Frank Forte is the publisher and founder of Asylum Press, as well as an illustrator and the companies main scribe. Forte says that Asylum Press is “dedicated to cutting edge comics, trade paperbacks, and art.” This was my first experience reading anything published by Asylum, and the stories I experienced were original and disturbing! Forte writes this comic and Nenad Gucunja provides the illustrations.
This is a tale of an awkward young man’s quest to forge the gap between the living and the dead in order to save his bloodline from an evil magic. The story is told as a narrative that eerily reeks of Poe and Lovecraft, presenting a dark take on one of America’s most tragic natural disasters…
When Alfred Carter’s mother died, he was left alone, shutting himself inside his old house. Forced to rummage through his late mothers belongings, he finds a skeleton key. This key is Alfred’s ticket to a place forbidden to him his entire life; the attic. What have his parents been hiding from him all these years? Now, for the first time, Alfred holds the power to reveal his family history and learn the answers to his darkest questions.
The writing and art of this issue is vivid, assaulting the (six) senses, allowing the reader’s imagination to run wild. Forte does a great job scripting a dark, twisted tale that is filled with surprises. He questions the power of prayer (and the beings who listen to them), claiming that taking matters into one’s own hands is sometimes the best action, if not the only action… Gucunja’s black and white images take the time to detail the horror and stress that Alfred experiences on his journey. The inking is fantastic, showcasing intense close ups and chilling full page shots. One such shot depicts the remnants of a place that has suffered through Mother Nature’s wrath. Alfred reflects on the scene, “It was only a matter of time.”
Undead Evil #0 has a creepy feel from the first page to it’s abrupt, cliffhanger ending. The comic will leave you pondering the dark secrets of your own family history, so be sure to look for it in comic shops come December 2009.
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