Flinch #1 Review

Title:	Flinch
Contributors:	"Rocket-Man" Richard Bruning Jim Lee "Nice Neighborhood" Jen Van Meter Frank Quietly "Wolf Eats Girl" Bruce Jones Richard Corben
Publisher:	Vertigo
Issue #:	1
Year:	1999
Pages:	32 Pages (24 dedicated to story)
Age Rating:	18+ (Language, Violence, Nudity, Adult Themes)
Story Grade:	B
Art Grade:	B

It's the first review in the scariest month of the year, October. So I thought I would kick the month off with a nice horror review and continue through the month with reviews of some horror based titles. I will be wrapping up the month up with a special, 7 Days of Halloween. During the special I will be reviewing a comic book or two each of the days leading up to Halloween. So starting October 25th there will be a review celebrating the scariest month of the year each day. Make sure to join me for this fun journey into horror.

Flinch is an eclectic collection of three distinctly different horror stories from three different writer/artist teams. Each story is short, but well done to tell a complete tale.

Rocket-Man is the story of your average blue collar worker with dreams of flight, fancy and striking it rich. It is a very short read, but entertaining. Since it is so short, I can't really say a lot about the story itself without a spoiler, but I can analyze it.

Rocket-Man is the story of just about every person who has put everything aside in the pursuit of their dreams and the hopes of fame and fortune.

Like I said I can't say a whole lot, it's only eight pages long, but it is an entertaining eight pages.

This is one of the problems with short stories, you can disclose a lot in a review without spoilers and I do my best to not disclose many spoilers. But what I can say is that you fully expect the ending that happens. But while you expect it, the ending sneaks up on you and remains satisfying.

Nice Neighborhood is even shorter than the previous story in this anthology. At six pages long there isn't a lot of room to explore the world, so you just get down to business and tell the story that needs to be told.

This is the story of people who used to live in a nice part of town, but now that part of town is overrun with drugs and gangs. But not just any drugs, male enhancement drugs. While it is a short story, it is an entertaining story. It's reminiscent of some of the tales of the '50s gangs names like the Sugar Daddys, Silver Wolves and Flying Aces. This gives it a retro feel to a modern tale that also has a deeply humorous side which you would have to read to enjoy, because like I said, this is a spoiler free review.

This is more of an allegory than anything, a warning to the readers of the potential impact of pharmaceuticals. This is something I connected with deeply due to some health problems I struggle with and the way doctors push big-pharma on patients. I have moved past that phase in my life and get treatment from natural sources, but this is a great warning to the rest of the world... if they will head it.

This eight page story starts with one of the greatest lines in recent memory; "Did you ever wake up one day and realize --quite by accident-- that, in fact, you are God?" That blasphemous question got my attention real quick. If you can't tell from the opening line, Wolf Eats Girl is a story heavily rooted in religious tones and references. What this story really does is asks the question; If man was created in God's image, can God be tempted by sin?

This is a story of a holy man who is delusional about his holy nature. The story speaks volumes about lustful hypocrisy we've seen in modern religious icons and personas, but it also delves a little deeper than that and that is what makes the story fun.

All in all I grade this book a B. Not at bad outing for the first of the Month of Horror reviews.

Until next time... ask yourself this; if we are all our own God's then who is our flock?