THE TWILIGHT ZONE by Harlan Ellison and Neal Adams – Ben’s Horror-Comic-Athon October 2018 #4

In the spirit of Halloween, Ben is reading one horror comic every night before he goes to bed. Will they keep him up? Or will they put him to sleep? We’ll find out…

It’s October 4th. I went to the comic shop today. Two of them, actually. And I bought a couple comics intended specifically for this series. This comic is one of them…

ENTRY FOUR:

THE TWILIGHT ZONE: “Crazy as a Soup Sandwich – NOW Comics; Harlan Ellison, writer; Neal Adams and Cory artists; published 1991

Harlan Ellison is one of the greats.

This story by Harlan Ellison is not.

This story is a script that didn’t make the grade for one of the Twilight Zone revivals that has happened over the years. But with his name, and the Twilight Zone license, and Neal Adams providing art, the existence of this book makes sense.

But . . .

Spoilers ahead:

It’s a classic “don’t make a deal with the devil” sort of tale. And it doesn’t rise above that. The twist is that the guy the main character runs to for help is a worse “devil” and now our main character has made a deal with a WORSE devil.

The set up is clumsy. None of the characters are particularly likable. It just lacks some of the “oomph” a good ol’ Twilight Zone needs. It’s rote. It’s by the numbers.

Some of the best Twilight Zone episodes ARE rote and by the numbers.

But ALL of the mediocre ones are. This one just doesn’t rise above.

I had high hopes when I opened this book. But the twist ending for ME was . . . one of sci-fi’s legends together with one of comics’ legends was unable to create a tale that was, if not legendary, at least memorable.

(NOTE: This one has a text story in it as well, also by Ellison. I haven’t read it yet. Plan to. We’ll see if that helps add value to the purchase of this comic . . .)

PREVIOUS                                                                               NEXT

You can read the rest of this series here: Ben’s Horror-Comic-Athon October 2018

While Ben’s not podcasting daily for the entire month, The Comic Book Time Machine will be going daily for a week at the end of October. Don’t miss our WEEK OF WEIRD, as we explore some weird comics from October 25-31!