3 out of 5

An over-sized, hardcover anthology of various horror stories from different artist / writer pairings, across various subgenres of straight horror, noir sci-fi, etc.

As compiled by Rachel Deering (who has a couple spots of her own in the collection), In The Dark collects together not only some big names in writing and art (Cullen Bunn; Tyler Jenkins; F. Paul Wilson; Mack Chater; plenty more), but just looks pretty damn good from story to story.  A lot of anthologies, horror or not, tend to have some lesser-than entries, especially when you get to a super-sized 300 page set like this one, but pretty much every single short offered in this book is professional: quality writing; generally stunning art; well-effected (and printed) colors; and varied lettering, often from Deering herself.  As a package, it’s also a fine deal, with extra care given to some awesome end pages (Tradd Moore), some fake or reprinted pulpy ads between stories, an extensive pinup gallery with some work that’s definitely deserving of standalone posters, a woven-in bookmark, and an impressive horror comic history from Mike Howlett.  The $50 price tag is justifiable.

What it’s not is very scary.  While I’ll give props to the majority of stories here for not pulling cheap Tales From the Crypt twist gimmicks, you’ve still seen most of these stories before, in some format or another, and not everyone has mastered the short format to make their few pages end satisfyingly.  Some original ideas definitely emerge – Ed Brisson’s The Cage is a fun idea; Marguerite Bennett’s Gestation is fittingly icky – and there’s one genuinely fantastically haunting story from Christopher Sebela and Zack Soto, but much of this comes across more as work-for-hire page-filler.  Like, we need a vampire story, can you do six pages on that?  And again, if you’re not trained in the short story format, that doesn’t always result in the best work.  Definitely readable, and written and drawn to a certain level of quality, but filler nonetheless.  I also found myself a little annoyed at the mix of what looked like newly made ‘ads’ and the reprints, as well as some ads that weren’t horror-themed at all.  I get that this was to make it feel more like an issue of Eerie or Creepy, but nothing else really went with that vibe – there’s no horror host – so it’s a weird effect.  I just would’ve preferred either all fake or all real, or noting where the reprints were taken from.

Given the hit or miss ratio of the stories – that they’re mostly on the board, with a few near or hitting dead-center – In The Dark is worth a read.  And although I have my issues with how some of it was set up, the effort behind the book’s presentation is clearly evident.