Maybe it’s the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show doing it to me, but I hear “Science Fiction Double Feature” in my head a lot lately. And the double feature coming to mind, that almost haunts me, is Diabolik LLC’s Professor Dario Bava books. One side offers you a wonderfully over the top tribute to Italian horror films with a dash of 21st century sensibility. The other smacks you with the grittiness of a spaghetti western, if Charles Bronson were a zombie.
The adventures of Professor Dario Bava do slide over into science fiction, as one of his teammates has time-traveled from the future. Though he’s billed as “the Paranormal Playboy,” Bava may be the least competent of his crew. Still, they’re all stalwart in the face of vampires and demons who have managed to infiltrate a Catholic convent — as their first step in destroying the world.
Lushly illustrated by Mike Dubisch, the inaugural adventure Orgy of the Blood Freaks has the oversaturated color of a vintage Mario Bava film, tuned up by writer Phil Mucci doing double duty. There’s blood and a little guts but mostly fun. As implied, there’s maybe a little sex, so if the title didn’t tell you, this really isn’t for kids.
Flip that book over for a character who would have fit perfectly in DC’s 1970s book Weird Western Tales. Two chapters in of Gringo Loco, and it’s not quite clear if the protagonist is a zombie, a revenant, or perhaps something akin to Frankenstein’s monster. He’s grim; he’s driven. Though lumbering and somewhat terrifying, he’s a bounty hunter with a sense of honor.
Hearkening back to that Weird Western Tales reference, Mucci and his business partner/producer Dan Simpson got classic Jonah Hex artist Vicente Alcazar to do the art. Mucci’s coloring has a grittiness befitting a horror Western, different from his work on Professor Dario Bava.
Both sides of the book hit the right edge of nostalgia without feeling trapped in the past. If anything, they might drive you to some classic Italian cinema as you wait for the next volume. Yes, Mucci and company have run Diabolik LLC’s comics output purely through Kickstarter, followed by convention appearances where you can buy the books (or online).
They’re worth the wait, and we’re almost to the finale of the inaugural adventures. Let’s keep the buzz (not the buzzards) going so that Dario Bava and his cohorts can make it to other media as well.
