Monstro

by Alan Moore, John Wagner, Alan Grant

Aos 12 anos, Kenneth Corman enterrou seu pai abusivo do lado de fora da velha e decrépita casa da família. A coisa que o matara estava lá dentro, espreitando na escuridão de um quarto trancado. Por toda sua jovem vida, Kenneth foi atormentado pela sensação de que havia algo horrível morando em sua casa de segredos. Mas ele tinha que saber o que estava lá. Tinha que saber o que matou seu pai. É hora de encarar o terror atrás da porta…
Cocriada por Alan Moore (Watchmen) e Heinzl (Doomlord), com história adicional por John Wagner (Juiz Dredd), Alan Grant (Batman) e Jesus Redondo (Return to Armageddon), esta história de dar medo das páginas da Scream! é reunida aqui em sua totalidade pela primeira vez!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Adventure, Comic Book

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Alan Moore is an English writer most famous for his influential work in comics, including the acclaimed graphic novels Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell. He has also written a novel, Voice of the Fire, and performs "workings" (one-off performance art/spoken word pieces) with The Moon and Serpent Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels, some of which have been released on CD.

As a comics writer, Moore is notable for being one of the first writers to apply literary and formalist sensibilities to the mainstream of the medium. As well as including challenging subject matter and adult themes, he brings a wide range of influences to his work, from the literary–authors such as William S. Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, Robert Anton Wilson and Iain Sinclair; New Wave science fiction writers such as Michael Moorcock; horror writers such as Clive Barker; to the cinematic–filmmakers such as Nicolas Roeg. Influences within comics include Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby and Bryan Talbot.

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace]

This was surprisingly good, but also quite sad. A young boy finds out his uncle was born a monster and had been kept in the attic for 30 years, cut off from all human contact. Then things start happening and soon the boy and his uncle are on the run. I was surprised to see this have what I consider a happy ending.

This was basically a cross between OF MICE AND MEN and FRANKENSTEIN. The art was nice as well.

If you're looking for a monster story that's a little different this is worth a read.

[Alex Sarll]

Begun by Alan Moore*, then continued by Grant & Wagner in their eighties pomp with art by Jesus Redondo…you can see why this has a reputation as a lost gem. Or at least, you can until you try reading the bastard. Riffing on Frankenstein (though more the movie archetype than Mary Shelley’s original) and the TV Incredible Hulk, it consists of a progressively more implausible and repetitive series of scenarios by which Kenny Corman’s monstrous, abused, yet simple-minded and good-hearted Uncle Terry can be provoked into flipping out and causing death and destruction, thus inspiring yet another manhunt, another escape by crawling into the back of a lorry (this seems to be the one time when Terry becomes suddenly capable of stealth), another escape to another location which Redondo will render well despite clearly wishing he were drawing something exotic instead of a Scottish quay or a motorway services. At one stage, it’s painfully close to a scene where Terry literally jumped the shark – and indeed, those three words do subsequently appear in order when Kenny gets the news.

*And an artist called Heinzl, whose name I don’t recognise except to find it uncomfortably reminiscent of Fritzl.

[Mihai]

The only reason I bought this book was because it had Alan Moore name on it. To my surprise though, Alan wrote only 4 pages out of about 200, as he moved over to other projects and Monster was continued by a different team.

The cover doesn't put out this small detail and Alan's name is written so that it cannot be missed. It goes without saying that the publisher kinda scammed the fans with this presentation, giving the false impression that Mr.Moore is the only author here.

As for the story itself, it's very simple and childish, eons away from the quality material Alan Moore delivered on his classics.

[Allegra Byron]

Una historia empezada por Alan Moore, que sólo hizo las cuatro primeras páginas.

[Norman]

When a weekly episodic comic strip from years gone by appears bound together in one volume, one wonders about the nature of the beast changing. BUT in this case it works well and reads very well. The initial Jane Eyre type premise of an Uncle locked in the attic is so familiar, how could a strip titled just "Monster" appeal to me, but it does.
The story moves too quickly in my opinion from the house where Terry, the monster, has lived to being on the run. I'd have liked to see the initial explorations by the 'monster' outlined more - the feel of wind on his skin; the vividness of colour after being locked up in a dark room; the noises no longer muffled. But the authors of this series take us on a journey of pursuer and pursued all the way to Australia. Bit far-fetched but it works.
The three full text non-comic stories at the back, taken from Holiday Specials and Annuals are OK
The artwork throughout is worth a mention as the restoration has been done very well and the scratchy penwork at first I wondered whether I might not like it, soon grew on me at the service of the story.

[Edmund Bloxam]

I was pleasantly surprised how 'adult-friendly' this tale is. There is plenty of sympathy to be had for Terry - in fact, that is the predominant take-away I got from the experience. And he stays firmly in the limelight. The young character, an obvious cipher for the teenage boy reader, is a sidekick who shows no special ability beyond not being a total asshole, like most of the adults who come across the 'monster'.

I have mixed feelings about the prose short stories that ended this volume. The graphic ending finished on a near-perfect note. But I sometimes have a curiosity of what comes after the curtain falls and, apart from the occasional off-pitch moments where Terry seems to actually enjoy becoming enraged and violent, which is out out of character in the graphic portion, the depiction of life with Digger mostly hits the right notes.

[Andrew Nolan]

When I was 10 years old Scream was my favourite comic for its brief four month run.

This collection definitely does not fare well and reading it several decades later it feels more like one of the ripping yarns that were from an earlier generation of strips that still occasionally made it in to comics in the 80s than a horror classic.

The ripping yarn genre felt horribly irrelevant and out of date by the time I was reading comics (think the strips that Black Bag in Viz parodied so well, I can’t remember any of their names) and Monster’s addition of lots of murder by a man with a profound developmental disorder doesn’t really elevate this one out of the “irritating and unrelatable 12 year old protagonist goes on a big journey” category.

[Stratospherus]

Frankenstein meets The Road meets A Perfect World (the movie with Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner). The story itself wasn't particularly interesting. At times it was predictable, and I read it simply to twiddle time. Oh, and the ending is done on a pretty unsatisfactory note, but however continuing the story of Terry Corman in a serie of prose vignettes, which I guess it shows you about the expectations of the series.

Oh, and also, don't get fooled by Alan Moore's name on the cover. Moore only wrote introductory story, the rest is filled by John Wagner (who at some point took writing duties alone) and his partner Alan Grant. Cannot say that Monster belies the reputation of these gentlemen.

[Wilfred Matthews Duggan]

Probably the oldest comic I've read, a fun story from the 1980s with obvious Frankenstein influences. Monster tells the story of Kenny Cormac who lives with his abusive father until he discovers his uncle in the attic. Poor Terry Corman who was born deformed and dimwitted, has spent his entire life in the attic and not knowing his own monstrous strength, slays Kenny's father. The story unfolds from there as Kenny takes pity on his monstrous uncle and tries to look after him as they go on the run. This graphic novel also contains three prose stories set after the comic's initial run. The morality of the tale is interesting in that Terry does end up getting away with multiple murders.

[Romano]

Monster es una historia sobre ¿el valor de la amistad?,¿el valor del interior de las personas?, no tengo idea, ¿Cuál es la lección? No tengo idea, ¿vale la pena leerlo? No tengo idea.

A grandes rasgos Monster narra las constantes desventuras de Terry, un hombre violento y desafortunado que se ve ¿obligado? a matar para ¿sobrevivir?. El relato es sumamente repetitivo, la trama avanza tan lentamente que siento que envejecí 15 años durante la lectura, pero el final es tan manipulador, cursi y adecuado que es capaz de rescatar al relato.

[Timo]

A bit questionable to put Moore's name on the cover and first. He only did first four pages of this. The rest 200+ is by Grant/Wagner-team. But then again, the first four were also the most talkative and explaining the hell out of every panel. Typical Moore. The rest of the book was very nice and good. I like Redondo art. A bit repetitive here and there a bit childish there and here but still good fun.

[Bernard Convert]

En fait Alan Moore n'a écrit que le prologue, l'essentiel est d'Alan Grant et de John Wagner et c'est tout aussi bien. Et Jesus Redondo est un grand dessinateur.

[Juan Fuentes]

2,5 en realidad

Historia de terror/aventuras bastante repetitiva.

[Mark L]

Classic

[Tarn Richardson]

Great fun, even if it is utterly ridiculous. Only the brilliantly warped minds of Alan Moore and John Wagner could come up with a plot involving a hideously deformed, but immensely strong, man who lives in the attic and who is saved by his young nephew, together fleeing across the UK, and beyond, killing everyone and thing they meet.

It's for kids, but it's so deliciously horrible at times and so brazenly violent, that it brings back warm and fuzzy memories of what it was like being a kid growing up in the 1980s.

[Variaciones Enrojo]

Inminente recopilatorio de una obra ochentosa de Moore y Wagner

[Bryan]

If you're considering picking this up because Alan Moore's name is on the cover, be aware that he wrote literally only about 10 pages of this. The rest of the book is basically an 8-page EC horror story stretched out for 200 pages.