Dead Beats: A Musical Horror Anthology edited by Joe Corallo and Eric Palicki
A Wave Blue World, 2019
ISBN-13: 9781949518030
Available: Paperback, Kindle, comiXology

Dead Beats contains 24 tales of music and horror introduced by a sort of horror host, The Shoppe Keeper. As she leads the reader through her record shop, new, horrifying, poignant, and well-illustrated stories emerge.

While I enjoyed all of the vignettes in this anthology, there are some that stand out. “Grotesque”, by Cameron Deordio with art by Brent Schoonover, focuses on a long-lived rock band with a new member to the lineup. It is crucial that he gets every note perfectly. It means their career, and lives.

In “Reversed Cards”, by Nadia Shammas with art by Sweeney Boo, two bandmates visit a tarot card reader who delivers an ominous message. When it comes time for them to go on tour, the tarot effects the decision of one of the members, who decides it would be best for her to skip the tour. What comes of her choice presents rather unexpected consequences.

Sometimes we all get that one song stuck in our heads. In “Earworm”, by Christof Bogacs and illustrated by Giles Crawford, anyone who listens to a certain track gets more than just a worm. This one was particularly unnerving.

One of my favourite comics teams is writer Ivy Noelle Weir and artist Christina “Steenz” Stewart. “Beyond Her Years” gives us the story of a young woman driven to complete her musical opus after breaking into a haunted music building on her campus.

“”Let’s Stay Together”, by another favourite writer of mine, Vita Ayala, and illustrated by Raymond Salvador, is heartbreaking. I don’t want to give the whole thing away, but I feel that it is a beautiful love letter to the elderly LGBTQ community. I had to put the book down momentarily to let this one sink in. That last panel is absolutely lovely.

I recommend this book for libraries specifically who are interested in increasing their independently published comics collection. This is a fantastic anthology, expertly curated by the editors and beautifully written and illustrated by everyone involved in its creation. Highly recommended.

Contains: blood, gore, murder, racism, sexual assault, sexual content, suicide

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker