Refrigerator Full of Heads #4 – Rio Youers, Writer; Tom Fowler, Tom Fowler, Artist; Bill Crabtree, Colorist
Ray – 5/10
Ray: As we reach the second half of this sequel miniseries to the Hill House original, things go from bad to worse for just about everyone involved. Survivor June Branch, who re-entered the story last issue, is now in the custody of the deranged Erika Furie, who has an unlikely source in one of the decapitated heads from early in the tale. Meanwhile, our hapless pair of undercover agents find themselves under attack from a mob of Nazi bikers on the trail of cursed artifacts. After a vicious shootout, the pair is down to one, and the survivor sets out to get information from the titular refrigerator full of heads—any way they can. This issue often feels like little more than a collection of gross-out kill scenes, and that’s a recurring problem for this series as a whole. It’s definitely expanding on the mythology of the original, and brings back a major threat from the first series, but it doesn’t feel deeper—just bigger and grosser.
DC Horror Presents Soul Plumber #5 – Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski, Ben Kissel, Writers; PJ Holden/John McCrea, Artists; Mike Spicer, Colorist
Ray – 7/10
Ray: It took a while to get here, but this bizarre religious satire does have a chaotic energy that other horror comics last. The motley crew of rednecks, priests-in-training, corrupt salesmen, and deceptively innocent ghosts are back on the road, heading for a massive religious convention where countless Soul Vacuums will be sold—and will accidentally unleash a massive demon on the world. PJ Holden’s art, usually associated with some of Garth Ennis’ more excessive comics, is a good choice for the surreal and gruesome nature of the comic. It’s also a lot more dense and wacky than most horror, never really landing anything scary or disturbing but hitting at some good and deserving targets like corrupt religious authorities and shady salesmen. With only one issue to go, it ends the issue with a much bigger scale than most comics from this line, but it feels like there’s a lot of story still to go.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
