Dark Horse Comics
(W) David Dastmalchian (A) Lukas Ketner (C) Lauren Affe
Count Crowley is an 1980’s era, campy horror story centered around our unlikely heroine, Jerri Butler, who is having a hard time making her life work. Bored by her midwestern existence, she has turned to alcohol to dull the feeling. After losing her job as a local television news reporter for getting drunk on air, she has one last option to pay her mounting bills. She must put on the makeup and play Count Crowley, the host of Friday Night Scream Theater. Only thing is her new job may have responsibilities she didn’t count on.
This series is David Dastmalchian’s first comic writing credit, but he should still be well known to comic fans. Dastmalchian is also an actor with several credits on both DC and Marvel movies and TV shows. He made his film debut as one of Joker’s henchman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight and has also played Kurt in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Lukas Ketner is an artist who has worked on such Image titles as Kill the Minotaur and Witch Doctor. Ketner is a great choice for drawing this comic. His art turns this world of Count Crowley’s upside down where the horror seems true and important while regular everyday life feels cheap and schlocky like a b-rate movie.
Count Crowley’s creative team makes the reader feel like a kid watching a bad horror theater program of the eighties with hosts such as Svengoolie or Elvira, Mistress of the Night. The host cutting in on the movie to crack bad jokes and doing little skits. The worse the movie was the more fun the show. This first book is an enjoyably “chilling” intro to this fun campy romp.