Taboo #3

Taboo #3

by Stephen R. Bissette (Editor)

Taboo is a comics anthology edited by Steve Bissette, designed to feature edgier and more adult comics than those published through mainstream publishers. The series began as a horror anthology, but soon branched out into other genres as well.

This issue features work from Glenn Dakin & Phil Elliot, Bernie Mireault, the return of Tim Lucas and Mike Hoffman's Throat Sprockets as well as the second chapter of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Stephen R. Bissette is an American comics artist, editor, and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He is best known for working with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC comic Swamp Thing in the 1980s.

Reviews

[Bill Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bernie Mireault piece is mostly interesting for the art. Veitch and Weiner's "A Touch of Vinyl" is the kind of piece that usually annoys me, but they make it work, and the art (made on an Amiga!) is really well-done.

I'm a fan of Lucas/Hoffman's "Throat Sprockets", but the design and layout in this installment is less interesting than the one in Taboo #1. Has Mike Hoffman done anything else that I should check out? From his goodreads listings, his work seems mostly to be Frank Frazetta-like big breasted women in tired fantasy settings, very different from Sprockets.

I really should revisit the entire From Hell sometime.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great Taboo re-read continues. Book three is another excellent volume, although I was surprised that I only recalled two stories, maybe three, from when I first read it 20-odd years ago (of course, one of them was chapter 2 of "From Hell," which I first read here and have since read at least three or four other times.)

The book opens with one of my favorite stories in this volume, "Pokerface" by Bernie Mureault. It's an imperfect horror story with a weak-ish ending, but boy does it build well. Not very taboo-busting, but it's beautifully drawn and powerful in tone.

"A Touch of Vinyl" by Rick Veitch and Jack Weiner is still a powerful, fucked-up story, and it's also quite notable for its use of photography and a computer to create the art. Probably the best computer-generated art done in comics up to that date -- remember, this was 1989, well before digital cameras even, and the art was done with a Commodore Amiga 2000!

"Vulnerable" by Glenn Dakin and Phil Elliott is an excellent story, a slice of quiet dread. "One Good Trick" is deeply taboo-breaking and disgusting, and highly influenced by the underground comics movement. I didn't enjoy "Throat Sprockets: Transylvania" by Tim Lucas and Mike Hoffman as much as the first chapter of the story in Taboo 1, but it's still interesting work.

Now we get to "Love in the Afternoon" by Rolf Stark and Marlene Stevens. This later became part of Stark's magnum opus of brutality, "Rain." It's underground, dark, painful, taboo in every which way, powerful, beautiful, ugly, nasty and honest. Re-reading this was like having an decades-old nightmare flooding back into my brain with all of the initial force it had the first time around. A lot of people remember/credit "Taboo" for the first appearance of "From Hell" and other Alan Moore works, but for me, "Rain" is the work that persists in my brain and will never let go.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid set of horror yarns, this time featuring the talents of Rick Veitch, Jack Weiner, Bernie Mireault, Glen Dakin, Phil Elliott, Jim Wheelock, Rick Grimes, Tim Lucas, Mike Hoffman, Rolf Stark, Marlene Stevens, and capping off with the second chapter of Alan Moore's and Eddie Campbell's From Hell.

The first major story in this volume is "Poker Face" by Bernie Mireault which takes on a very alt-comix approach to horror. It's a bit abstract but deeply immersive bit of storytelling, though the ending is a bit too open-ended for my liking.

The next story is "A Touch of Vinyl" by Rick Veitch and Jack Weiner, and it's probably the most memorable one of the collection. I'm not usually one for mixed media involving photos/phototracing, but Veitch makes it work easily. The horror is palpable throughout, even if the story is just about one man's obsessive love for his sex doll. It's equal parts funny as it is revolting, and that's credit to Veitch and Weiner for seamlessly telling a short, but effective story like this.

"One Good Trick" by Jim Wheelock is somehow even more repulsive and transgressive, but it's effectively done and the rough cartooning works well for the story at hand. If the series "Taboo" is named for anything, it's for stories like this one.

"Love in the Afternoon" by Rolf Stark and Marlene Stevens is similarly horrifying as the others mentioned above, and serves as a foundational piece for Rolf Stark's Rain, one of the great underground horror comics.

The various other entries are solid as well, and the capstone of the book is the second chapter of From Hell, which is surprisingly fun to read serialized like this. Another great volume in this all time great horror anthology and it makes me wish we still had anthologies of this quality now.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeeeesh.