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Red River
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 1, 2020
#ThrowbackThursday - Back in the '90s, I used to write comic book reviews for the website of a now-defunct comic book retailer called Rockem Sockem Comics. From the June 1997 edition with a theme of "Trade Paperbacks":
INTRODUCTION
Regular readers of this column have probably noticed a bias towards DC Comics trade paperbacks in the "From the Backlist" section. This happens because DC has the longest backlist in PREVIEWS each month, and I have more comics from DC in my personal collection than from any other comic book company. In the interests of equal time, I intended to dedicate this column to new and resolicited trade paperbacks from other companies. Alas and alack, those sneaky devils at DC still managed to slip in by reprinting a graphic novel originally available only through an English publisher. Honest, I'm not getting any sort of kickback for this, it just happens! Maybe next month I'll finally exorcise that demonic DC influence . . . if they stop publishing good comics by then.
FROM THE BACKLIST
RED RIVER (Blue Comics, Ink.)
Your name is Felix Stone. Your upstairs neighbors are weird. Why do they keep a child's inflatable pool in the middle of the living room when their son is fully grown? And as you approached their door today, did you really hear them say they were about to make a toast with blood? Meanwhile, someone is killing all your old girlfriends, working his way up to your current lovers. You don't know it, but that someone looks exactly like you. Maybe it is you. The police certainly think so.
Creepy, isn't it?
RED RIVER combines serial killing with fantastic elements to produce a mixture of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. The artwork of creator Stephen Blue is dark and detailed, painstakingly cross-hatched to produce a realistic but terrifying effect. Blue's plot gets a bit outrageous at the end, but his writing usually lives up to the pictures. The themes of light, darkness, blood, water and eyes are well executed throughout, adding to the overall eerie tone.
This backlist book is, as far as I know, the only book ever produced by Blue Comics, Ink. and the only book Blue has ever done outside of a few short stories in some horror anthologies. The first half of the story was originally released by Slave Labor years ago as BLOOD & WATER, but the book was quickly cancelled due to low sales. Thanks to a grant from the Xeric Foundation (established by TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES co-creator Peter Laird with Turtle profits), Blue was able to self-publish the entire story under one cover. As one of the 2,000 people who actually bought BLOOD & WATER #1, I'm glad Blue was able to burst the dams that held him back and let the RED RIVER flow.
Grade: B
INTRODUCTION
Regular readers of this column have probably noticed a bias towards DC Comics trade paperbacks in the "From the Backlist" section. This happens because DC has the longest backlist in PREVIEWS each month, and I have more comics from DC in my personal collection than from any other comic book company. In the interests of equal time, I intended to dedicate this column to new and resolicited trade paperbacks from other companies. Alas and alack, those sneaky devils at DC still managed to slip in by reprinting a graphic novel originally available only through an English publisher. Honest, I'm not getting any sort of kickback for this, it just happens! Maybe next month I'll finally exorcise that demonic DC influence . . . if they stop publishing good comics by then.
FROM THE BACKLIST
RED RIVER (Blue Comics, Ink.)
Your name is Felix Stone. Your upstairs neighbors are weird. Why do they keep a child's inflatable pool in the middle of the living room when their son is fully grown? And as you approached their door today, did you really hear them say they were about to make a toast with blood? Meanwhile, someone is killing all your old girlfriends, working his way up to your current lovers. You don't know it, but that someone looks exactly like you. Maybe it is you. The police certainly think so.
Creepy, isn't it?
RED RIVER combines serial killing with fantastic elements to produce a mixture of horror, science fiction, and fantasy. The artwork of creator Stephen Blue is dark and detailed, painstakingly cross-hatched to produce a realistic but terrifying effect. Blue's plot gets a bit outrageous at the end, but his writing usually lives up to the pictures. The themes of light, darkness, blood, water and eyes are well executed throughout, adding to the overall eerie tone.
This backlist book is, as far as I know, the only book ever produced by Blue Comics, Ink. and the only book Blue has ever done outside of a few short stories in some horror anthologies. The first half of the story was originally released by Slave Labor years ago as BLOOD & WATER, but the book was quickly cancelled due to low sales. Thanks to a grant from the Xeric Foundation (established by TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES co-creator Peter Laird with Turtle profits), Blue was able to self-publish the entire story under one cover. As one of the 2,000 people who actually bought BLOOD & WATER #1, I'm glad Blue was able to burst the dams that held him back and let the RED RIVER flow.
Grade: B
February 11, 2013
Damn, that was awful.
The only reason I would've bought this book, and the only reason I'd have kept it this long (nearly 20 years), is Blue's artwork. That's no longer enough to overcome the bad writing, the almost-incomprehensible plot and the non-existent characterisation.
I don't normally offer a synopsis, since Goodreads usually takes care of that, but this time they haven't so I will. Basically, this is a horror mash-up: aliens meet vampires meet shapeshifters...all in the same bodies! We follow what I suspect is a thinly-veiled version of Blue himself in the body of Felix Stone, whose past and present girlfriends (and even wishfuls) are turning up dead and always immersed in water. Meanwhile, he's moved into a new apartment with some strange landlords/neighbours. And things just get stranger, more complicated, and harder to follow from there.
Blue's art is still quite striking. Sometimes he overdoes the texture and loses sight of what's supposed to be happening in a panel, and his poses rarely strike as believable, but he knows his way around a pen, no mistake. Think Charles Burns if he were to decide to do standard superhero comics, but didn't put anyone in costumes.
I've given this book as many chances as I could, but the time has come to purge it from the library.
If Red River's still in print, avoid it. If it's not, don't seek it out. You'll be a better reading person for missing it.
The only reason I would've bought this book, and the only reason I'd have kept it this long (nearly 20 years), is Blue's artwork. That's no longer enough to overcome the bad writing, the almost-incomprehensible plot and the non-existent characterisation.
I don't normally offer a synopsis, since Goodreads usually takes care of that, but this time they haven't so I will. Basically, this is a horror mash-up: aliens meet vampires meet shapeshifters...all in the same bodies! We follow what I suspect is a thinly-veiled version of Blue himself in the body of Felix Stone, whose past and present girlfriends (and even wishfuls) are turning up dead and always immersed in water. Meanwhile, he's moved into a new apartment with some strange landlords/neighbours. And things just get stranger, more complicated, and harder to follow from there.
Blue's art is still quite striking. Sometimes he overdoes the texture and loses sight of what's supposed to be happening in a panel, and his poses rarely strike as believable, but he knows his way around a pen, no mistake. Think Charles Burns if he were to decide to do standard superhero comics, but didn't put anyone in costumes.
I've given this book as many chances as I could, but the time has come to purge it from the library.
If Red River's still in print, avoid it. If it's not, don't seek it out. You'll be a better reading person for missing it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews