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Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers!
ENTER THE THEATER OF TERROR!
Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers showcases a remarkable collection of talented LGBTQ cartoonists illustrating in vivid detail what keeps them up at night. The end result is a tome of shocking queer horror comics we dare you to read!
Featuring everything from a gay Frankenschwein made from pig parts to a lesbian Mermaid with a bone to pick, from a demonic Culture Vulture to a trans Werekat from 1930s Paris, from a Dyke Witch with a grudge to a Drag Race in Hell, these stories leap from the page and go for the throat! This book contains over 250 pages of all-original material from 35 cartoonists.
Hosted by the inimitable Peaches Christ in San Francisco's legendary Castro Theater, these terrifying tales of psychological horror, frightful camp, fearsome social commentary, and sexy monsters will leave you shaking in your boots for the inevitable REVENGE OF THE QUEERS!
Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers showcases a remarkable collection of talented LGBTQ cartoonists illustrating in vivid detail what keeps them up at night. The end result is a tome of shocking queer horror comics we dare you to read!
Featuring everything from a gay Frankenschwein made from pig parts to a lesbian Mermaid with a bone to pick, from a demonic Culture Vulture to a trans Werekat from 1930s Paris, from a Dyke Witch with a grudge to a Drag Race in Hell, these stories leap from the page and go for the throat! This book contains over 250 pages of all-original material from 35 cartoonists.
Hosted by the inimitable Peaches Christ in San Francisco's legendary Castro Theater, these terrifying tales of psychological horror, frightful camp, fearsome social commentary, and sexy monsters will leave you shaking in your boots for the inevitable REVENGE OF THE QUEERS!
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First published October 2, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 11, 2019
Backed this on Kickstarter and really love how it turned out! With several different writers and artists it has something for everyone and I thought the stories were really great and campy. There was only one that I didn't really like but that was more personal preference than anything actually being wrong with it. Would definitely recommend this to anyone who likes comics, LGBT characters, and horror.
April 25, 2020
Un volume spettacolare che sono felice di aver finanziato su Kickstarter. Il mio primo crowdfunding, e devo dire che sono molto soddisfatto. Alcune storie sono dei piccoli capolavori, altre un po’ meno interessanti, ma il volume nella sua interezza è un viaggio magico nel queer horror. Consigliatissimo.🏅
October 26, 2019
Well, that was something like! I really enjoyed most of these stories, and was thoroughly entertained by all of them. I didn't get all the drag queen jokes and references, but I never do. Those stories are a delicious little peak into a world of puns and fabulousness that will never be my own. I loved the combination of lesbian mermaid love and statistics re: violence against women, the retelling of the Minotaur mythology, and the whole Castro Theater setup. Usually when a collection tries to tie the stories together with an outside narrator it ends up being kind of lame and not worth the trouble. However, Peaches Christ really delivered. Even the movie poster mockups looked awesome and have me wishing for a second volume consisting of those titles.
It's not easy picking a favorite, so many excellent stories all in one place can be a little paralyzing, but I feel like Dead Named No More is the one I'll still be thinking about weeks from now. A bit sad but with a very satisfying ending, it's the only one I read twice in my hurry to devour them all. There is a great mix of stories within the horror genre--scary, gory, silly, campy for days--with a surprise appearance by one of my favorite artists, Maia Kobabe. Unfortunately e didn't write a story, but who am I to complain when e did at least draw one for us.
It's not easy picking a favorite, so many excellent stories all in one place can be a little paralyzing, but I feel like Dead Named No More is the one I'll still be thinking about weeks from now. A bit sad but with a very satisfying ending, it's the only one I read twice in my hurry to devour them all. There is a great mix of stories within the horror genre--scary, gory, silly, campy for days--with a surprise appearance by one of my favorite artists, Maia Kobabe. Unfortunately e didn't write a story, but who am I to complain when e did at least draw one for us.
January 3, 2020
Horror isn't my favorite genre, but there are some real standouts in the campy, horny, queer comic collection. I loved "The Burr Tree" by Geov Chouteau, a mysterious little fairy tale; I loved "Sanguine" by Emeric Kennard, a wordless story of a beautiful bat being driven insane by cursed mask; I was chilled by "The Shepard" by Justin Hall and Alegra Figeroid, an excellent vampire story; and I laughed at Justin Hall's ridiculously silly and delightful "Full Moon", which mixes up werewolves and sailor scouts in an only-in-San-Francisco way. (I also illustrated a short story for this collection, "Werekat", written by Rachel Pollack which I think turned out pretty good!)
September 1, 2020
2.5 stars but rounding up for the art. Also the queerness.
As with most compilations like this it's pretty hit or miss, and this just had more misses than hits. I think I would've enjoyed this more if I knew a thing at all about drag/drag humour. Alas, though it's always awesome to watch people so passionate about something they love, it's just not my thing, so my eyes would either glaze over or it all just went over my head. I liked the variety/execution of art styles, but a lot of the stories themselves just didn't do it for me.
Occasionally I found it a bit difficult to follow along; the story could make a jump from one panel to another and I had no idea how Point A got to Point B. That said, space was limited as all the stories had to be quite short, so a bit of a pass there. Loved the representation here though - gay, lesbian, binary trans, gender-non-conforming - and also got that intersectionality well taken care of with different ethnicities and ages as well as disability rep.
Some of my favourite stories: Frankenschwein. Gay male POC rescuing/falling in love with a lab experiment - uh, yeah, please and thank you. The art style was like vintage Batman comics and I loved that.
Closet Monster. That art and colouring though. Also I'd like to hug the scary demon bear. He looked cuddly.
Dead Name No More. God I wish this was somehow based on a true story. Tugged at my heartstrings big time. Ghost hunting show-like with a trans redemption twist. Perfect. I want an entire series of Lorelei the Trans Ghost Hunter.
Dyke Witch. Sapphic witch getting her comeuppance on bullies with the help of her demon soul-girlfriend while still having sympathy for one who's questioning her sexuality. It's as good as it's sound and again I want more. Loved the black & white & red colour scheme too.
The Shepherd. My. Fucking. HEART. Beautiful art. So angry. This could probably be a mini series. Maybe they'd give it an ending that wasn't as poignant but also made me not angry sad.
Least favourites were Sanguine (I just didn't get it), Hell Babes (again, drag humour/references just aren't my thing), Mer-Maid Story (the entire page quoting statistics about the dangers women face took me out of the story and made it feel more like a weird PSA than anything), and Child Bearing (there was literally nothing I liked about this - the art was bare bones forgettable and the plot was mindlessly odd/uncomfortable but not in a fun horror way).
Loved the concept of this anthology, it just wasn't as consistently good as I'd hoped.
As with most compilations like this it's pretty hit or miss, and this just had more misses than hits. I think I would've enjoyed this more if I knew a thing at all about drag/drag humour. Alas, though it's always awesome to watch people so passionate about something they love, it's just not my thing, so my eyes would either glaze over or it all just went over my head. I liked the variety/execution of art styles, but a lot of the stories themselves just didn't do it for me.
Occasionally I found it a bit difficult to follow along; the story could make a jump from one panel to another and I had no idea how Point A got to Point B. That said, space was limited as all the stories had to be quite short, so a bit of a pass there. Loved the representation here though - gay, lesbian, binary trans, gender-non-conforming - and also got that intersectionality well taken care of with different ethnicities and ages as well as disability rep.
Some of my favourite stories: Frankenschwein. Gay male POC rescuing/falling in love with a lab experiment - uh, yeah, please and thank you. The art style was like vintage Batman comics and I loved that.
Closet Monster. That art and colouring though. Also I'd like to hug the scary demon bear. He looked cuddly.
Dead Name No More. God I wish this was somehow based on a true story. Tugged at my heartstrings big time. Ghost hunting show-like with a trans redemption twist. Perfect. I want an entire series of Lorelei the Trans Ghost Hunter.
Dyke Witch. Sapphic witch getting her comeuppance on bullies with the help of her demon soul-girlfriend while still having sympathy for one who's questioning her sexuality. It's as good as it's sound and again I want more. Loved the black & white & red colour scheme too.
The Shepherd. My. Fucking. HEART. Beautiful art. So angry. This could probably be a mini series. Maybe they'd give it an ending that wasn't as poignant but also made me not angry sad.
Least favourites were Sanguine (I just didn't get it), Hell Babes (again, drag humour/references just aren't my thing), Mer-Maid Story (the entire page quoting statistics about the dangers women face took me out of the story and made it feel more like a weird PSA than anything), and Child Bearing (there was literally nothing I liked about this - the art was bare bones forgettable and the plot was mindlessly odd/uncomfortable but not in a fun horror way).
Loved the concept of this anthology, it just wasn't as consistently good as I'd hoped.
December 14, 2024
This was a perfect compliment to another book I'm reading on queer horror (It Came From the Closet), sort of the visual equivalent. I don't usually spend a lot of time on comics, despite having a ton of respect for visual artists, so it was a new experience for me to sit down with this and read it like a book. Some of the stories were not as strong as others, some it was hard to tell what was going on because the text was tiny and the visual was more 'telling' the story; other times the stories were hilarious and campy (these were my favorite) or downright disturbing (also favorite). Visually it ran the gamut from realism to cartoony to, well, yeah - everything in between. I don't know a lot about illustrative criticism and can't really speak to those aspects, but I especially loved the work of Ashley R. Gulliory, Tara Madison Avery, Sean Platter, Mariko Tamaki, Maia Kobabe, and Brad Rader. Highly, highly recommend if you love horror, comics, and above all, queerness!
June 30, 2023
The problem with trying to be camp is that a lot of humor that attempts camp falls in its face. You cannot fault people attempting it here, but most of it fell flat. The humor and horror are steeped in drag culture. So much so that "Hell Babes" by Diego Gómez is literally RuPaul's Drag Race in hell.
My favorite stories were:
"Werekat" by Rachel Pollack and Maia Kobabe -- A trans woman finds a horrific and magical way to transition and leads others on the journey. (RIP Pollack, who recently passed away.)
"Barrier" by Tina Horn, Jen Hickman, and Justin Hall -- A sci-fi horror bent on what it means to choose queerness and the unknown.
"Closet Monster" by William O. Tyler -- When the monster in the closet wants you to come out of the closet.
"Asterion" by Jon Cairns and Dani and Lange -- A twist on how the Minotaur was uncovered.
My favorite stories were:
"Werekat" by Rachel Pollack and Maia Kobabe -- A trans woman finds a horrific and magical way to transition and leads others on the journey. (RIP Pollack, who recently passed away.)
"Barrier" by Tina Horn, Jen Hickman, and Justin Hall -- A sci-fi horror bent on what it means to choose queerness and the unknown.
"Closet Monster" by William O. Tyler -- When the monster in the closet wants you to come out of the closet.
"Asterion" by Jon Cairns and Dani and Lange -- A twist on how the Minotaur was uncovered.
September 14, 2023
Standout stories include:
Tender
WereKat
Sanguine
Barrier
Dead Name
Dyke Witch
Child Bearing - If only for the one liner at the end.
The Shepherd
Full Moon - If only for Seaman Moon. (I'd like a full series please.)
Tender
WereKat
Sanguine
Barrier
Dead Name
Dyke Witch
Child Bearing - If only for the one liner at the end.
The Shepherd
Full Moon - If only for Seaman Moon. (I'd like a full series please.)
July 21, 2020
most of these were meh. i liked the concept a lot and wanted more from the stories in here. but it does deliver in queer content for sure.
March 15, 2026
S tier: All of the one-off movie poster interstitials
A tier: Franken-Schwein, Werekat, Closet Monster, Hell Babes, Asterion
B tier: Framing Story, The Vulture, Tender, Barrier, Mer-Maid Story, Dead Name No More, Child-Bearing, Full Moon
C tier: Gleam, The Burr Tree, Godfather Death, Dyke Witch, The Shepherd, Dead...Again, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),
D tier: Sanguine
A tier: Franken-Schwein, Werekat, Closet Monster, Hell Babes, Asterion
B tier: Framing Story, The Vulture, Tender, Barrier, Mer-Maid Story, Dead Name No More, Child-Bearing, Full Moon
C tier: Gleam, The Burr Tree, Godfather Death, Dyke Witch, The Shepherd, Dead...Again, I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me),
D tier: Sanguine
October 10, 2019
Creative, diverse, beautiful, fun, weird.
December 30, 2019
Rich and stunning. What a collection!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews