barely make it worthwhile to go through everything. If curiosity still gets you to pick up the volume, you can safely skip to stories from better-known writers.

The Rocketman is a regular Joe with an obession: to fly using a home-made jetpack. He will only get to fly in his head and his family will pay the price.

Rigora is a drug that has made the age gap violent again. Old people are taking control of the cities and assaulting everyone else. A group of teenagers are forced to fight for their survival and they have gotten to the breaking point when they push back.

A scientist is looking for a cure to an animal disease. He has an autistic daughter whose odd behavior will lead him to accidentaly discovering antitoxins to fight the disease, but the child will also succumb to even more asocial behavior in an attempt to not upset anyone.

A reverend intends to spread his faith to a godless town, but will in turn be manipulated to murder.

The girl who cuts up her boyfriend is mildly interesting and is the first story to feature some small trace of horror.

Azzarello's story is about two FBI agents on a stake-out. Add a love triangle and the world becomes suddenly small enough to justify murder.

The missing kids story finally broaches on the horror genre. The mind of a child is an active and susceptible one. But what happens when something that seems fully in the realm of fantasy becomes real?

The next story is downright gruesome. An old lady had a stroke that put her in wheelchair, unable to even speak. She gained some sort of psychic powers that she uses on her nurse to bloody effect.

Garth Ennis saves an issue with a different look on the Titanic disaster. The ending is hilarious. And 'no Celine Dion'.

A love triangle has the husband and the lover killing each other.

A guy summons Satan to sell his soul for a woman he loves. He will have to choose between the many devils wanting his soul. This was anything but horror. In fact, it earned the book another star.

A deserter ends up spending several days with a woman who embraces him as her husband. Her dark secret is revealed in her real husband's diary. He died at her hand and the deserter is not far from his own demise.

Another bucket of laughs follows the story of a necrophile who is into digging up the victims of a serial killer. He ends up run over by the killer who declares himself disgusted at the necrophile's behavior.

A Peeping Tom's fantasy twists his perception of reality. They say you go blind from his favourite hobby. The story just punishes him in a different, scarier way.

An executive from a chemical company develops a hightened sensitivity to the pollution in the air generated by the company he runs. He goes mad from the various smells he normally ignored being able to act in favor of the environmentalists that he so hated before.

Anger management for zombies... huh... Funny, though. Then it's a morbidly overweight boy and the parents who can't stand him any more. The next one has a guy attracted to his alien wife, but the story was rather plain and felt unfinished. Combining a gay pride whose participants are HIV positive with a guy-gone-straight who ends up in Egyptian-themed wrappings leaves another strange story behind. The story with the guy having an apparently drug-fueled trip is difficult to enjoy.

Willingham saves one of the issues with a funny story about a man who hires a monster to scare the people in a small town. He chooses the monster from a catalogue no less.

Greg Rucka finally shows us some real horror in the story of a serial killer who cuts up his victims and traumatizes several FBI agents during their investigation.

Being stalkex on the internet becomes traumatic for one unlucky guy whose life will be changed forever. The final page shows the stalker who is closer to the target that he thinks.

The Chinese tradition of footbinding was a painful affair. The story shows a mother who went through the process in her youth. She describes it to her daughter as a wonderful experience, though I was cringing throughout.

[Danijel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Advertized as legendary horror anthology that will get under your skin, and make us flinch with all those twisted stories from greatest comic authors. Ennis, Willingham, Azzarello, Risso, Corben, Sienkiewicz, those names really catch the eye. Thruth is that I don't like the short form much. Half of the stories are mediocre at the best... But he covers are really amazing - I must give them that!

Stories that really stand out are Risso's and Azzarello's "Food chain", Bruce Jones's "Playing dead", John Kuramoto's "The lotus shoes", and few others that I don't recall right now. But there are other shocking and twisted stories about evil, engaged in social citicism (environmental issues, obesity, homofobia, paranoia, jealousy), and so on. Stories are very different, there is no common theme, or genre, or author, but they are certainly all weird... ;)

[Erika Neves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coletânea de histórias de terror, desenhadas e roteirizadas por grandes artistas como Brian Azzarello, Kent Williams, Bill Willingham, Garth Ennis entre outros.
O ruim de todo material de coletâneas é a irregularidade e esse quadrinho não foge a regra. Temos aqui, histórias espetaculares, boas, medianas e outras simplesmente péssimas. Sendo que algumas são tão ruins que é até difícil de terminar de ler.
Outro problema é que são extremamente curtas e quando vc vai entrando no clima da história, ela acaba.
Mesmo assim eu gostei pq gosto muito de terror.
Por isso recomendo a quem tb é fã do gênero.

[Chuck · Rating 2 out of 5]

So disappointing! This seemed to just be an opportunity to showcase a bunch of different artists, but the stories were too short to be meaningful and many of them were very silly.
The cover art is cool though.



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[Ángela Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

✨Como cabe esperar en una antología deja sentimientos encontrados porque hay algunos relatos de horror que son muy buenos, con tramas originales, e ilustraciones que encandilan, sin embargo también hay algunos que flojean bastante o que pasan inadvertidos, un cómic entretenido para pasar el rato y bueno para los que se quieran iniciar en el terror ✨

Destaco tres relatos que me gustaron mucho

✨ El primero involucra el titanic y sectas
✨El segundo a una psicóloga de los muertos
✨ Y el tercero de dos psicópatas que en su locura logran encontrar el amor

[Uriel Morgenstern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una antología de horror de Vértigo suena genial pero el resultado es muy inconsistente, algunas historias son muy buenas como las del numero 3,7 y 8 pero la gran mayoría tiene muchos problemas para destacar en la mescla de sus aspectos, muchos resaltan por el arte y otros por el guion, otros solo por el giro final. En una compilación antológica suelen gustar unas historias mas que otras pero con el gran cast que tiene esta en especifico es bastante decepcionante que pocas de ellas lleguen a ser memorables.

[Davide Saladino · Rating 2 out of 5]

Raccolta di storie "horror" che di horror non hanno nulla.
Qualche storia è accettabile e piuttosto macabra, pochissime (2 o 3) potrebbero farvi "sussultare" ("Flinch", per l'appunto).
Per lo più sono storie che hanno qualche punto di contatto con la realtà, magari che narrano leggende o dei "sentito dire" qua e là.
Non è una lettura che consiglio, perché non lascia niente e ti ritrovi spesso a contare quante pagine rimangono alla fine.

[Harriet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part of my long efforts to thin out the long boxes and replace as much as I can with trades.

The traditional line with anthologies is that they are 'hit and miss', but I can't think of a single story in this entire series that's been a miss for me. They were all good, or really good. I'm so glad to have this lovely paperback version of this creepy, cool series. Can't wait to find volume 2.

[José Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Melhor que o 2° volume, mas ainda assim, uma coletânea irregular.
No entanto, foi inovadora à época em que suas histórias foram ordinariamente lançadas (1999), ao explirarr a narrativa de horror/terror em situações cotidianas e interações sociais que envolviam a nova tecnologia então ascendente - internet, reality shows, sistemas domésticos de vigilância etc.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds of the EC Comics somewhat. Way better than some of the horror anthologies done in film or tv. A good variety of horror, some relying on tropes while others verge more on the new horror. There are some with a sense of humour and the macabre while others rely on the uncanny.

A good mix. I will be reading the second volume shortly.

[Lauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peotäis kahe-kolmeleheküljelisi horrornovelle. Enamik paraku olid sellised, et meelde ei jäänud midagi, ja mingit teravat puänti kuskil ka väga meelde ei jäänud. Paar tükki ehk olid veidi keskmisest meeldejäävamad.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this collection. Not all of the stories were winners but there is a bunch of content here and the majority were entertaining. This is not the easiest medium for horror, so when even a handful of stories are really great, it makes the whole collection worth reading.