Tapping the Vein: Book Four

Tapping the Vein #4

by Clive Barker

'Hell's Event" and "The Madonna."

Genres: Horror, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Fiction

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Clive Barker was born in Liverpool, England, the son of Joan Rubie (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. Educated at Dovedale Primary School and Quarry Bank High School, he studied English and Philosophy at Liverpool University and his picture now hangs in the entrance hallway to the Philosophy Department. It was in Liverpool in 1975 that he met his first partner, John Gregson, with whom he lived until 1986. Barker's second long-term relationship, with photographer David Armstrong, ended in 2009.

In 2003, Clive Barker received The Davidson/Valentini Award at the 15th GLAAD Media Awards. This award is presented "to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individual who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for any of those communities". While Barker is critical of organized religion, he has stated that he is a believer in both God and the afterlife, and that the Bible influences his work.

Fans have noticed of late that Barker's voice has become gravelly and coarse. He says in a December 2008 online interview that this is due to polyps in his throat which were so severe that a doctor told him he was taking in ten percent of the air he was supposed to have been getting. He has had two surgeries to remove them and believes his resultant voice is an improvement over how it was prior to the surgeries. He said he did not have cancer and has given up cigars. On August 27, 2010, Barker underwent surgery yet again to remove new polyp growths from his throat. In early February 2012 Barker fell into a coma after a dentist visit led to blood poisoning. Barker remained in a coma for eleven days but eventually came out of it. Fans were notified on his Twitter page about some of the experience and that Barker was recovering after the ordeal, but left with many strange visions.

Barker is one of the leading authors of contemporary horror/fantasy, writing in the horror genre early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6), and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991) and Sacrament (1996), bringing in the deeper, richer concepts of reality, the nature of the mind and dreams, and the power of words and memories.

Barker has a keen interest in movie production, although his films have received mixed receptions. He wrote the screenplays for Underworld (aka Transmutations – 1985) and Rawhead Rex (1986), both directed by George Pavlou. Displeased by how his material was handled, he moved to directing with Hellraiser (1987), based on his novella The Hellbound Heart. His early movies, the shorts The Forbidden and Salome, are experimental art movies with surrealist elements, which have been re-released together to moderate critical acclaim. After his film Nightbreed (Cabal), which was widely considered to be a flop, Barker returned to write and direct Lord of Illusions. Barker was an executive producer of the film Gods and Monsters, which received major critical acclaim.

Barker is a prolific visual artist working in a variety of media, often illustrating his own books. His paintings have been seen first on the covers of his official fan club magazine, Dread, published by Fantaco in the early Nineties, as well on the covers of the collections of his plays, Incarnations (1995) and Forms of Heaven (1996), as well as on the second printing of the original UK publications of his Books of Blood series.

A longtime comics fan, Barker achieved his dream of publishing his own superhero books when Marvel Comics launched the Razorline imprint in 1993. Based on detailed premises, titles and lead characters he created specifically for this, the four interrelated titles — set outside the Marvel universe — were Ectokid,

Reviews

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horror done in true Clive Barker style. Sex, beliefs and humanity all come into question in these 5 graphic novels.
There are two stories / graphic novel and each story is not only different in content but also in art style. Essentially it's like reading 12 different comic books with the same writer. It's almost like reading an animated Books of Blood. And just like the Books of Blood some stories are better than others, nevertheless, Barker definitely has a handle on the short story format. And in book 3 we get to see one of his tried and true stories "Midnight Meat Train" come to life in true graphic novel form.
As always he is a fabulous writer and the artwork just accentuates his amazing writing. I do wish however that Clive Barker would have done some of the illustrations himself as he is a brilliant artist and some of his sketches are completely out of this world! I think it would have been nice to see a few of his sketches within these books. Perhaps at least on the covers.
All things considered these books definitely have my heart. ❤️ Clive Barker's work. Do recommend!

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is horror at its most gripping,, both stories, HELL'S EVENT & THE MADONNA take something as innocuous as a charity run and a public bathhouse and manage to transform into the worst nightmare set ever. This was awesome, in every entomological sense of the word.

[D.M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's pretty much no saving this volume of the series. We start with another ridiculous cover, this time it's covered by a die-cut (presumably because the gruesome heads are somebody's breasts in the full version) and ably painted by the brilliant John Totleben. Then the interiors are just as uninspired. The first story is another of my least favourite Barker tales, 'Hell's Event,' about a London Marathon against the legions of Hell. Ugh. The art by Steven E. Johnson, Alan Okamoto and Jim Pearson is competent, but flat and fairly silly-looking. Then there's another of Barker's stories I like, 'The Madonna,' about a bizarre being lurking in an old bath-house. Unfortunately, the just-good-enough art from Stan Woch, Mark Farme and Fred Von Tobel drains any of the horror or wonder from this piece. Both stories are capably adapted by editor Fred Burke, who tends to lean heavily on Barker's engaging prose though he unfortunately forgets things he leaves out...then refers to later.
So far, this is the weakest of the run.

[Bill Borre]

"Hell's Event" - Every one-hundred years, a race is held in London. Satan sends one of his representatives to run it against the (unsuspecting) human runners. If Satan's minion wins, then he, Satan, gets to rule the Earth. An athlete taking part in the event, Joel, begins to realize the true meaning of things and what is at stake when his fellow human competitors begin to fall, savaged by some unseen beast. We also learn of the deal a Satanist, Gregory, makes with Hell. He has staked his life and soul on this race. Meanwhile, Joel does not win the race due to a struggle with Hell's shape-shifting runner, who bites off Joel's face. However, the last surviving runner jogs past them to the finishing line. Hell loses out once again. Gregory is hardly surprised when he is punished for his overconfidence by being gruesomely slain.

[Chris Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the better stories from the Books of Blood - The Madonna - with one of the weaker - Hell's Event.

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

《午夜人肉快車》(Midnight Meat Train)內容大致上是一個男人無意中目擊「地下鐵屠夫」攻擊地鐵乘客，最後更發現了完全超出他想像以外的可怕真相。

剛開始時讀者大概會覺得「人肉快車」只是普通的驚慄片劇情再混合了「都會傳說」(urban legend)的元素，但在原著小說裡到了真相大白的時候，劇情竟然向HP Lovecraft「克蘇魯神話」式的混沌宇宙觀靠攏，結局還是正不能勝邪的黑色結局。