Gary Gianni's Monstermen and Other Scary Stories was a real treat! I knew nothing about what to expect from this volume, (knowing nothing about the Hellboy series, in which these comics were originally released), so I went in with no preconceptions. I was seriously impressed. Here's why:

First, I LOVED the stories! The first 2/3 of this are different comics featuring a movie director named St. Lawrence, (who looks a lot like Vincent Price, btw, and who you would think belonged in the 30's expect for the occasional glimpse of technology), and his friend Benedict a member of the Corpus Monstrum guild. Benedict is an immortal knight and always wears his knight helmet and a tuxedo. (I need to learn more about the background of this character because he was a blast to read about.)


Together they fend off plagues of falling skulls, and other monstrous creatures.


Second, the last third of the book contains illustrated classic stories by the likes of Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and William Hope Hodgson. I LOVED these! When reading these short stories, I couldn't help but notice how the first 2/3 of the book carried the exact same pulpy, adventure feel that these classic stories originally created. I think Gianni did a beautiful job of carrying on that feel in his comics and in his illustrations of these pulp shorts. In a way, I feel like these were his way of paying tribute to what came before, while also making them his own.

Again, I went into this with no preconceptions. I came away with much admiration and respect. I'm going to eventually read the Hellboy comics and I'm definitely going to search out Mr. Gianni and see what else he has on offer, because whatever it is, I'm in!

Highly recommended, especially to fans of the classic pulp short stories and to fans of incredible artwork.

You can get your copy here: Gary Gianni's Monstermen and Other Scary Stories

*Thank you to Edelweiss and to Dark Horse Comics for the e-ARC of this volume in exchange for my honest review. This is it!* ( )

Background: Gary Gianni's Monstermen and Other Scary Stories is a collection of stories ranging from pirates, to zombies, to skulls, and phantoms and ghosts of all kinds.

Review: The copy that I received via electronic edition was very fuzzy and difficult to read, however the pictures were marvelous in every way! I think that aside from the fuzziness there was also a few parts where I was very lost in the storyline...and I read a lot of graphic novels so I am not sure it was my inability to move to the right boxes...
All of the different types of scary beings were well executed and overall it was a decent read. Zombies, pirates, skulls and creepy crawlies, how can one really go wrong? ( )