• Scenario: Stephen King
• Artwork: Bernie Wrightson
• Publisher: Gallery 13 / Simon & Schuster
• Publishing year: 2017 (original 1982)
• Based upon the movie directed by George A. Romero
• Coverart: Jack Kamen
• ISBN: 978-1501163227

Review:

In 1982 Stephen King and George A. Romero worked together when they thought of a movie concept similar to those of Night of the Creeps or Twilight Zone, but instead of a tv-show they wrote a full feature length anthology movie. Then King and Bernie Wrightson (who has worked with King several times illustrating works like ‘Cycle of the Werewolf’, ‘The Stand’ and the art in ‘The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla’) decided to work together to adapt the screenplay for the movie ‘Creepshow’ into a graphic novel. (I remember reading the Dutch translation when I was twelve or thirteen years old but didn’t find a copy of the English version until the republishing of it in 2017). In the meantime the Creepshow-lore has expanded to several movies and a tv-show (four seasons, so far) and recently new graphic novels have been released. In april 2025 the third volume collection will be published!

But it all started with five short stories. (In the movie these were connected to another main story, with Joe Hill (King’s son) playing the boy reading the comics, his portrayal is on the cover of this collection but in the graphic novel itself he doesn’t appear). The ‘Creep’ is addressing us readers that he has some gruesome tales to tell and show… starting with ‘Father’s Day’… a short explanation per story:

1 Father’s Day

In Father’s Day we meet the Granthams, a family that comes together each year for Father’s Day to remember their family member that was killed by aunt Bedelia. Bedelia was in love when her father intervened and in a moment of spite and vengeance she decided to kill him. Now she comes to his grave every year to express her guilt. But this ‘Father’s Day’, daddy may come back to get his revenge!

2 “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”

Jordy Verrill lives alone in the outskirts of town. One night he sees something come down and land near his house. He decides to go search for it and finds a searing hot meteorite embedded in the ground. Jordy’s not the smartest tool in the shed but he knows when he’s found something valuable, so he jugs a bucket of water over the hot spacestone to cool it off. Due to the water the meteorite breaks in two pieces. And Jordy gets some meteorcrap on his fingers, not realising he faces a certain doom!

3 “The Crate”

Underneath the stairwell of ‘Amberson Hall’ in the science building of the campus of ‘Horlicks University’ there’s a crate stamped with ‘Arctic Expedition 1834′. The janitor finds the crate and calls for professor Stanley to tell him about his find! Shortly after Stanley witness a few gruesome killings involving what’s in the crate and he calls for his friend Henry Northrup who sees a way to get rid of his wife, using the crate. He only needs to be alone for a while to prepare himself!

4 “Something to tide you over”

Revenge is not always such a good thing. And this will soon become clear to Richard Vickers. When Richard discovers his wife Becky is ‘buffing’ Harry Wentworth (as in cheating on her husband) he’s out for blood… or should I say: ‘water’? He digs a hole in the sand on the beach and has Harry step in that hole to bury him, only leaving his head above the sand. Then he installs a tv next to Harry where he shows what Becky has to endure: the upcoming tide while she herself is buried up to her head in the sand as well… So Harry soon realises what’s in stall for him as well. Richard leaves his wife’s lover to the upcoming tide and watches from his home how the water rises. Soon after a creak, some footsteps… and a knock on Richard’s door! Will he be able to hold his breath long enough?

5 “They’re creeping up on you”

The final story in this collection is about a wealthy business man who lives in his sterile apartment, Mr. Pratt! He hates bugs and wants everything as clean as a whistle. Leaving the apartment isn’t even an option: the world’s too dirty outside. But then he discovers a cockroach in his sterile apartment. How is that even possible? Mr. Pratt’s ruthlessness in business might catch up on him. Because those cockroaches… if you look around, Mr. Pratt, those cockroaches are everywhere, despite a clean living space! And the thing with bugs and cockroaches is… They creep up on you!

I’ve always had a thing for anthology movies and comic books. They’re short, are easy to read and in this case are creepy as hell! And from a Creepshow graphic novel you don’t expect any less! Stephen King’s hand in this anthology is clearly visible (obviously this is written in his hay days, before he wrote more thrillers than horror stories). And as I mentioned before, this one collection spawned a whole new franchise over the years. The second movie was released soon after the first one (only a few years apart), the third movie was released in 2006, direct to video (haven’t seen this one yet) and in 2019 the first season of Creepshow, the tv-series came to fruition (only saw the first season, which had a story by King ànd his son Joe Hill adapted into a segment: ‘Gray Matter’ (from the ‘Nightshift’ short story collection by Stephen King) and ‘By the silver waters of Lake Champlain’ (based on the story with the same name from Joe Hill’s 20th Century Ghosts). And as I said, three volumes of new graphic novels have been published with new stories. More on that later, because I will read and review these as well!

If you’re able to find a copy of this ‘Creepshow’, don’t hesitate… it’s fun, it’s creepy and it’s classic King!