Ink Stains 183: Shriek 2

Shriek 2: 1990
Editors: Tom Skulan, Steve Bissette, Publisher: FantaCo Enterprises

Clive Barker

Happy Halloween, everyone! This installment of Ink Stains covers, not quite a fanzine, technically more than a prozine...for me, something in between, the second issue of Shriek. But, it has great content and is perfect for today, being run partially by one of the kings of horror, Steve Bissette! It is a very well done publication, with some lesser knowns, and some that became quite well known. Steve told me on Facebook that, "It was among the last things I did with Tom and FantaCo. At that time. TABOO was more and more my primary focus, much to the frustration of some folks. I was also struggling with a home/family crisis at the time, which contributed heavily to my stepping away from projects, other than TABOO."

Bissette has such a big footprint in the industry, his very early work is still incredibly appreciated by this writer. You can find out as much as you like on his website here. So many singular works...Swamp Thing, 1964, Tyrant, and soooo much more. He was also in the first Kubert School class! A super nice guy, and a great representative of the comic industry (though he has also written fiction and non fiction works to great acclaim).

Steve elaborates on this issue with "I did co-edit both issues with publisher Tom Skulan, and (unless I'm mistaken) contributed another Shriek portrait to the interior (or was the back cover portrait the only Shriek in sight? I didn't render that lovely b&w illustration). Let me think: I recall really liking Robinson and D'Israeli's story, Trial & Error (script by James Robinson, art by D'Israeli), and Bill Townsend and Mike Dubisch's collaboration (Mike was still a teenager, at the time; Bill runs a comic shop still, unless that's no longer the case, Bill came and spoke to my comics history class at the Center for Cartoon Studies one or two times as our guest retailer, talking through the retail end of the business). Other contents included Faith Which Must Offend (by Andrew Elliott and Mark Buckingham), Rest Room (by Chris Pelletiere), Finnegan's Awake (by Sean Carroll), and My Father's House (the collaboration I mentioned by Bill Townsend and Mike Dubisch). I remember making sure the fiction piece, The Toucher by Stan Wiater, made it through the gauntlet, with illustrations by Mirage Studios amigo Eric Talbot. Really lovely color Rolf Stark cover, quite unlike Rolf's usual style or imagery. Back cover Shriek portrait was by Mark Finneral, who Tom Skulan scared up, that wasn't in my ballpark, but I did have a hand in landing the Clive Barker illustration." You can see one of Barker's illustrations above.

---

Talbot and Bissette

Above you see the pin up mentioned by Bissette.

Below, you can see a pin up by Mike Dubisch. On Facebook, Mike told me that "I remember going into FantaCo after the publication of the first issue of the magazine, and up to Tom‘s office where he showed me Rolf Stark’s original oil painting of King Tut, for the cover, and a sizable sculpture of the Gore and Shriek host characters. I want to say Rolf made that too, but I’m not sure. I feel like a sculpture like that would be iconic, but I’ve never seen any photos of it. I’ll have to ask Tom about that someday, if he still has it. The story from that issue, My Father‘s House, I had originally written in a high school English class. My friend, Electric City Comics store owner, Bill Townsend, who had been writing for FantaCo, adapted my short story into a comic script. He had written The Devil‘s Music for me for the first issue, and the story Mall Rats illustrated by superstar Wolverine artist, Greg Capullo, in one of the issues of Gore Shriek. I remember working on the story using gray alcohol markers over pencil, with white gouache and ink, in the final days of my senior year in high school. The inside front cover pen and ink was my first full page published illustration, and was printed across from Clive Barker’s very first US published artwork on the title page."
I was informed by Bissette that Barker actually had previous work in Fangoria and the first issue of Taboo.

Mike Dubisch

OK, time to start checking out all the great continuity work inside! Story one is Trial and Error by James Robinson and D'Israeli. Robinson is another one of those extraordinarily talented British writers that burst into the US comic industry in the 90s (see this Wikipedia page for more), while fellow Brit, D'Israeli (Matt Brooker) and his precise linework and impeccably composed pages are evident in this story, as well as all of his many other projects. You can read a nice interview with him here. The visuals in this story really impressed me, being in the same deceptively simple style that other favorite artists such as Paul Grist and American Jaime Hernandez possess. Check some pages out below.

More impressive work from across the pond comes in story two, Faith Which Must Offend, by Andrew Elliott, Mark Buckingham (pencils), D'Israli (inks), and H. V. Derci (letters). Gorgeous layouts and sumptuous blacks make for a very stylish vampire story. If you are on Facebook, you can check out his page here. Below is a sampling.

Following that story is a prose piece by Stan Waiter, with illustrations from Eric Talbot, who I remember from some wonderfully textured TMNT stories loooong ago. The next comic story is Restroom by Chris Pelletiere, of which you can see a few pages from below. Check out Chris's website here.

Next up is Finnegan's Awake, by Sean Carroll, a story about someone being just a tad bit greedy with a demon, finishing with a  twist ending EC comics would be proud of! The whimsical artwork suits the story really well, as you will see below.

The penultimate story is by the aforementioned Mike Dubisch (with Bill Townsend), My Father's House. I would say it is pretty darn polished for a high school student! See Mike's comments on this near the top of the column, while below, you can see his atmospheric work. While both Mike and I saw a little Jeff Jones in his pin up, here I see more of Jones's Studio mate, Berni Wrightson.

There is a one page Golem story by  Michael Price and George Turner, and a back cover of the titular character, Shriek by Mark Finneral (below). That about wraps up your daily dose of dread from Bissette and crew! Don't forget to check out the pdf so you can read the stories in whole! Gratitude goes out this time to Mike Dubisch and Steve Bissette for their input! Thanks for stopping by and hopefully leaving comments...come back next month and we will get back to fanzines proper!

Ken Meyer Jr.
[email protected]