Huh, Googum reviewed this issue about two months ago, and it's the one I pulled from for Sunday Splash Page #116.
Having escaped the mental hospital he was in, and Proteus' (a shape-shifting scientist guy, not to be confused with the X-Men villain) attempts to experiment on him, Jack Ryder's trying to figure out what to do next. He's staying in a friend's apartment while she's away, but as you see, the Creeper's not a morning person. He only wants to be out and about when it's time to par-tay.
Up and awake, Ryder looks over some notes that recap the first three issues, including the part where he realized the origin story Ditko originally gave him was some more pleasant fantasy his mind concocted to protect himself. Not sure about that creative decision, but OK.
Jack's gotta pay the bills, so he goes looking for a reporting job, starting at the Daily Planet. He tells Perry White the paper can use a little fresh blood, but is told he'd either be writing obituaries, or supervising the office morgue. Which triggers a flashback to Ryder's own death.
Prior to this series starting, Ryder went hunting for a story in Parador, 'Numb little suckhold postage-stamp South American armpit of the world,' that was in the midst of a revolution. Ryder and the Creeper agreed the yellow guy was better suited to handle this. He wasn't ready for starved, crazed hyenas lurking in the jungle, who killed and ate the Creeper.
Or they tried to, because they apparently couldn't digest him, and the Creeper's parts were barfed up into a mass grave, and gradually merged back together. At which point the Creeper dug himself out, turned back into Jack, and the reporter staggered naked through the jungle until he crossed paths with an anthropologist named Miriam Leary.
Nearly having a breakdown during the interview does not get Jack the job. He doesn't have any more luck at any other newspapers. Including one run by a cigar-smoking publisher who wants proof a certain menace, no doubt wall-crawling, is a threat to decent people.That's OK, he didn't want to work in newspapers again, anyway! He wonders, though, if his past is holding him back. Returning to his family home, he marches into the woods, where as a boy, he once encountered a mysterious skeletal creature. Possibly the "Creeper" his mother warned would eat him if he didn't behave. The creature shows up, and Jack switches to the Creeper, who quickly dismantles it. The Creeper assures her that it'll take care of punishing bad boys from now on, and the ghost, or psychic echo, fades away after telling Jackie he's a good boy.
All of that is somehow useful for Jack's mental state. Closure, I guess. He returns to his friend's apartment and there's a message waiting with an offer from a magazine. (There was also a message from the anthropologist, but the machine cuts off too quickly and we never did learn what that was about.)
[3rd longbox, 13th comic. The Creeper #4, by Len Kaminski (writer), Shawn Martinbrough (penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Sherri van Valkenburgh (colorist), John E. Workman, Jr. (letterer)]
3 comments:
I love the art style!
It is a different look, kind of rough and wild in places, especially with the Creeper himself. I don't know that I've seen Martinbrough on anything else, and I didn't know Sal Buscema ever worked for DC. Buscema shows through in some panels more than others, that strong line with the square jaws.
It's a bit McMahon and a bit Mignola, I like it. I never got on with Buscema's art on the Spider-Man comics, but with the thicker lines and lots of shadows, it comes across much better, although maybe that's more Martinbrough's pencils.
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