Review – Death Curse #1

How fitting that in my long awaited return to review titles for Omnicomic that I be asked to review Death Curse #1. Why is that fitting you ask? Let me tell you – Death Curse is WEIRD. Not in a bad way mind you, but it is definitely a unique comic that I’ve not seen the likes of before.

I like to consider myself a pretty creative person and sometimes fancy the idea that I could be a writer for a living or something. Then I read a book like this and realize that I don’t have even a fraction of the creativity necessary to really write something different.

Death Curse #1 is a title put out by Lost Story Studios and is a series of morbid and gross, but amusing, stories. The title is broken up into four short stories narrated by a ventriloquist name Curse and his puppet, Mr. Latch. The stories were created by Brockton McKinney and Bo Fader and they both may need to seek out psychological evaluation.

McKinney is also credited as the primary writer on the issue. Each story has a distinctive art style due to the various artists involved who include Chris Moreno, Bridgit Scheide, Jason Strutz and Larkin Ford.

The title opens with the aforementioned Curse and Mr. Latch sitting in an armchair in front of a snow filled TV. The issue is in black and white and it carries that old style horror feel throughout.

Curse has a bowl cut and a lazy eye with a scar running across it that perhaps made it that way. Mr. Latch the puppet has his own creepy look to him as well. The duo relays the first three stories by watching videos on their VCR with the final story coming via the technologically obsolete object known as a book.

The first story involves the tale of Scout Pack 666 and their adoption of a troubled young man into the fold. The young man seems to be out of place and his previous group seems to have met their untimely demise on a bus trip where he was the sole survivor. As with any good story, things do not follow the most expected course and surprises abound.

I suppose the best way to set up the second story on VCR would be to paraphrase Mr. Latch. Essentially, this story starts with a rather messy fatal car crash and ends with a hooker and a vacuum cleaner with some interesting properties. No, that isn’t a typo and yes, you read it correctly. The moral of the story might be that strange inheritances might not be all that they are cracked up to be.

After a slight intermission where a cute neighbor named Haven and her Frankenstein-ish looking companion Larry stop in - I suspect they will be recurring characters – the third story begins. A young man with a piece tucked into the back of his pants is riding his motorcycle when he starts to hear a noise that sounds like a mechanical problem. He stops by a repair shop to find just the right part he needs. He isn’t the only one looking for just the right part.

The final story is the most gruesome of all. Death Curse #1 absolutely leaves you with a funny taste in your mouth as you read the story of a ruthless hitman trying to collect what he is owed. The situation gets messy when he arrives at his mark’s home though. I don’t even know how to cleverly phrase the outcome without giving too much away so I suppose I’ll simply leave you with…you’ll have to buy the book to find out more!

There are some classic gory horror gimmicks told in creative and clever stories in this book. It made for an entertaining read. The writing and art sets the mood perfectly and most of the time there is even a punchline to lessen the blow of the story outcomes themselves. I suppose if you are going to read a book titled Death Curse you should expect a certain amount of twisted storytelling and that is delivered here.

Death Curse was published in a limited edition first print back at North Carolina ComiCon. Check out some interiors below and find a copy wherever you can and it will definitely, to use Lost Story Studio’s words, "kick your mind apart."