THE JOHN BRUNI MUSEUM OF MEDIOCRE (AT BEST) SHIT #4: EVIL ERNIE MONTHLY #8 REVIEW

This is the first comic book review I ever wrote, and it was the first thing I ever wrote for the Elmhurst College Leader. They had never had a comic book reviewer before, and to the best of my memory, they haven’t had one since. I think at that point I was a curiosity to the professor who ruled over the school paper. But what the hell? I eventually got a Chicago tribune state award for one of these things. I’ll tell you which one when we get to it.

From The Leader February 22, 1999

For the past seven issues of the Evil Ernie monthly, Evil’s gone soft.

Believe it or not, everyone’s favorite undead teenage psychotic hasn’t been living up to his hopes for Megadeath (the death of every living being on earth). In fact, there have been some instances where he actually let some people live! Not only that, but the series had slowly turned from a B-movie gorefest to a big joke.

It was good to see that writer/creator Brian Pulido has put his foot down and intervened by writing a new story arc in the monthly.

Finally, Evil Ernie is back in black and more terrifying than ever. The new storyline, “Trauma!,” is the purest form of a horror story. Pulido has stated that he studied as many horror movies as possible in preparation for writing this tale of terror. The influence of George Romero’s Living Dead movies has been apparent from the beginning, but there are new techniques to be found here.

For example, the horror aspects of this comic, all the way back to Youth Gone Wild, have always been outlandish yet believable. Inside the Black Box there is a group of scientists perfecting a virus that would wipe out all the Dead Onez once and for all. They round up zombies and test the virus that is supposed to be 100% communicable on them.

If you are a reader of the Evil Ernie series you can guess who is behind this plan. Dr. Price, the comic’s resident cantankerous gun-toting psychotic is back.

Returning also is creativity. While the fight sequences have been pretty uniform recently it is good to see new ways of mutilation. In one particularly gory moment some poor guy gets a hand through his chest before getting pulled through a crack in the door behind him, bent over backwards so his heels could touch the back of his head.

The plot is simple and delicious for all horror fans: there is a bunch of people in a building with Evil Ernie hunting them down. Apparently Evil is not too pleased that the scientists are experimenting on his Dead Onez, and has taken matters into his own hands. It is probably the most rebellious thing he has done since killing the president of the United States in Resurrection.

In a world where the best horror can offer up is “I Still Absolutely Positively Know What You Did Last Summer,” or whatever they call it, and “Scream,” it is good to see that someone knows what’s going on, and Brian Pulido is that man.