Critters #9

Critters #9 from Fantagraphics brings Tom Stazer's cover art to vivid, unsettling life — a wide-eyed, sweating cat creature dominates the foreground, claws splayed and teeth bared in pure alarm, while a dangling noose, a sneering figure clutching a saw, and a framed angry face crowd the lurid pink background with gleefully menacing energy. The whole composition has a rubbery, underground-comix looseness that makes the dread genuinely fun. With "Haunted (Part Two)" on the docket, this 1987 anthology issue promises more of the offbeat anthropomorphic storytelling that made Critters a standout in the Fantagraphics lineup.