Monday, March 04, 2024

BOOK REVIEW! FORBIDDEN WORLDS GIANT VOLUME 2  (Gwandanaland Comics, 2022)

Other'n HERBIE I gotta admit that I know practically nil about the ACG line of comic books, and if FORBIDDEN WORLDS is any example of what the rest of their stable was like I dunno if I'd wanna. Compared to the competition the horror sagas that pop up in this title (at least judging from what's to be found here) are pretty lamesville and woulda probably passed the scrutiny of Dr. Fredric himself, at least if you plied him with a few shots. Artwork's OK enough but doesn't exactly grab you by the kajoobies (none of the big names who did work on the title, people like Al Williamson, Joe Orlando and Frank Frazetta amongst others, pop up in this volume) and I gotta say that there just are too many happy endings, at least as far as the more romantically-inclined stories go.

To be as honest as Brad Kohler about it, there are a few goodies mixed in with the turdburgers like the one where some guy gives a cold shouldered gal a love potion and she still goes for him even after he stabs her and she's rotting away (well, that 'un WOULDA been tops on the Wertham hit parade), or the one where the hotcha lady (of course) married to the aged dudster (natch!) has a shriveled fortune teller type of woman (aren't they all?) put a deadly hex on him, and the lady's handsome boyfriend (well, he does look better'n you!) tells her not to pay the millions the gypsy is owed and to have her killed... Betcha never saw a story like that in yer life have ya??? Still given the track record of at least the stories that pop up here this one did come out on top!

There are plenty of other Gwandanaland titles to splurge on and I think you all got the idea which ones that would be worthy of you having in your own personal library. But whatever, leave FORBIDDEN WORLDS outta it --- no only is the price forbidden but the stories to be found within ain't gonna do your sense of comic book appreciation one bit of good neither! 

1 comment:

A. J. Payler said...

If anyone wants to read these comics, they're in the public domain--these scans are the source of most of Gwnandanaland's content in any case. Literally every issue is totally free and clear and best of all since it's public domain, if you find some cool piece of art you can save and use it in your own projects without fear of corporate litigants coming after you for besmirching their valuable "IP".

Don't pay exorbitant prices for what is already yours by right, download it all at: https://comicbookplus.com/?cid=874 (also available at https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=127 but they only go up to #84 instead of all the way to #99)