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Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: December 4th, 2013.
Writer: Alex De Campi
Artist: Simon Fraser
Cover: Francesco Francavilla
Purchase at Amazon
Grindhouse: Doors Open At Midnight is a series written by Alex De Campi, paying homage to midnight movies/grindhouse cinema/exploitation movies, so far in the form of two-part stories. Issues #1 and #2 took care of the bee women from outer space tale, and now issues #3 and #4 feature a story titled “Prison Ship Antaresâ€, the comic series' first (probably only) tale in the tradition of the infamous “Women In Prison†flicks.
De Campi's tribute to Roger Corman-produced movies like Women In Cages, Caged Heat, and The Big Bird Cage results in a sleazy little romp that follows the formula of the typical WIP movie, putting the horny and often nude prisoners on a space ship going to a planet five years away. Since they can't et volunteers for the mission, the next best thing is inmates, and even more so the next best thing is shapely naked female inmates. It's all here, including a sadistic warden, nasty torture, horrible deaths, and a plan to escape. What makes this book even more interesting is that Alex De Campi is a woman, and woman aren't usually the target audience with such subject matter, and she's just as nasty as any male would be with the material. Kudos to her…chicks need not be ashamed to dig the sort of stuff.
The artwork by Simon Fraser gives a nice sleazy vibe to the whole thing, as it should. It doesn't shy away from the blood and guts at all, but curiously it does avoid nipple shots and pubes. The nudity stays PG-13 and that just doesn't fly with the genre it's emulating. You gotta have the full frontal in a WIP story. You have to. At any rate the art totally fits the material and Fraser can certainly draw curvy women. The back end of the book features some fake movie posters for what we can hope to be future stories told in the pages of this interesting anthology-type series. “He came in peace…he left them in pieces! Black Russianâ€; and “Werewolf in Heat†(resembles a beat up VHS cover). Fans of sleazy B-movies should definitely give it a go. It's a really fun read.
