2 out of 5

Woof, if this is really the best of Terror Tales…

Here’s the thing: 2000 AD and the Meg have certainly encompassed plenty of genres besides sci-fi – including horror – but I’m not sure if I’d highlight one of those ‘besides’ as ever making as much of an impact as its main titles.  Maybe it’s a cyclical vibe thing, that the authors enchanted by the book tend to have interests leaning a particular way, but while The Dark Judges or similar inclusions can certainly tickle a horror-fied fancy, from what I’ve read, sci-fi and fantasy still rule the day.

The Terror Tales collected here mostly function in the Future Shock / Tales from the Crypt last-panel ‘gotcha’ format, and I must say: they are wildly inventive, which, in itself, is unsurprising with guys like John Smith contributing bits.  And they’re arted with skillful grotesquieries, thanks to Edmund Bagwell, Warren Pleece, and more.  But the stories are also, to a one, underwhelming.  Not even because of predictability – titles like Blackspot, with its randomly descending villain, are impossible to predict – more because these guys are writing beyond the pages.  Which totally works for sci-fi; world-building is expected.  But horror is often better with more focus, and none of these tales manage that.  Weird criticism, yeah?  In each case: you’d want to know more.  The few pages we get simply aren’t enough to do the ideas justice, and as a result, nothing makes much of an impact.

Is a sister horror mag the solution?

Maybe.  But these chaps are already costing me many dollars in the weekly and monthly, so let’s leave that market to others for now.