With Glenn Danzig’s new movie set to hit VOD this month, we look at his comic anthology series Verotika, released by his comic publishing house, Verotik. We will also take a look at one comic that Danzig wrote that has been adapted into the movie, though not certain it actually appeared in the anthology.
For those who are unfamiliar with Glenn Danzig, he was the lead singer of the band The Misfits and is a solo artist in his own right. Danzig is also an avid comic book and horror fan. In 1994, during the comic book bubble, he started publishing Violent Erotic, or as he called it, Verotik. Danzig was able to get some amazingly talented artists from this period to work on his comics, such as Grant Morrison, Tim Vigil, and Simon Bisley. Let’s dive into the Verotika trade paperback, released in ’96, collecting the first stories featured in the anthology that is now a movie.
“Room Where Love Lives,“ written by Grant Morrison with art by Kim Hagen, was featured in Verotika #2. This is one of the better stories released in Verotika. It’s a supernatural tale about a room filled with dark magic that is causing the family that lives in the house to become sexually depraved deviants, and anyone who enters the room falls under its spell.
It is up to Aubrey Valentine and his assistant to battle the evil and exorcise the room. The art is graphic and sexually explicit, as to be expected. The colors are decent for early digital, and it’s a well-paced story; what could be expected from Morrison at this point in his career?
“Demon Love,“ written by Nancy A. Collins with art by Estaban Maroto, featured in Verotika #3. A woman is dreaming of having sex with a demon. She has become bored with her mundane life and is craving excitement. She goes to a bar looking to find something and ends up going home with a monster. Not a whole lot going on here, but it’s a fun time.
“Blessed be The Bound,“ written by Lucy Taylor with art by Stan Shaw, featured in Verotika #5. A dystopian future where crimes such as incest are met with harsh, disfiguring punishments. And incest is a common theme in this book for some reason. The story here is deep and manages to build a world with only nine pages. The art is abstract and minimal, yet very effective. This is a good read and goes beyond just being explicitly graphic.
“Changeling,” written by Graham Masterton with art by Eric Canete, was featured in Verotika #6. A married man and a woman meet in a bar, the man is drawn to her and can’t help himself. He spends days locked in a hotel with the woman, neglecting work and family. When he tries to leave, she draws him back in until the change is complete; he is now the woman, and she is now him.
This is another solid story. The characters and scenario are fun to explore and see where things will head. Will the man give his life and his family to this person? The art is effective, stylized and angular, with digital colors.
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“Grub Girl,“ written by Edward Lee with art by Simon Morse, was featured in Verotika #8. This story, about an undead prostitute, has actually been made in to a movie already, albeit a porno movie. The story is basically the Grub Girl explaining her world and how it works, which gets continued in additional Grub Girl comics. The art is very Bisley-inspired, with the artist’s own twists. It’s definitely a grimy comic.
“She Only Likes Men,“ written by Glenn Danzig with art by Adam Pollina, featured in Verotika #9. This is a pretty short story and not much story at that. It’s basically about a girl who likes men, and she spends her time changing into her outfit after getting out of the shower while explaining how much she loves men. That’s pretty much it. The art is okay, and there’s nothing special to this one. It’s probably the weakest in the anthology.
“The Albino Spider of Dajette,“ written by Glenn Danzig with art by Eric Canete. This comic, as far as I can tell, was not featured in the Verotika anthology comic but is featured in the movie. It is about a French model named Dajette, who never seems able to close the deal when it comes to sex. Whenever her top comes off, her partners always run away at the sight of her breasts, which have eyeballs for nipples. Her sadness over her inability to have sex leads her nipples to cry, and the tears land on an albino spider in her apartment.
This spider is a manifestation of her frustrations and goes on a raping-murdering spree. Dajette is distraught because she doesn’t know about the spider and people around her are dying.
Danzig did a good job on this story, and it’s both unusual and surreal. The art does a good job of expressing the strange story and is abstract in its approach with Canete’s angular style. The coloring is a little better than the anthology because the limitations are used stylistically in the comic to great effect, though still looks like rough digital coloring. This was a fun read, and you get drawn into seeing how Dajette will resolve her problems with the albino spider.
I have not seen the Verotika film yet, but what I can say about the comics featured in the anthology is that they remind me of horror movies such as Hellraiser or a movie like The Devil in Miss Jones. They can be dark and violent comics at times, and the stories are more sexual with twists that remind me of EC horror comics.
If you’re curious about Verotika, the film will be available for VOD on Halloween via Cleopatra Entertainment.
