YOUR INDY WEEKLY: AMOUR/THE EVIL INSIDE #3

[MattBrady]

by Ryan McLelland

Amour / The Evil Inside #3
Approbation Comics – 2006 - $3.50
Written by: Bart Thompson
Art by: Ezequiel Pineda
Website: http://www.approbationcomics.com

Rating: 3 stars (out of 4)

Approbation Comics has a great thing going for it right now as the company is producing a fine line of horror, drama, superhero, humor, and romance books which will give fans of any genre a wide array of titles to choose from. I’ve been a monster fan of the company’s Myriad anthology line for a long time now and I finally sit down to review one of the company’s books, a crossover of sorts between two titles they are publishing right now: Amour (a romance book) and The Evil Inside (a horror book). Romance plus horror usually equals puppy dog love with intestines. Sounds like some good reading to me.

The book again uses an anthology format and presented within Amour/The Evil Inside #3 are three very different stories about ever-lasting love and how, in these cases, the afterlife can have a very chilling effect on those relationships. Take the first story, a tale called Mirror/Mirror, for example.



The story deals with a young boy who imagines a beautiful woman as a best friend. As he grows up it turns out the beautiful woman helps him out a great deal and soon as he goes to college everyone is wondering just who his great but never seen girlfriend is. Turns right out it is the girl in the mirror that no one can see. His self-obsessive behavior probably made him miss out on many of college’s finer offerings but young Dave knows he is in love with the woman only he can see. That is until one day when an acquaintance of Dave’s shows up to rob him and ends up shooting everything including Dave and the mirror. Of course this leads to the horror aspect of this pleasant romance and the ending of the story that I would not want to give away here.

But the coupling of this romance book and this horror book is done very eloquently but writer Bart Thompson, who also writes both of the regular series. He has no main characters to speak of; just stories influenced by dreams or perhaps true life that sometimes have a wicked ending, a sad ending, or something morbid that you would never dream of. That is what I loved about this book; it was full of ideas that haven’t been done yet. Nothing is worse than reading a book and finishing it while knowing that you’ve already seen that in some cheesy eighties horror flick.



This book seems a great way to attract readers to Approbation’s unique brand of comic books and Amour/The Evil Inside #3 captures some unique storytelling that will want you to search out the individual issues. I know from reading this issue that I would like to read each individual series. The book doesn’t really gross you out but the plots and endings of the stories usually bring the horror aspect and disturbing images into the panels, so, as the cover points out, those under thirteen years of age should not be picking up this book. Anyone else should at least pick this one up if you are interested in horror or romance stories because this comic brings them together brilliantly.

Have an indy comic you’d like reviewed? Contact Ryan at rdmclelland@hotmail.com.

[idkidd]

wow, this looks pretty cool. I'd love to read a follow up article(s) interviewing the person or people behind the company.

[Egg]

Looks good! I'll have to see about finding it.

[idkidd]

hmmm, I can't seem to find where you purchase this on their site or any diamond order codes.

[Gonzogoose]

Hey guys, I'm the letterer of the book. Glad you guys are interested!

I actually couldn't find where to buy this specific issue, but here are a couple of links to buy other Approbation books:

http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/in...b775bc88cfdea6

http://www.approbationcomics.net/

And here's Alex's ComicSpace page, which has some previews:

http://www.comicspace.com/alexapprobation/

[AlexLothos]

Originally Posted by idkidd

wow, this looks pretty cool. I'd love to read a follow up article(s) interviewing the person or people behind the company.

I know I'm game and I'm sure Ezequiel and Brant are willing. Let's make it happen!

Originally Posted by Egg

Looks good! I'll have to see about finding it.

Hey man, won't you be attending the NYC con? I was planning on showing them to you anyway!

Originally Posted by idkidd

hmmm, I can't seem to find where you purchase this on their site or any diamond order codes.

They're only available through Indy Planet and ComiXpress... unfortunately this issue hasn't been posted on either just yet. The only one up is Amour #1. Soon...

Originally Posted by Gonzogoose

Hey guys, I'm the letterer of the book. Glad you guys are interested!

Hey, man! Ha! I was just going to send you this link. Thanks for posting those links for everyone!

[AlexLothos]

I still have physical copies for anyone who wants to order directly, just PM me!