Bloodscent (1988) by Dean Allen Schreck, Gene Colan, Steve Oliff and others
Comico had done this before with some of their books before — reaching out to a famous person vaguely in the same field as the book’s subject matter. It makes sense — but the connection here seems tenuous, to put it mildly.
But that’s a good way to start a horror book.
And Colan’s artwork looks lovely. Eclipse had previously published some of his uninked work with varied results, but this looks very good. Colan’s a difficult artist to ink, because his pencils are so moody and swirly.
The writer goes for a 70s horror comics feel where the text explains what we’re seeing, and it does set the mood. But when the text describes a gleaming eye, and there’s no gleaming eyes to be seen, it starts feeling disconnected.
And Schreck just isn’t a good enough writer to keep the language consistently spooky. “He dropped he pace a hair, opting for stability.” Scary it’s not.
Dean Allen Schreck… the editor-in-chief’s name is Bob Schreck. Could Dean Allen be his brother, by any chance? Yes indeed! Not that there’s anything the matter with your brother giving you a comic book to write — that’s what’s brothers are for — but this does remind me of a common theme with many of Comico’s books: They often seem to be put into motion by the editors, and not by artists offering Comico their work.
With the licensed properties, like Gumby, it does make sense that editor Diana Schulz would badger Arthur Adams into making it, even though he had little interest in Gumby per se. Several of the other series are books that have previously been published somewhere else, but then the editors reached out and asked whether they’d like to be published by Comico instead.
There seems to a lot fewer books where people came to Comico with new properties and said “do you want to publish this?” It’s just a bit unusual…
Stygian black. Check. The black of space without stars. Check. I think what he means is that it’s quite dark out.
Fortunately it’s not so dark that he can’t see Dracula and His Companions arrive to dreeenk… heees… blood…
It’s not even much of an ironic ending — I mean, the serial killer gets killed by Dracula (well, or some other vampire), which is pretty standard as these things go — but it’s…
Well, Colan’s artwork’s fine, and essentially carries the book. With an artist not as accomplished, the book would essentially have been nothing.
And we get a bonus — a short story by Schreck. It’s not good.
But Bernie Mireault’s illustrations are.
And lucky us! We also get a poem. Can’t say they skimped on the features.
I guess the moral of this book is: Sometimes nepotism doesn’t yield excellent results.
Comics Scene Volume 2 #5, page #33:
Bloodscent was truly frightening to
me,” says Gene Colan, the veteran
comics artist who illustrated the
forthcoming title from Comico. “I read it
and the hair on my arms was standing on
end. It was very believable. Tomb of
Dracula [the classic series he drew for
Marvel Comics written by Marv
Wolfman, see page 21] wasn’t that
believable; I was always aware that I was
reading a story. With Bloodscent, I knew I
was reading a story-but it felt like it
could have happened.”
A newcomer to comics. Dean Allen
Schreck adapted Bloodscent from his own
short story. Explains Schreck, “Blood-
scent is based on a serial killer—it’s very
difficult not to give away too much of the
plot-who has the tables turned on him,
and finds out what it’s like to be the
prey.”
Although he had written the text ver-
sion of Bloodscent before the comic went
into production, it has yet to be published
in its original form. “It was supposed to
be, but the publisher had a delay in
scheduling, so I had to pull it,” Schreck
says. “On the other hand, the story just
seemed to belong in a graphic format.”
If the writer’s name sounds familiar, it’s
because Schreck’s brother Bob is ad-
ministrative director of Comico. By now,
cries of “Nepotism!” are echoing through
seen my work all along. He liked this
story. He had the idea before he ever took
it to Comico that this would be perfect for
Gene Colan,” Dean Schreck notes.
Bob Schreck explains, “I took my
brother’s name off of it and then gave it to
[Comico execs] Phil and Dennis La Sorda
and Diana Schutz. I guess they thought I
wrote it. They said it was terrific, and
then I explained that Dean had written it.
They said, ‘Let’s talk about it. If you’re
willing to go through the hell of explain-
ing how this came about, we’re will-
ing…’ It worked out great.”[…]
The art in Bloodscent has been
reproduced directly from Colan’s pencils.
Others have previously attempted this
with Colan’s pencils-notably Eclipse
Comics on Ragamuffins and the second
Detectives, Inc. series and DC on
Nathaniel Dusk I and II (all written by
Don McGregor). By all indications, this
try is the most successful yet. Bob
Schreck says that’s because of some good
advice and a new technique.
“I have to say thank you to Dean
Mullaney at Eclipse Comics. He was 100
percent supportive and helpful in giving
us all the information he had on how they
put their two books together.
“The challenge was to present the raw
Gene Colan-pencils only,” he notes. “We
at Comico pride ourselves on the jobs
we’ve done in the past. Space Ghost and
Rio were technical nightmares, so here’s
another nightmare we gave ourselves.
“What really turned it around for us
was that Concept Color, our color
separator, gave us the idea of laser-scan
separating the pencil art as well as the
finished color art and then combining the
two. Previously, the pencil art had just
been photographed and screened. This
means we’ve been able to capture not just
Gene’s hard pencil line but his wispy tex-
tures as well.”
Bob Schreck says the decision to do
Bloodscent as a one-shot rather than as
part of an anthology or as an on-going
series was largely a commercial one. “We
wanted to test the waters, to see how peo-
ple feel about a horror comic and
discover whether the sales would warrant
continuing,” he explains.
Fantasy Advertiser #109, page #6:
Bloodscent: A Tale Of Modern Terror
by Dean Allen Schreck and Gene Colan;
Comico.
Comics that try to be scary generally
aren’t. Comics written by brain-dead hacks
that promise to “convey a special lamenting
morbidity, a pang that nestles in the pit
of your stomach and can’t be shaken by
sunrise” don’t have a chance.
Bloodscent is an exceptionally mundane
‘horror’ story. Its concession to “modern
terror” begins and ends with the inclusion
of a serial killer and from there on it’s
straight into the gothic with vampires
and all the people he’s ever killed coming
back to haunt him. The story is tedious
and regurgitated and it seems incredible
that they think they can get away with
it.
It’s like this; Dean Allen Schreck is
some sort of horror fan-boy. He writes
short stories, one of which is printed
as a back-up to the comic, and bad poetry,
an example of which you can find on the
back cover, and, and this is a major and,
he’s the brother of Comico boss Bob
Schreck. Dean has read, seen and obsessed
over so many genre horror stories that
he truly believes that all it takes to
scare people is murders and vampires and
blood. He wrote a comic that contained
these vital elements and passed it on to
Bob who couldn’t turn it down because Dean
is his brother.
Bob then has a problem. He has a shit
comic book to sell (though whether he sees
this as a problem is academic at best –
he’s got millions of shit comic books and
it’s never seemed to bother him before)
and it’s a shit horror comic book. All
he needs now is an artist and who does
he know that’s a good horror comic artist?
Why, Gene Colan of course, he did Dracula
and Night Force and they were horror comics
(well frightening, personally I couldn’t
sleep for a week after any issue of Tomb
of Dracula). So he gets Gene, and as has
now become traditional, he realizes that
it it imperative that Colan’s artwork must
be reproduced from the pencils, cos that’s
what you do if you’ve got Gene. Never mind
that Gene’s as boring a hack as anybody
else working in mainstream comics, he is
a horror artist, and that should do the
trick.
Bloodscent isn’t at all scary. It’s
turgidly written, badly drawn and displays
no imagination of any kind whatsoever.
It does though contain one unusual and
amusing twist. Whereas most comics writers
make the mistake of writing captions that
describe the pictures, here Gene, the
artists, draws, literally, the writer’s
bad similes and metaphors. Thus we have
the caption “A black hooded snake thing
devouring his humanity whole like a plump
and tasty rat,” and beneath it a picture
of said imaginary snake eating a plump
and tasty rat. “His fear pounding now like
an endless hall of massive steel doors
slamming shut in rapid succession,” is
written right next to a picture of loads
of doors slamming. Brilliant. Who said
comics could never be great?
I’d pan this some more but a far more
effective criticism would be for you to
skim through a copy sometime because it
says more than I ever could. Bloodscent;
A Tale Of Modern Terror. They’re not even
joking.
– Andrew Moreton
Harsh!
Amazing Heroes #155, page #70:
Oboyohboyohboy!
Another off-beat effort from
Comico. You know, the guys who
publish Gumby and Grendel and gave
The Jammer his first full-color book.
The guys who love comics so much
they put out a line-up with nary a
clinker in the bunch.
Well, they haven’t ruined their track
record yet.
Bloodscent is a chilling little tale
built around the premise of a serial
killer ceasing to be the hunter and
becoming the hunted.
Dean Allen Schreck has taken all
the elements of a number of conven-
tional horror tales and given them
some zippy and demented little twists.
Whether you enjoy monster sellers
featuring warped serial killers, or
vampire/creature-of-the-night chillers;
whether you enjoy classic horror
flicks or the latest strangeness from
Stephen King/Clive Barker/Dean
-Lawrence Burdick
Koontz-there is something here for
you.
As the book progresses from the
killer almost being interrupted at
work, to the chase and the inevitable
conclusion, there is a tone, a mood
that permeates every page. This book
is scary!
And the horror/humor of the last
line is completely unexpected. Packs
a wallop, too.
The art is perfect for the tale: hand-
painted ethereal tones over finely-
detailed pencils. Gene Colan has done
other things in this way: a couple of
detective mini-series’ over at DC and
Ragamuffins for Eclipse. Here,
though, is the perfect vehicle for this
type of work. And Colan really rises
to the challenge.
Bloodscent is easily Colan’s best
work since the early Tomb of Dracula.
Facial expressions, body language,
surreal (though only just) scenery.
Wow!
But wait a minute! There’s more!
Acts of Darkness is an equally hor-
rific text story with enough subtlety
to drag a scream from the most
hardened horror fan when the dawn
comes. And the unsubtle, yet surpris-
ingly sophisticated illustration by The
Jam’s Bernie Mireault adds a
convincingly creepy atmosphere to the
proceedings.
Comico should be proud of this
effort. This is the stuff of which
nightmares are spawned.
GRADE: MINT— Sheldon Wiebe
Opinions differ!
Comics Interview #97, page #49:
DAVID: BLOODSCENT.
GENE: Oh, I loved it, I think it came out
well. The writer is sensational! Dean
Schreck is his name, Bob Schreck is his
brother. Dean Schreck is a very talented
man. A very quiet, unassuming type of
person, shy – but boy is he one first-
class writer! I wouldn’t mind him being
on anything that I would do.
Gene Colan seems very nice.
And they reunited for a backup story in Marvel Fanfare #51, which is nice.
Bloodscent was something truly groundbreaking. The story features a look into the mind and the actions of a serial killer. If that wasn’t enough, said look was illustrated and shot straight from the pencil art of Gene Colan. This was pure, unadulterated Colan, with all of his mood, impressions, and cinematic staging.
I’m not able to find any further chatter about the book on the web, so I guess it didn’t make much of an impression. It’s never been reprinted.