In the gritty world of Prohibition–era underground crime, the streets are run not merely by bootleggers, but demon gang bosses bent toward decadent greed, gluttony, and lust. Eddie Tamblyn runs the nightclub the Gehenna Room, with a strict no-demons-allowed policy, but he’s also cursed with the unique ability to return from the dead and transfer his mortal wounds to the first person who touches his corpse—an ability that places him in high demand for his city’s princes of darkness, who hold his heavy debt.
Collecting all three volumes of the groundbreaking paranormal noir from acclaimed creators Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt (The Sixth Gun, Hellbreak).
Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.
All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.
And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.
3.5, because while I thoroughly enjoyed the noir atmosphere for this devilish story, it is a bit of a tough pill to sallow to get to the end, and be still so in the dark when it comes to so many things.
For a volume that is dubbed a Deluxe Omnibus, and not even volume 1 at that, these 400 pages were a fun compendium of stories, some of them kind of side ones for that matter, that offer an interesting main plot without any kind of conclusion.
Is this story ever going to be finished? It should because, again, it is damned (pun intended) intriguing, but if you just keep insinuating and hinting, and only half way delivering, then the reader's interest starts to wane off a bit.