Film to Print: Comic Coverage – Fright Night #4

The Fright Night book just continues getting stranger with each issue. Truth be told, I really don’t remember the stories being quite so outlandish. I suppose a few decades takes a toll on the memory.

…or maybe I chose to block a few of these books out of the memory bank.

In this fourth issue we see Peter and Charley again team to combat some supernatural menace that’s targeted man as the next great meal. But here’s where it gets weird: the supernatural, in this instance, is Calimari, a giant man-eating sea beast who’s come to consume a whole lot of California residents.

There’s another mysterious sea monster lurking about, but this chap isn’t of the antagonistic bunch, rather, he’s there to help ensure the casualty count remains as small as possible. When Peter and Charley are brought in to team up with the strange sea creature things go from kooky to, cooked to explained as an act of revenge (a lengthy act that, to the credit of writer Jim Van Hise, is drenched in some pretty black humor that feels rather welcomed) for all the toxic nastiness man’s been dumping into the ocean for decades.

I like the fact that there’s a somewhat savvy message to the book. But the execution, and the story in general is just really hard to hang on to. There’s hope that things find their way back to normal, or at least a tad closer, in coming issues, but there are only about 20 issues left in the entire run, which means time is running out fast, and it’s beginning to become evident as to why Now Comics had to cut the cord on this one.

Again, it’s all about clinging to hope at this point. We need a few connectors to the film franchise for familiarity and core concepts, even if we’re not following any specific storyline directly tied to either of the first two Fright Night films.

Rating: 3/5