Zuda Comics, an online home for aspiring comic book creators has run a regular contest for people to vote on submitted comics, the ultimate goal being a chance to win a published comic. A grand idea and a good fit for those of us out there that dream of being comic book creators. A branch of the comic stalwart DC Comics, the ultimate prize is having your comic digested and published by the big house themselves. Such is the case of Bayou which landed on my desk this week.

Written by Jeremy Love and drawn Patrick Morgan, the cover sets the tone for the story. A tale told in the days of the late 1800′s in the times of plantations, slave relations and the like, the book have so many facets that they cover in the pages, it’s simply amazing. Unfolding like a classic fairy tale touched with bits of “The Wizard of Oz”, “Brer Rabbit”, and other such bits of entertainment history, it manages to be pretty enthralling throughout. To add to the fantasy nature of it, they play up the horror side just a bit more than others giving the book a great spooky tinge.

“South of the Mason-Dixon lurks a strange world of gods and monsters born of years of slavery, civil war, innocent blood, hate and strife. The daughter of a poor black sharecropper, Lee Wagstaff, joins a blues-singing swamp monster name Bayou on a southern odyssey through a mythic combination of depression era Mississippi, African mythology and American folklore in order to rescue her childhood friend and save her father’s life.”

While the horror is lighter than most would consider for a ‘horror comic’, it is still there in a few different forms. There is the horror of black vs. white relations during the time such as the horror of small minded individuals whose first reaction to any problem is a lynching. There is a great creepy vibe as we begin to venture ‘through the bayou’ to the fantasy world that lies alongside the town of Charon filled with large swamp trolls, talking blood hounds, a boss man that runs the swamp with an iron fist, and the return of dead individuals in main character Lee’s life.

I love comics, I love to read. I do both quite a bit. It’s been awhile though since a 160 page book has captured me so hard that I’ve sat down to finish it in one reading. The book feels pretty magical over all and I simply can’t wait for the next volume.

“Bayou Volume 1″ is available from Zuda Comics or wherever comics are sold. It contains the first four chapters of the online comic. For more info, be sure to check out the book’s page at Zuda where it appears there is even more content available!

Coming in at the tail of 70s fashion and atmosphere, “The Last Horror Film” is quite quirky in its appearance. Disco clothes and decorations lay the wacky atmosphere on thick. While it definitely feels dated, there are many aspects to the story that help connect the movie with modern sensibilities of unprecedented celebrity access in the age of Internet journalism, which lets the movie still feel relevant despite its corniness. There are a few gruesome murders here, a touch of gore and heaps of post 70′s excess, but its not the type of horror film that sets out to disgust the viewer. The most disturbing aspect of the film comes from the extremely sweaty Vinny and the unhinged portrayal of a man obsessed.

For the full review, head over to Bloody Good Horror.com…

This week we finally get the chance to dig into Sam Raim’s “Drag Me To Hell”, and Mark kills the mood with the creepiest Google search ever. SPOILERS ABOUND here, so don’t listen unless you’ve seen the movie.

If you have seen the movie, “Drag Me To Hell” was pretty much universally loved by the BGH crew, so tune in and comment your thoughts!

The Bloody Good Horror Podcast has hit the mile marker of 76 Episodes! That’s a lot of episodes and with bandwidth charges being what they are, it’s nearly impossible for us to keep back epsiodes on line past about three months.

With many requests from you listeners, we’ve finally launched Bloody Good Horror Classic! Essentially, as the fancy strikes, we’ll be posting our most requested back episodes for download, with one request. We ask that if you want us to continue posting back episodes, that you either make a donation using the Paypal button below, or sign up for Netflix through us, which you can do without spending a dime! Consider it an investment in the future of the Bloody Good Horror Podcast. If you want to request a back episode, take a look through our archives and then tell us what you want using our contact form over at Bloody Good Horror. We love doing this podcast as much as you guys love listening, and a little love goes a long way to make sure that this stuff doesn’t sink into the abyss. Thank you for listening!

That said, the first episode of Bloody Good Horror Classic is Episode 23: Prom Night! By far our most requested back episode, we tackle the “Prom Night” remake and Eric and Schnaars get into it for the very first time, sparking their now infamous bromance.

Check it out, enjoy, and as always, thanks for listening!

A man; by himself, pitch black surroundings. He has no idea where he his, who he is, or how he got there. All that can be seen is a random strobing light. As he gropes around through the dark, he comes across the corpse of another man. More of a dried husk than a corpse really. He continues to pick his way through the rocky darkness in search of the source of the strobing light. Soon, he stumbles on the broken down remains of some kind of base or fortification in the depths of the cave. As he prods about, he activates a large wall sized view screen. Various voices in a multitude of languages assault him until he is able to focus in on the English speaking voice, which says to him; “Welcome to Eden Log”.

For the full review, head over to Bloody Good Horror.com!

Writing idols, heroes, visionaries, etc. Most writers have them, I’m no exception. For me, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson has stood at the top of my list of writers to idolize for years. I don’t fancy any notions that I do in fact write as good as he does; that’s a lofty goal to reach. Especially with him carving out his own genre, fans and place in literary history. Still, he always wrote with a mind towards stark naked truth and aimed to achieve that truth by experiencing it and never backed down from anyone who tried to keep him from reaching that goal. All traits to admire in a writer as far as I’m concerned.

With the event of the good doctors suicide in February of 2005, there were a number of documentaries that came out dedicated to the life of this man. I recently took in the film “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride” and was taken down a nice, if light on detail, little trip of the writer, both as the character of Dr. Gonzo that he created about himself and as Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, the man behind the curtain.

For detail oriented historians, “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride” will not necessarily meet your needs. While it does touch on all the important points of Thompsons career, they focus more on the friends and people he surrounded himself with and their memories. We are treated to visits from such Hollywood stars as Johnny Depp, John Cusack, Benecio Del Toro, Bill Murray and others and their times with the writer. There are other notables that make appearances as well such as Gary Busey who doesn’t really seem to add anything worthwhile to the conversation, but it is worth a laugh. All of these moments however serve to show us how deep the well ran with Thompson and a glimpse of how his mind worked. It’s just not a fully detailed accounting of his career. This is fine, there are other films for that.

If you’re a new fan of Hunter S. Thompson, “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride” will be a good indoctrination of the man responsible for revolutions and groundbreaking movements in writing. For old fans, it is a touching recounting that shows us the life of Raoul Duke. If you’re of the type that thinks of a purple creature with a large nose and a fondness of chickens when I mention ‘Gonzo’, you’ll sadly not get much out of this documentary. It’s worth investigating though because if nothing else, the man will make you think.