Creepshow Holiday Special 2024 // Review
Bertie Crenshaw was born in the wrong era. It’s London. It’s 1899. The world is about to enter a whole new century. Bertie longs for a time he does not know and gets a bit more than he was expecting in Creepshow Holiday Special 2024. The writing team of Tini Howard and Blake Howard put together a New Year’s horror with “Auld Lang Syne.” That issue-opening story is brought to page and panel by artist Steven Subic. There’s also a second feature of an entirely different flavor written by Rob Williams with artist Pye Parr.
Williams tells the tale of “Late Night Terry Reno.” It’s the story of a late night TV variety host who is well beyond the peak of his popularity. He’s told that he’s thought of as being out-of-date. There’s only one thing that they want out of an old washed-up guy: his old schtick. So if he wants to tape that holiday special...he’s going to bring back his old partner: a ventriloquist’s dummy that he can’t stand to work with. It’s going to be a rough taping for Terry...
The Howards’ tale is deeply entrenched in the rich tradition of reasonably contemporary people dabbling in ancient energies. It’s not something that is often done for the holidays, though. And that makes it kind of fun. It's not an overwhelming holiday feeling. However, there's just enough suggestion of a new year to keep it comfortably entrenched in a holiday anthology. Williams keeps it sharp for his tale of Terry and the dummy. TV is a complicated business and there are a lot of places where fictionalized horror can get it wrong. There isn’t a whole lot of room to move around inside the confines of the story and Williams keeps it all simple enough to be entertaining.
Subic keeps the inking quite heavily in the shadowy tale of the turn of London 1899. A group of wealthy Brits look to dabble in the power of ancient Egyptian gods and though there IS a considerable amount of magic flowing through the tale, Subic is wise to keep the visuals grounded in earthbound drama. For the second feature, Parr keeps the art as simple as Williams’ script. Parr does a really good job of fusing different elements of different late night hosts into the aging visage of the old TV host...making him look very, very familiar. This aids the impact and the deliver of the second story immeasurably.
It’s fun to get a couple of additional horror stories for the holidays under the Creepshow cover. And it’s nice to get a little bit more time with the Howards, who have been a great deal of fun in the shadows between the panels of the comics. Great to see it all come together so well. There’s nothing terribly deep or disturbing. No new nightmares here, but it’s all a great deal of fun for the holidays as the year draws to a close.
