Dark Delicacies
Issue: #1
Writer: F. Paul Wilson, Dan Wickline, Joe R. Lansdale, Neal Barrett Jr.
Artist: Douglas Draper, Jerry Beck
32 pp. IDW Publishing. $3.99
Reviewed by Paul Stotts
The story quality in anthologies is often inconsistent. Some stories will be pretty good, some won’t. Creating kick-ass short fiction is an art form, a skill many big-name novelists don’t have—which is why they write novels. They are big-idea people, and big ideas don’t often work in short space. Only so many clowns fit in a Volkswagen Beetle.
Comic anthologies aren’t any different. Some cuts are better than others. Meatier than others. Filet mignon in a sea of hamburger. So finding collection perfection is a rarity.
The debut issue of IDW Publishing’s new quarterly horror anthology Dark Delicacies suffers from this inconsistency. This anthology-itis. The issue features two stories—the excellent Part of the Game and the throw-away Dog. So animal lovers avert your eyes.
Part of the Game is based on a story by novelist F. Paul Wilson, and is ably adapted by writer Dan Wickline. Detective Sorenson’s a corrupt cop looking for a big payday—to be part of the game—so he can keep his high-class girl in silk and diamonds. Sorenson decides to shakedown a nearly mythical Chinese underworld boss for half his gambling take. For a little slice of the pie. But he gets more than he bargained for.
Wickline’s script works. Heavy on exposition, the piece is a short story punctuated by visuals. If you removed the artwork, you’d still have a complete narrative. And with a solid story, it translates into a nice piece.
Novelist Joe R. Lansdale provides the source material for the second piece in the collection, Dog, a violent battle for survival between a man and a very large and ferocious canine. Unlike Part of the Game, Dog offers almost no exposition, entirely drive by images. The storyline’s simplistic, and unfortunately, not very engaging. And the payoff is disappointing.
So tallying up Dark Delicacies’ final score—that’s one good and one not so good story. Typical and not surprising. Anthology-itis rears its ugly head. Dropping the anthology format and focusing on one story per issue instead would probably yield better results. Hopefully, it’s a direction the editors consider.
Final Grade: 70 out of 100
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