Taboo #2

Taboo #2

by Stephen R. Bissette (Editor)

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 second issue features work from Michael Zulli, Rick Grimes and S. Clay Wilson, as well as the first instalment of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Anthologies

144 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall I like the concept of this book more than the execution. Over 100 pages of B+W horror done by some of the industries top talent. But besides for Alan Moore's From Hell none of this feels particularly good.

Eddie Campbell - Pyjama Girl's

David Marshall - Encore
Cool little murder revenge story, the narrator's dead body comes back to life and haunts the robbers who killed him.

Elliott and Dilworth - Mad Eyes

Lucas and Perica-Uth - Sweet Nothings
Cool photo-stat drawings of Egyptology. Kind of a poetic failed romance poetic prose on top.

Smith and Hoffman - Wet

Rick Grimes - 4 stories

Tom marnick - Check-Out Time

Stephen R. Bissette - Saying Grace

Askwith and Taylor - Sharks

Cara Sherman-Tereno - Life with Vampire

S Clay Wislon - Black Pages
Tom Veitch in his intro to this entry says "he lays it out there on the page, the most violent and sadistic images ever to possess a human mind". Summarizes S Clay Wilson perfectly.

Bernie Mireault - Baby Our Love is Taboo

Michael Zulli - Mercy
Beautiful drawings

Richard Sala - Hate Mail
Typical Sala, kind of meandering story

Moore and Campbell - From Hell
First part, obviously great - but it's perennially in print so not really a good reason to pick up Taboo #2.

Paul Chadwick - Gut Reaction
just a drawing of Concrete

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darker and even more taboo than the first volume, this volume of the classic anthology series includes some work that broke not just taboos just more than a few molds. I can't believe it's been more than 20 years since I first read this and many of the images were still burned in my mind. There are a couple of weak stories in Taboo 2, but most are as strong today as they were when they were first published -- and most, with the exception of the first chapters of "From Hell," have never been reprinted. Seek it out.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second entry in Steve Bissette's seminal horror anthology includes talent like Eddie Campbell, David Marshall, Andrew Elliott, Ben Dilworth, Tim Lucas, Simonida Perica-Uth, James Robert Smith, Mike Hoffman, Rick Grimes, Tom Marnick, Mark Askwith, Rick Taylor, Cara Sherman-Tereno, S. Clay Wilson, Bernie Mireault, Michael Zulli, Richard Sala and Alan Moore.

Aside from this being the issue where Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's "From Hell" serialziation began, there were plenty of other great little horror gems throughout. I enjoyed David Marshall's story, "Encore", which plays out like a revenge thriller with some sensibilities reminscent of a Jaime Hernandez "Locas" story meets psychological thriller.

Tim Lucas and Simonida Perica-Uth deliver an engaging story called "Sweet Nothing" which depicts a mother's troubled connection with her husband and their resulting children. The prose is disturbing in the most quiet sense, evoking a sense of stress as to how each pregnancy is about to unfold. The story is told over unrelated images of Egyptian hieroglyphs and architecture, but this contrast only makes the story feel rather unearthly despite the rather underlying human story.

Cara Sherman-Tereno's story, "Life with a Vampire", is a captivating, homoerotic story featuring a vampire and his new muse. The story is signficantly longer than most (aside from the "From Hell" prologue) and has some tragic twists alongisde some intruiging lore. Quite impressed with this one.

And I also quite liked Richard Sala's short piece, since it delves further into the horror territory than any other comic I've read from him. Definitely a much more unique horror story overall.

Not every piece is a hit though, with the Rick Grimes stories being the ones that stood out as the least engaging to me. But that's the nature of anthologies, and Taboo does more right than it doesn't.

All this, and I haven't even talked about "From Hell"! I won't comment much on it here, instead after reading the prologue again, I'm much more motivated to do a full re-read of the book soon and give a full review there.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely cool horror stories, somehow managing to avoid smirking edginess. Some of them are 10 pages long and understandably do not manage to have a point.

I really liked the full page intro text for each story. Lots of inside baseball, as if I was a comics insider and needed to know about defunct Brit underground mags.

[Egghead · Rating 5 out of 5]

all deeply eighties
tales of fear and desire
delightful to me