The Molting: A Dark Story for Halloween
Comic Book fans of a certain age can remember when horror comics were an important genre in the American comics scene. I loved getting my Eerie and Creepy black and white issues in the mail every month. Eventually, those magazines and others of the same ilk went away and I turned to old movies and syndicated TV shows for my creepy thrills.
Now horror comics are in resurgence and there is much rejoicing! One of the recent standouts is The Molting, created and published by Terrance Zdunich. The first installment of the twelve-part independent series appeared in September 2009. Zdunich puts out an new issue about every six weeks.
The Molting story opens in Anaheim, California. 1961. In the shadows of ‘The Happiest Place On Earth’ a family tragedy shapes generations. The Pryzkinds, and their six-legged co-inhabitants (Zdnich’s trademark cockroaches), struggle to survive the horrors of every day life within the crime-filled streets of a decaying suburban neighborhood. Terrance Zdunich paints a chilling picture in The Molting a comic book saga that explores the human condition through the lives of one dysfunctional family.
Chapter 1: Guilty Susie
“Guilty Susie” follows Susie and her brother, Tony as the court award them to their aunt and uncle, after the untimely death of their mother. Soon they find that their next of kin didn’t take them out of love, but out of greed.
Chapter 2: The Happiest Place on Earth
In “The Happiest Place on Earth” Guilty Susie has grown up and settled into a guiltless semblance of the American Dream. Her aimless husband Abe, and their two teenage sons, Joseph and Trevor, haven’t a clue of her incendiary past. Only the cockroaches know what happened, once upon a time.
Chapter 3: Ootheca
The title relates to how the females within the Pryzkind family also seek to seduce and reproduce … but they keep their intentions better concealed.
Chapter 4: Lethal Raids
Gibraltar, 45,000 years ago: The family of Man pits thugs against thinkers. Antagonists against artists. Brawn against brains.
Anaheim, CA, 1990s: The Pryzkind family continues the age-old battle.
As creator and star of 2008′s instant cult classic film Repo! The Genetic Opera, Zdunich rose to fame with his portrayal of Graverobber, a drug dealer peddling the futures’ latest craze, Zydrate.
In conjunction with the release of The Molting issue #4 Lethal Raids, Zdunich debuted The Tutor, a weekly series of “killer” art tutorials. The Tutor takes amateurs and seasoned artists alike on a dark and twisted path to self expression. Students of The Tutor are encouraged to work alongside their instructor, submitting homework while learning everything from The Correct Way to Hold a Pencil to How Do We Know When a Painting Is Done? Good students may find themselves valedictorian and featured at the culmination of the series—a live one-night only event entitled The Tutor’s Gallery.
