Plan 9 from Outer Space Strikes Again!

Plan 9 from Outer Space Strikes Again! #1

by Chad Helder

Rated one of the worst films ever, TidalWave tells the story of what happens after the film. Fifty years after the alien invasion unleashed the unspeakable horror of Plan 9, a corrupt team of government scientists reactivate the zombie horde in order to lure the aliens back to Earth! Their sinister steal the most hideous weapon known to intergalactic intelligence. Only conspiracy theorist, Eugene, and his mother, a former professional wrestler, can expose the shadowy agenda of the government as they fight off the growing zombie horde. This time, a new alien force invades the revolutionary followers of the martyred Eros. Eugene and his mother join forces with the last remaining heroes of a corrupt government. Together, they must thwart Plan 9 once again, with all life in the universe hanging in the balance. 28 pages in this one shot.

30 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 28, 2011

About the author

Chad Helder is the author of Pop-Up Book of Death, a collection of surreal poems with dark humor (Rebel Satori Press, 2010), and The Vampire Bridegroom, a horror book with narrative poems and dramatic monologues (Dark Scribe Press, 2011).

With Vince Liaguno, Helder co-edited Unspeakable Horror: From the Shadows of the Closet, an anthology of queer horror (Dark Scribe Press, 2008), which won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

Helder wrote the graphic novel Bartholomew of the Scissors (Bluewater Comics, 2008), which was created on 88 pine planks with pyrography and mixed media by artist Daniel Crosier. In addition, Helder wrote a series of stories for Vincent Price Presents (Bluewater Comics, 2008-2011), several of which have been adapted into radio plays by the Colonial Radio Theatre in Boston.

Reviews

[Jeff Mayo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Campy, over the top, nonsense. But so was the original movie. This captures the spirit of the film, but it knows it's bad. Ed Wood never thought his movie was as bad as it is.

[Doc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plan 9 from Outer Space is resurrected! Should have let it stay dead.

Hmmm...well being based on a corny sci-fi movie this is not a travesty of a book but this is not exactly good in any sense of the word either in my opinion. The artwork was noticeably over the top with shading so dark it could hide the flaws in the style better then Batman hiding in the dark before pouncing on a villain. Speaking of the art, the book was so quick paced with so little explanation that sudden scene changes were common including one comically bad scene when the very sturdy mother of the one person (besides her I assume) that knows of the alien zombie signal is fighting zombies with a high tech decomposition cannon then suddenly you see a room full of wrestling zoomed out from the next scene where the mother is now in what is presumed to be her old wrestling outfit moments after she was fighting zombies with a highly advanced space weapon while wearing a dress.

Que narrator, alien zombie signal detection, possible mad scientist moment after they supposedly turned the zombie signal on...maybe, zombie outbreak, super tough ex wrestling mother figure fixes highly advanced anti zombie cannon to fight zombies and resorts to actual wrestling when it breaks again, aliens return to stop humanity from being stupid (as humanity does so well), mad scientist speech, que narrator again is pretty much what you will experience reading this short take on events 50 years after the original movie. It has been a while since I have seen the original myself but I would hate to be the poor sap that walked into this story without any previous knowledge of the original material even if all of the people in the story are new (after all it is 50 years in the future.)

Are you curious about how bad this comic is? As of this moment you can get it on Amazon Unlimited to read for free but if you want to avoid all that and want to see how things turn up at the end welllll....it doesn't exactly say but with the arrival of the aliens the mad scientist obsessed with being responsible for the death of everything clicks a button thanks to the aliens being the last crucial thing he needed and it shows a nuclear explosion. I am guessing the explosion is symbolism of him blowing up the actual sun so yeah...human stupidity at its greatest wins in the end.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh.

I was hoping for more of a story, this was too short and really nonsensical. I mean, the same could be said for the original movie, but that was a level of camp you can't really translate into such a short story.