Puppet Master #6 Review and *SPOILERS*

When Bad Puppets Turn Human..... and Then Get Killed By Bad Puppets

Written By: Shawn Gabborin
Art By: Michela Da Sacco, Yann Perrelet
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: September 23, 2015
Publisher: Action Labs: Danger Zone

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

For those of you wondering what this fool is doing putting a Puppet Master comic up on a DC Comics site....... well, apparently you haven't been around that long because It's Just For The Hell of It Mondays and even more than that, it's the week of Halloween and that means I get to put whatever the hell I feel like putting up on here and you can't do anything about it........ not that you could anyway, but I'm working on a power trip here so just go with it.  Anyway, I'm trying to get back to my horror comic reviews for Mondays because lately I just haven't had the time to keep up with them and I'm terribly lazy on top of all that, but hopefully I'll be able to continue my fun in horror on a regular basis.  In the previous issue, we saw our favorite Puppets from that epic, decade spanning film franchise known as Puppet Master acquire the aid of an old fortune teller with the ability to transfer souls.  Since our favorite diminutive devils have lived inside wood for so long and have been forced to act along with the will of whoever decides to be their master, they've had enough and after collecting bodies they intend on living out the rest of their natural lives in, our stars of this comic shed their former bodies and begin living like people again for the first time since the second World War......... Too bad, that their former bodies aren't too keen on rejection though because we see the start of our heroes being cut down by their corresponding puppet.  Let's see if the rest of the gang can survive their past and find out what the hell is going on.  Let's check it out.



Explain It!:

We've got ourselves a Ten Little Indian situation going on here kids, as we see the rest of our characters killed off one by one and even though that sounds like a really straight forward tale with no real wiggle room for fun and excitement, only murder and mayhem, it does manage to really grab you and make sure that you're enjoying yourself.  Right away we get to see Shooter sleeping off whatever libation he drank in excess the night before, while the woman who brought him back to her place sleeps beside him.  Now I'm no prude or nothing, but what this issue taught me is that you should really know who you bring back home with you because as we saw here, their Puppet counterpart might come in the middle of the night and blow their damn head off......... Just food for thought.  So yeah, in an awesome page we see Six-Shooter kill the human Shooter and it was drawn to perfection with hilarious panel timing.

After Shooter's untimely death, we jump to the next morning, where a bunch of our gang meet up and see how human life is treating them again and while the majority of this event is pleasant, Elsa (Leech Woman) thinks that there is something wrong because the Jester puppet that the psychic allowed it's former occupant: Hans to keep, disappeared during the night and Elsa plans on talking to Madam Adon to see if she has any nefarious schemes in store for this band of friends....... and even if she doesn't, we all know that some shit is going down from this soul transference.  During this get together we see the young disturbed Eric who once lived inside of Torch watching on before returning to his cardboard box home, where we see that he's already taken care of his former vessel by tying it up and pointing it's flamethrower hand towards it's own head in case it gets any ideas.  Getting back to the disturbed part of Eric's description, he's also building what looks like his own flamethrower hand....... and judging off how he reacted to the rest of the group after they became human again, I can't say that I see this being a positive thing.

In the end, we see the final hours of Herman Strauss (Pinhead), Dr. Hess (Blade) and Hans Seiderman (Jester) before they are beaten, slashed and Rube Goldberg-ed to death by their respective puppets.  Yeah, I'm simplifying the whole thing, but I can assure you that the whole experience was completely worthwhile for any Puppet Master fan out there........... possibly people who aren't fans as well, but since I've been obsessed with these movies for twenty plus years, it's hard for me to put myself in the perspective of people who have never watched and loved these characters do their thing.

Even cooler than everything else we've talked about tonight, we have the ending that takes us someplace that I never expected this series to go....... and that's saying something because this entire storyline is amazing in all the new things it's showing us.  That being said though, as this issue closes we see every character that's been cut down by their former vessels wake up in hell........ That's right hell and with a cliffhanger like that, I can't wait to see what Shawn Gabborin has in store for us next.

That's it for this issue of Puppet Master and while I've been accustomed over the years to comics that continue horror franchises simply churning out stories just for the sake of trying to profit off of fans who crave new media from their obsession of choice.  Action Labs has actually gone above and beyond any expectations that I had going into this series by continuously delivering original, continuity filled, further adventure type stories month after month that look fantastic.  I'm under the opinion that anybody who has ever called themselves a Puppet Master fan should be buying this series if only to make sure that it continues for a long long time because it delivers on things that the film series never could.  Yeah, I'm stroking the shit out of Action Labs and the creative team behind this series, but as someone who probably rented the first five Puppet Master films over a dozen times in the 90's at my local Blockbuster or West Coast Video, I'm telling you that this is for my money, the best horror film adaptation and continuation that I've ever read.  It's opening up new avenues to take these character to and shedding light on mysteries that fans have been wondering about for decades......... and on top of all that, it's fun.

Bits and Pieces:

Puppet Master continues to be one of the best horror film adaptation comic series that I've ever read and it makes me so excited to see what else Action Labs plans on pulling out of the Full Moon Features library in their attempts/success in bringing these cult characters to life in a new medium.  On top of being a fantastic book to look at, the writing feels like it was written by a fan for the fans and since I'm selfish, I think it was meant just for me.  Continue the fun and deep mythology of this franchise in this excellent series that's taking us to places that we've never been.

9.2/10