GRIMM TALES OF TERROR: H.H. HOLMES, available from Zenescope Entertainment on April 7th, 2021, follows a former police detective and a history professor as they track down America’s oldest and most prolific serial killer.
The Details
- Written By: Jay Sandlin
- Art By: Rodrigo Xavier, Allan Otero
- Colors By: Maxflan Araujo, Vinicius Andrade
- Letters By: Carlos M. Mangual
- Cover Art By: Al Barrionuevo, Ula Mos
- Cover Price: $8.99
- Release Date: April 7, 2021
Was It Good?
Yes, for one very good reason.
Not much is available in the comics mainstream that tackles full-on horror unless you start rooting around in your LCS backrooms for underground comics. This quarterly issue gets in your face with unapologetic gore and mayhem. It’s a comic equivalent to Saw or Hostel (with a little something extra). If you’re tired of bland, safe horror comics, this is the exact opposite and we welcome more comics like this one.
How’s the art? It’s very good, and it captures the EC Comics horror vibe exceptionally well. From the Details section above, you see there was a small team of artists working on this issue but there’s no obvious shift in quality from one page to the next. It looks like it was all done by the same artist, and that’s a testament to a close-knit creative team.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
This is a 70+ page quarterly, so we’ll forego the super-deep dive and cover the broad strokes.
(Former) Detective Susan Murphy is now head of security for the luxurious Gemini Hotel in Chicago. A guest recently dies in one of the rooms with no obvious cause or sign of struggle. Murphy’s detecting instincts tell her there’s more to the death than “natural causes.”
The hotel owner, Walter Lewis, doesn’t want any more attention drawn to the death for fear of bad press. However, a private investigator, Harold Myers, arrives to meet with Murphy on behalf of the victim’s family. Lewis has no choice but to let the investigation play out.
Right off, the reader is introduced (literally and figuratively)to the setting and the players very quickly. To be fair, the dialog in these opening scenes is a mix of conversation and exposition which helps to bring the reader up to speed, but it gets a little wordy and stiff.
During the introductions, we learn that Walter Lewis is brother to a twin, J.J. Lewis, who died violently after a kidnapping. This comes up later.
Harold Myers, it turns out, is extremely knowledgeable about the circumstances of the hotel guest’s death. When all parties are gathered in the guest’s room, Myers points out a hidden spy camera, hidden damage to the guest phone that would prevent a call for help, and signal-blocking drywall hidden under the wallpaper to prevent cell signals. In other words, the room is a perfect death trap.
When Myers calls in the head of maintenance, Trevor, to break through the room’s wall, they find a secret passage that would allow a killer to spy on his victims and move throughout the hotel at will without being noticed.
At this point, it’s natural for the reader to ask questions. “How could somebody set all this up without the hotel staff noticing?” The answers come later, and they largely make sense. A reader needs to suspend some disbelief because the answers rely on a lot of convenient ignorance by the hotel staff, but it works within the scope of this story.
Interspersed with the introductions and the setup, we get a flashback to how and why Murphy left the police force. Her last case involved crossing paths with a presumed dead killer named Declan who’s gained some “hellish” powers. The case went unsolved, and Murphy chose to leave the police force when Lewis made his very generous security job offer.
The foursome enters the secret passage to find out where it leads and who might be using it. As they walk, Myers informs the group that this hotel guest’s death has similarities to a series of murders committed nearly a century ago by H.H. Holmes, America’s most prolific serial killer.
In a series of gory, gruesome vignettes, Myers explains how Holmes was a hotel owner. Holmes gained his reputation through many heinous crimes he committed against his guests, not discovered until much later. It took years for the police to form a case against Holmes, and after he was eventually arrested and convicted, Holmes escaped, never to be seen again.
The vignettes are the highlight of the quarterly purely for the sadistic and creative methods Holmes uses to dispatch his victims. This comic doesn’t imply anything, and you get to see it all in gruesome glory.
When the foursome makes their way deeper into the secret bowels of the Gemini Hotel, they are picked off one by one in a series of booby traps that would make Jigsaw proud.
Eventually, only Myers and Murphy are left… or are they? When they get to the heart of the Murder Hotel, they come fact-to-face with the killer to bring the quarterly to an unhappy ending.
The ending is satisfying enough, but there is one thread that’s never addressed. Through the art and a certain piece of jewelry we learn Declan, the supernatural killer that scared Murphy off the police force appears connected to the Murder Hotel killer, but it’s never explained how they’re connected at all. It would have helped to tie up that thread before the conclusion.
How Does It End?
Not everyone in the foursome is the person they say they are. Immortality has a price. Murphy is given an offer she might not be able to refuse.
Final Thoughts
GRIMM TALES OF TERROR: H.H. HOLMES, available from Zenescope Entertainment on April 7th, 2021, is a worthy successor to the EC Horror comics of yesteryear with a modern edge. The art is bloody good, and the story has plenty of twists and turns to keep readers on their toes.
Score: 8/10
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