Students Of The Unusual
By 3 Boys Productions
$3.50

Like everyone else under the age of 70, I missed the golden age of the horror anthology comic book.

In fact, if it weren’t for reprints of the those wonderful old EC comics like Vault Of Horror and the 1970’s Marvel reprint titles like Chamber Of Chills and Where Monsters Dwell, I wouldn’t have even KNOWN there WAS a golden age of horror anthology comics.

Sure, there have been some great attempts to revive the genre in recent decades. DC Comics published Wasteland and the brilliant Flinch series several years ago. And the late, lamented Pacific Comics had the extraordinary Twisted Tales series, but for the past 20 years, the horror anthology has been deader than the TV variety show.

Now, 3 Boys Productions have not only breathed some life into the genre, they’ve actually got it to wake up — like the unholy experiment of a mad scientist — and lurch around the laboratory for another go-around.

I have been a fan of their comic Students Of The Unusual since I saw the first cover (featuring Satan as a test tube baby) at the local comic book store in 2004. Although it takes awhile for each issue to come out (the last one I have is the Giant-Sized Extra Credit Special published in 2006), a small group of talented artists and writers keep plugging away to produce a consistently terrific horror comic.

In the first issue alone, we have Moko Makai, by Terry Cronin and Ply Bernatene, a neat little story of tattooing and headhunting; Under The Bridge by Cronin and Jorge Calamato, featuring a homeless man meeting a troll that lives under a bridge; and Recalcitrant Jones and The Deadbeats, about a guy who sells his soul to put together a rock band that includes Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon — and Lawrence Welk on the accordion.

Actually, Recalcitrant Jones had a great spin-off/special in 2005. With a freewheeling story by Cronin and cartoony but stylish art by J. Chris Campbell (art that reminded me of the neat art by Shag I have enjoyed in the magazine Juxtapoze).

That special was also serialized in later issues of Students Of The Unusual, but Recalcitrant Jones has been absent from comics far too long and is overdue for a new appearance.

Of course, one of the biggest problems with horror anthology titles is that in four or five pages, you don’t really have a chance for a lot of characterization. It’s hard to care that Mel gets chopped up with an axe unless you have some emotional investment — which is difficult to do when you’ve only met Mel a few panels ago.

But this is one of the strengths of Students Of The Unusual — for the most part, the stories really draw you in quickly. One reoccurring device in the series is Uncle Pat telling gruesome (and sometimes darkly funny) “campfire stories” to a group of boys. The boys are his “students” of the “unusual” stories he presents. This “campfire stories” approach to comic book horror anthology works great for a variety of reasons.

One reason is that it immediately establishes a more intimate mood — the reader instantly becomes part of the group hearing the story for the first time. Also, the reader doesn’t have to work so hard “suspending disbelief.” Even if the story involves a giant squid or a manatee mermaid, it is, after all, just a campfire story. You really don’t have to believe every word for the story to be compelling and eerie.

This is storytelling in its purest form: no backstory to establish, no need for a Rod Serling-type narration to tell you why you should be interested, no elaborate set-up for a tale that slouches toward the inevitable “punchline” — just a strange little story told by an unreliable narrator, who doesn’t really care if you believe him or not.

The satisfaction a reader gets from this kind of horror story lies mostly in the skill of the storyteller and the consolations — if any — that the horror may be only the product of an unstable narrator’s wild imagination.

When the story is done, the reader safely becomes a refugee from the “land of the weird” and is back, safe and sound in their own familiar reality. After all, horror stories are fun places to visit, but you sure don’t want to live there.

In Students Of The Unusual this “campfire tales” approach is done as well as I’ve ever seen any horror story presented in a comic book. I’ll take the “Uncle Pat” style over — let’s say — “Caine” the narrator of the old House Of Mystery comic book anthology, because Uncle Pat isn’t working overtime to be creepy.

I’ve seen the Students Of The Unusual MySpace page (link below) and, like most independent comic creators, 3 Boys Productions have been hitting the convention circuit to drum up business. I understand they are doing well and have attracted new fans, but I hope they have a new issue published soon.

Rarely have I read an anthology like Students Of The Unusual that is weird and funny and subtle and suspenseful and makes me genuinely anticipate the next issue.

Cronin and company deserve the support of horror comics fans to make sure there will always be a “next” issue — and many more after that.

You can visit the 3 Boys Production MySpace page HERE.