4 out of 5

Flinch hits way more than it misses, but when it misses… well, it somehow manages to really miss.  I guess we can thank the editor(s) for consolidating all of the not so great stories into single issues, but it’s still strange how it’s either 3 for 3 or 0 for 3…  Sometime during the late 90s / early 2000s, Vertigo put out a handful of anthology books, and they were all a ton of fun.  Not 100% genius or anything, but worthwhile reads with a lot of great writers and artists tossing out a few pages of sci-fi, or horror, or whatever.  I totally dig the anthology format but it’s tough to get it right.  Dark Horse is doing an Eerie / Creepy reboot right now, which is great, but Flinch still edges it out in terms of re-readability, as it slots in line with the ol’ DHP presentation of regular issue size, regular price, and at a consistent 3 tales for book, everyone had a clear understanding of how much space they had to work with, and as a reader you knew you weren’t going to be slogging through some 16 part bore or 1 issue with a front or back loaded story, which was where DHP used to flop sometimes.  Flinch also stuck out from these Vertigo anthology packs because it was an ongoing, whereas Weird Westerns and the rest were generally 4-issue minis.

The Vertigo banner was at its best during this era, having been established as a haven for freedom without having the taint of the “what’s the next book we can get mentioned in Time” that started to happen in the mid 00’s when kids stopped buying comics and trades and deaths of Captain America became all the rage – this meant that Flinch could only have existed the way it did at that point in time – not having to strive for over-gore shock value (a la Avatar) and willing to toss in more comical horror or more psychological horror as the creators / editors saw fit.  Some of these creators have their best work in this series, and there’s the boon of it being surrounded by other great works so yer not wasting you’re reading time hunting for that one issue.

Anyboo, not much more you can say.  Expect yer regulars like Bruce Jones and Corben and Lansdale, and while the contents are along the horror book lines you’re familiar with, so they’re more entertaining than scary, the covers of Flinch were something else – truly some really creepy imagery to bag and board.