Mike Eakins
It’s never too late to get back to the grind…house, that is. The drive-in is back and Diabolik is coming in swinging with an all-new adult horror/sci-fi flip for fans of B-horror and beyond. Announcing the double feature dripping with bloody delight, Professor Dario Bava: Orgy Of The Blood Freaks #1 and the supernatural spaghetti western, Gringo Loco: Dead Late And A Dollar Short! Written, colored, and lettered by Phil Mucci (Dario Bava: Occult Activity Book, Gringo Loco: Dead Late And A Dollar Short) featuring art by celebrated comics artists Mike Dubisch (Alien vs Predator, Dungeons & Dragons) and Vicente Alcázar (Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella, Jonah Hex), with covers by Emanuele Taglietti (Sukia, Zora the Vampire, Vampirissimo), Suspiria Vilchez (Swamp Dogs, Elvira Meets Vincent Price), and Dave Kendall (Magic The Gathering, World of Warcraft).
Professor Dario Bava:
Orgy Of The Blood Freaks #1
(W,C,L) Phil Mucci (A) Mike Dubisch
(Cover A) Emanuele Taglietti
(Cover B) Suspiria Vilchez
Rome, 1967: former Vatican exorcist Professor Dario Bava, paranormal playboy, enlists the aid of Sister Sadie to investigate the haunted abbey ruins where his assistant was murdered by supernatural forces of psychedelic proportions! Hammer Horror meets Eurosleaze as a maniacal menagerie of monsters, maniacs, and revolutionary nymphos collide for a blood-curdling night of murder and mayhem — that may just change the course of history!
Gringo Loco: Dead Late And A Dollar Short
(W,C,L) Phil Mucci (A) Vicente Alcázar
(Cover A) Dave Kendall
(Cover B) Vicente Alcázar, Phil Mucci
When bounty hunters come to collect the body of a monstrous stranger hanged for murder, they find more than they bargained for, unleashing a torrent of blood and bullets, propelling the mysterious Gringo Loco on a trail of vengeance and redemption.
“When I was a kid, we used to sneak through the graveyard, down the train tracks, and through a broken chain link fence into the old drive-in that played horror movies from dusk till dawn,” said writer Phil Mucci. “This Diabolik double feature represents exactly the kind of flicks we’d risk zombie mutilation and locomotive obliteration to see, from Satanic cults, to black-gloved killers, to hideous monsters, outrageous time travel, and yes, even nunsploitation! But it’s not just an exercise in pure nostalgia; it’s about telling stories where all of these genre tropes coexist in the same weird world simultaneously and feel like they belong there. Storytelling is a cultural relay race over time, and Diabolik is carrying the torch for all the monster loving weirdos like us! Mike Dubisch and Vicente Alcázar evoke the classic era of Eerie and Creepy, the comic book equivalents of the grindhouse, seamlessly blending together the wild extremes and maniacal characters into a cohesive universe.”
“I grew up with Will Eisner’s concept of the ‘Page as a Meta-Panel’ while being obsessed with ‘pre-comics code’ horror comics from the 1950s, and ‘code-free’ horror magazines of the 1970s, it was ironic to find myself having become a slave to standard comic book page grids,” said Mike Dubisch. “Then along came my savior, Phil Mucci. Not content to simply hand off a script to his chosen artist, Phil’s scripts were accompanied with his own wild thumbnail layouts, making clear how he saw the pages, and it turns out this master filmmaker and devotee of the cinematic arts was MY kinda comic book fan—where page layouts broke all those self-imposed rules about doing things that might scare off editors and potential comic book clients. So drawing Professor Dario Bava not only brought Phil’s vision to life, but also brought back the comic book artist I was meant to be back to life—reborn finally as the 1970s style horror comic artist that destiny groomed me for!”
“Working in Phil Mucci´s Gringo Loco has been one of the top fun commissions along my career,” said artist Vicente Alcázar. “Designing and bringing to life such a controversial character has been both a pleasure and a humorous dare. Indeed Gringo Loco is a non-exemplar character. He does women, booze and smokes, all three capital sins of a more and more prudish today. His disrespect for the common law, plus his lack of remorse in sending his dislikes to meet their creator, are a dream form for those of us who came to life awareness through language. Language that we inherited from our own (dead) predecessors. A real gift to make a great parable exercise.”
“The collaboration with Diabolik was flattering and very creative,” said cover artist Emanuele Taglietti. “While leaving me completely free in the moment of realization, showing great respect for my artistic interpretation; in the preparatory phase, they enriched me with both narrative and figurative suggestions, without which the final result would certainly have been diminished. In addition to this, our relationship of esteem and friendship has consolidated despite an ocean separating us. I am waiting here in Italy for my friends Ian, Phil and Dan to celebrate this beautiful comic and the artists who collaborated in its realization.”