RECOMMENDED: "Nameless" by Morrison & Burnham

- by Ninja Ross, 24 June 2015

Horror comics are pretty much always good fun! Monsters running around, biting people, jumping around and generally making a mess everywhere. It's nice! And when you throw Grant Morrison into the mix, it gets even NICER. And WEIRD. Because that's what Grant Morrison is known for; nice and weird. Strange, intelligent, acid induced stories are his thing and "Nameless" is no exception.

The cover. Click to enlarge.

So, things start off nice and weird in "Nameless" issue one!

Basically, things aren't going so well. All over the world, bizarre stuff is happening. An astronomer forces his family to drink bleach, before writing a cryptic message on the walls and hanging himself with barbed wire. Naturally, he makes sure to post the pictures on Facebook, which is a nice break from the kind of stuff you usually find there.

Somewhere else, a man is dragged from his house by police, leaving behind his butchered family. Along the way, he shouts “Shit rain down on you.” Of course, it's pretty clear he's not responsible, since we saw the evil fish men surrounding his house. Evil fish men are terrible people!

While the death toll rises, we're introduced to our titular protagonist. That's right, titular. Because the book is following a guy called Nameless.

Nameless is an occult specialist and con man. While on the hunt for a magic key, things go a bit pear shaped. It all turns out ok, though! Until the people who hired him to find the key ask him to help stop a magic asteroid named Xibalba, which is heading for earth!

Shit rain down!

Transported to a moon base kept hidden during the Cold War, Nameless and a handful of experts in several science-y fields plan to land on the asteroid, have a look around and then stop it from hitting earth. Because giant asteroids hitting earth hasn't been good for it in the past, and God knows what a magic one would do.

Of course, it's not as simple as that. Throughout the first four issues, we're treated to dream like imagery, strange ideas and all kinds of weird, horrific... Stuff. Even on the moon base, things are going wrong. Andrea Blackstone, considered to be a genius, has murdered the group's first occult specialist and is now locked up in a cell writing on the walls with what is probably not paint.

And things just keep getting worse as they get closer and closer to the asteroid. As you can probably tell, it's more than just a magical bit of space rock. It's better! It's a rock full of Lovecraftian horrors!

“Nameless” kind of resembles Paul W.S Anderson's “Event Horizon” when trying to sum it up, but it's so much more than that. It's full of intelligence, craziness and genuinely good horror.

Things just keep getting more horrifying and interesting, as more of the asteroid's secrets are discovered. And earth is plunged further into chaos as Xibalba gets closer, leading to more freaky dreams and visions, giving more away, yet raising more questions.

Morrison hasn't really written a lot of horror, but this book proves he definitely has the ability to craft some genuinely frightening stories. The script is nicely paced; Every disturbing scene is never out of place and every reveal is spaced out, giving each new element plenty of room to breathe.

Morrison takes the sci-fi horror genre and gives it his own unique blend of crazy and creativity, but it wouldn't be half as good without  Chris Burnham's art and Nathan Fairbairn's colours

Burnham helps breathe life into Morrison's script with his nicely detailed style. While Burnham does some pretty incredible work in every panel, giving each character a unique look and plenty of expression, it's the more horrific scenes that give him the chance to shine.

There are plenty of scenes full of body horror and weirdness, but there's one particular full page scene at the end of issue three involving head maggots and mutilations that really shows how great a horror artist Burnham is. It's equal parts disturbing and satisfying!

Fairbairn's colours are an essential part of what makes this book look as good as it does. He brings a brightness that makes the dark, horrible parts of the book look even bleaker somehow. It's almost a bit surreal at times. But when everyone's losing their mind in space and on earth, you can't help but notice just how good everything looks with that extra dash of colour.

Nameless is an excellent horror comic book. It's an excellent comic book in general! It's full of terror and mystery and never falls into any horror pitfalls. It's fun, disturbing and nice. Really really nice!


Are you reading "Nameless"? How do you like it?

Tagged: comics, Reviews, RECOMMENDED.

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