Damaged Goods
By Richard McAuliffe
How Do I Rate it?
N/A
Author : |
Richard McAuliffe |
Publisher : |
Markosia Enterprises Ltd |
Released : |
1st February 2012 |
Page Number : |
128 pages |
Collects : |
Damaged Goods #1-#6 |
R.R.P : |
£12.99 (TPB) |
Artist : |
Mark Chilcott |
Description : |
A collection of dark, twisted horror stories designed to get into your head and under your skin. Nobody is safe. Nothing is off limits. No one can be trusted.rnrnThis tome of twisted and sometimes horrific tales explains why not all damaged goods can be returned!rnrnDamaged Goods is primal horror that permeates your very soul and will be sure to stay with you long after you put the book down! |
Damaged Goods
It’s been said that, in order to give weight and substance to their prose, writers will draw on their own experiences when creating a story. If this was the case with Damaged Goods, I weep for Richard McAuliffe and the heinous acts that that he must have been subject to in the years before he wrote this book.
Damaged Goods launched at this year’s Cardiff International Comic & Animation Expo and is a dark collection of stories that focuses on the potential evil that lurks in the hearts of all men. Written by McAuliffe and illustrated by Mark Chilcott the book is the embodiment of twisted thoughts and half remembered nightmares the world over, and is most definitely not for the faint hearted.
As a huge horror fan I was eagerly anticipating this book in the run up to the Cardiff con, and luckily the guys didn’t let me down. As is typical with most anthologies the stories are a mixed bag, and the over reliance on gore and gratuitous violence may not be to everyone’s taste. Of the twelve tales featured in the book I enjoyed roughly half, with the standouts Hello, Zombie and Tea Party the pick of the bunch. Some stories felt like a case of style over substance, but fortunately they did not detract from my enjoyment of the book as a whole.
Visually the artwork is excellent, and captures perfectly the twisted tone of the stories. Chilcott’s black and white panels jump off the page, and really convey the gratuitous intensity of the violence contained within. There is the occasional misstep (the artwork for Captured seems to contradict the story it’s trying to tell) but the positives far outweigh the negatives.
Overall I would say that if you are a horror fan, you will enjoy Damaged Goods. While not every story will be to your liking I guarantee you will find at least a couple of tales to chill you to the marrow, and leave you checking under the bed before you go to sleep. Just pray you never meet McAuliffe or Chilcott in a deserted alleyway after sunset, as there’s no telling what may happen............
By Ryan Tandy
