Zenescope Entertainment 2014
Written by Steve Yockey
Illustrated by Vincenzo Riccardi
Coloured by Fran Gamboa & J.C. Ruiz
A botany student visits the in-home laboratory of a scientist, Dr. Rappaccini, who is known for his experiments with plants. During the student’s visit, he finds himself almost drawn to Rappaccini’s daughter. But is the temptation worth the consequences?
I am a fan of this series on the whole but i’m not a fan of this mysterious redhead who kind of tells the tale to someone who's done something wrong. In this instance the idea of the story is fascinating and something that needed more time to flesh out and tell and the pages that were wasted with the redhead really cheapened the experience with the Dr. and his student. For me there’s this 70/30 ratio where the use of our Tales from the Crypt style hostess detracts from the issue and it works for the issue in question this issue is in the 70 percent category.
Let’s get to what I really enjoyed about this book. First off Vincenzo’s interiors here like coming up on the Dr.’s residence overgrown with Kudzu and all the flowers taking up the lawn instantly give you that creepy ominous feeling which sets the mood perfectly for this book. The flowers alone give off this weird vibe to em like there’s something not right about them but still beautiful it’s creepy and that’s why i’m a fan of this!
The premise here is strong and intriguing. With limited page count to tell this story though it felt rushed and that too much information was left out that would have gone further to this being a chilling story. I did find it interesting when Dean and Max see the Dr. and he’s wearing this sweater, scarf and those gloves how cold is he keeping that house anyway? So right off the bat we’re thinking about this looking for clues and seeing what we can before it’s revealed.
Max has use the facilities and of course after being told not to wanders off in search of the Doc’s daughter. Now we hear in the narration as Max wanders his version of recent events and then Max finally sees Jane. He’s stupid, headstrong and willful and is overcome by his hormones and does everything he can to touch her. Gosh see now I wish we’d had more time to learn how she does what she does because it’s all too brief for my liking. I want to see more it’s like the Invasion of the body snatchers kind of stuff and I want more.
While it’s an all too brief look at what happened here’s hoping that perhaps in another title this can be revisited and expanded upon as we see Dr. Rappaccini discover the cure for his daughter’s cancer and then learning first hand the disastrous side effects.
My hope is that the redheaded hostess gets axed and we get a full length story to really chill us properly.