Our latest round up of some of the best small press comics are three titles left over from our halloween reviews pile and include: some creepy short stories from Dan White in Sticky Ribs; Wendigo Wood, the latest slice of horror from Ghost Island’s Joey Oliveira; and an antidote to the blood and guts in the form of Peter Duncan and Andy Pawley’s Cthulu Kids.

Sticky Ribs

If you like your horror tales quirky and cool then you can’t go wrong with Dan White’s new book Sticky Ribs. Featuring two stories that are stomach churningly grim, but also hilariously funny. Opener Your Body has the premise of a Stephen King book, as a pair of high school kids discover an alien body. But it evolves into a David Cronenburg style body horror after one of the kids, comes into a bit too close contact with it. Meanwhile the second story, Jackie Goes To Hell, sees a young woman journey to the afterlife in order to find her ex boyfriend. and is told in a slightly unconventional style using only a single panel and an extended caption below it to tell the story. Dan’s artwork throughout is excellent and manages to captures the oozing quality of the alien body to perfection, as well as a sinister rogues gallery of demons in hell. All of which have a really simple monotone colour scheme, using a stomach churning yellow for the alien, and the a cool blue hitch gives the after life a cool hue. Sticky Ribs is rounded off with an essay about Dan’s love of American Werewolf in London and makes for a fantastic collection of super cool horror stories, that should appeal to horror devotees and fans of quirky indie books alike.

Wendigo Wood #1

Writer Joey Oliveira has become one of the most interesting voices in small press horror thanks to spooky, psychic whodunnit Ghost Island and the nasty folk horror of Tales of The Crytoids, and he is back in the woods for his latest story, Wendigo Wood. A young couple encounter a body on the road and when they need to decide whether to go on or help, they reluctantly stop and are drawn into a mysterious woodland cult. While
it may have that classic Texas Chansiaw Massacre model of weirdoes in a remote wood, Wendigo Wood is made all the more terrifying thanks to the sinister skull wearing creatures who they encounter and it makes it into a really creepy read as a result.

Purchase Wendigo Wood from www.afterlightcomics.com

Cthulu Kids

If after all this blood and guts you fancied an antidote, then be sure to check out the fantastic Cthulu Kids. Writer Peter Duncan and Galaxafreaks artist Andrew Pawley create the surreal and technicolour adventures of Lovecraft’s enigmatic and tentacled beasties during their formative years. It’s a bit like s the Mountain of Madness meets Muppet babies and thanks to Pawley’s over the top visuals it creates a truly unique look at these horror staples.

Pick up Cthulu Kids from galaxafreaks.myshopify.com