Bigfoot #2 (IDW)
Written by Steve Niles and Rob Zombie
Art by Richard Corben
Colours by Tom B. Long

In my review of the first issue of Rob Zombie, Steve Niles and Richard Corben's Bigfoot I tried to make it clear that this comic is not for everybody. I would like to reiterate now, for the sake of clarity: If you don't want to see Sasquatch messing up a lot of innocent people in a particularly savage fashion, I advise you to not pick up Bigfoot. With that out of the way, I'd like to actually commend the title for being the best example I think I've ever seen of a schlocky horror movie by way of a comic book. That feel was present in the first issue, and it gets driven home hard in the second. From the structure and pacing and the way the whole thing is laid out there can be no doubt. Bigfoot is a nasty seventies monster movie that never got made.

I'm afraid though that the title may have be an example of a recent phenomenon that has been bothering me. It's a 4 issue mini-series that seems at least from the first two installments, to be geared for reading in one sitting. It's not uncommon, but the amount of plot development in this issue doesn't exactly make for a terribly engaging read on it's own. Summarizing it all is quick, and doable in two sentences. Bigfoot has re-emerged in 2004 and is killing campers and drivers in the viscinity of Shadow Hills National Park. Billy, who was orphaned by the crazed beast in the first issue gets a gun and goes out to hunt the monster down. The majority of the page count is taken up with Bigfoot's insanely vicious attacks. That's all well and good as the murderous set pieces really add to the monster movie feel. But it makes the issue fly by awful quick. In the context of the full length of the story I have no doubt this won't bother me. But having shelled out $3.99, I was hoping for something a little more meaty to read. Obviously it's a lot easier to get people to sample a four issue mini-series than to just release it as a graphic novel, but it ends up being a little frustrating for the monthly readers. Especially when we know that it'll likely be collected anyways. At the halfway point of this story I can honestly say that I'm interested in where it's going, but that I'm frustrated at the fact that it's going to take at least another two months to get there.

No complaints about Richard Corben's art though. The man draws horror comics with the skill and grace of someone who has been doing it for a long time. Which he has. He pulls off some really memorable tricks here, illustrating a sequence where Bigfoot maniacally chases an ATV in such a way that it has the slowmotion feel of being pursued in a nightmare. Of course there's more than a little gore to be had and it's uncommonly vicious.. make no mistake Corben is not about your easily digested cartoon violence. What he does is visceral and shocking, and not for the faint of heart. Fans of gore should be happy with it, and I must say it's nice to see someone who can still get a rise out of us doing this sort of thing, considering how jaded we've become to violence in our entertainment.

I am not the sort to recommend waiting for trade paperback collections of series. Bigfoot is testing my resolve in that department, I honestly feel that it will likely read it's best in one sitting instead of divided up. I suppose it may have a lot to do with the successful evocation of horror movie style. I wouldn't watch a movie in four half hour segments, and I'd prefer to digest Bigfoot in one big chunk. That's not a knock against the book, it's just a suggestion to achieve maximum enjoyment.