Criminal Macabre: Cell Block 666

Criminal Macabre: A Cal McDonald Mystery #6

by Steve Niles, Nick Stakal (Artist), Tim Bradstreet (Artist)

Cal McDonald faces his greatest challenge yet - hard time! Framed in the death of a cop, Cal finds himself at the mercy of a sadistic and corrupt police force. But now, in some of the bleakest moments of his life, the things that make him different from the rest of the world might be the only things capable of keeping his sorry butt out of deeper trouble. Because it turns out that the things that would make most people want to give up and die - the strange, inhuman voices coming from adjacent cells, the mysterious visitors, the unlikely saviors in demonic disguise - are the things that have kept Cal alive long enough to see a way out. And just when Cal begins to unravel the conspiracy behind his own downfall, he uncovers a nightmare world of murder and corruption at the prison that has dozens of former prisoners turning in their graves - and clawing their way out!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror, Supernatural

104 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2009

About the author

STEVE NILES is one of the writers responsible for bringing horror comics back to prominence, and was recently named by Fangoria magazine as one of it's "13 rising talents who promise to keep us terrified for the next 25 years."

Niles is currently working for the four top American comic publishers - Marvel, DC, Image and Dark Horse. He got his start in the industry when he formed his own publishing company called Arcane Comix, where he published, edited and adapted several comics and anthologies for Eclipse Comics. His adaptations include works by Clive Barker, Richard Matheson and Harlan Ellison.

Steve resides in Los Angeles in his bachelor pad with one cat. While there's no crawlspace, there is a questionable closet in one corner and no one is quite sure what is hidden in there...but we have an idea.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

And yeah, I know what I'm doing. I saw a guy do this incantation once.

What could possibly go wrong?

Back in volume 4, we learned of a councilman who wants Cal's head on a platter. Here's where he gets it. Cal is finally captured and quickly railroaded through the court system with trumped up charges and a corrupt judge. 5-10 years just like that. And just like that we have a story involving Cal being in prison and trying to figure out how he's getting out.

It's fine, overall. The corrupt cops/judge/everyone is pretty cliche, but fine. It wraps up too quickly, but that's the pain of these 4-issue arcs. But I wasn't expecting how the ending ultimately went down, which is a very good thing.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

Cal McDonald is railroaded and sent to prison, but you can't get a good drug addicted monster hunting PI down. This reminded me of the storyline in Hellblazer where Constantine was in prison.

[Clark Hallman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Criminal Macabre: Cell Block 666 by Steve Niles (story), Nick Stakal (art) and Michelle Madsen (Colors), et al – This Cal McDonald mystery graphic novel from Dark Horse Books features Cal as a private investigator who seems to specialize in supernatural phenomena such as ghouls and other undead creatures. He is arrested for the murder of one of his few human friends and does some hard time in prison. Niles’ story provides very interesting characters and lots of violent action. I intend to read more Criminal Macabre.

[Octavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy chulo. A ver si pillo alguno más en la biblioteca.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fucking love Criminal Macabre!

[Salamah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good graphic novel about this guy named Cal who helps ghouls out even though he is human. I am not sure why I picked this up but I am glad I did. The story had plenty of action even though the ghouls looked a little gross. But I guess they are supposed to be gross. Cal is set up by one of the ghouls and the Mayor is able to send him to prison just because he does not like Cal. They then locate the traitor ghoul and find out some more political secrets. I read this book in twenty minutes so I would most likely pick up another book in the series.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niles knows how to lay out a story. Cal takes another beating but as always comes out on top.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun! Funny!