Creeping From The Comic Crypt - Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #1

Right now there's a new take on the Creature From The Black Lagoon, but you won't find it at your local cinema or your favorite streamer. No, to get Universal Monsters: Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives, you'll have to go to your digital or analog purveyor of comic books!

The first issue from Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint at Image Comics swam up from the depths this week and presents the continued adventures of everyone's favorite Gill Man. Written by Ram V and Dan Watters and penciled by Matthew Roberts with Dave Stewart colors and DC Hopkins letters, the series carries on the legacy of the original films while taking the story to new depths.

Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives stars Kate Marsden, a reporter who had been working on a story about serial killer Darwin Collier when she nearly became his next victim. She followed his trail to Peru, but struggled to actually track him down. When people in the village start drowning -- Collier's preferred method of murder -- the locals chalk it up to the their resident monster, but Marsden thinks its her target.

I was super impressed with this first issue. It can be such a daunting task to carry on the adventures of beloved characters like this. And, unlike with someone like Dracula and Frankenstein's Monster, there just haven't been that many takes on Gill Man to, forgive pun, muddy the waters. V and Watters came together to offer up a compelling, sympathetic lead and a potential human threat that seem poised to work well off of each other. We don't see a lot of the Creature right off the bat, but that's the perfect way to handle him as he skulks in the background before fully showing up.

Visually, the presentation is just fantastic. Roberts has a bit of an exaggerated style that works well within this story and his facial expressions are fantastic. Just look at the morgue scene! But the real test is how good the Gill Man looks and Roberts does not disappoint. We get just a taste, but I can't wait to see even more of this world expanded in the rest of the series. Stewart, one of the best colorists in the business, fleshes everything out, juxtaposing the city with the verdant jungle.

This title marks the second series to expand on the Universal Monsters stable of characters. Skybound started with a Dracula series by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds. Skybound's founder Kirkman also wrote Renfield, a modern re-examination of the relationship between the title minion and his boss, Dracula.

The Creature From The Black Lagoon is considered one of the classic Universal Monsters, but his 1954 film came more than 20 years after the loose collection of misfits kicked off with Dracula. The film follows a group of researchers in the Amazon who discover the Creature and wonder how much of him is man and how much is monster.

Thanks to the unique look of Gill Man -- which came from Milicent Patrick, the subject of Mallory O'Meara's excellent The Lady From The Black Lagoon book -- and those mesmerizing underwater shots, this film holds a special place in many a horror fan's heart. The two sequels, Revenge Of The Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us don't quite hit the same way, but are interesting watches.

V's been taking the comics world by storm, starting out on creator owned titles and transitioning to books like Detective Comics and Justice League Dark at DC and Carnage and Venom at Marvel while still making his own comics like The Many Many Deaths Of Laila Starr at BOOM! Studios. In fact, Watters co-wrote those DC books with V, but also has credits like Lucifer, Coffin Bound and Creepshow (also from Skybound) to his name. Roberts has been a part of the Skybound family for a while now, drawing the 48-issue run of Manifest Destiny among other projects.

Creature From The Black Lagoon Lives #1 is available right now with the second issue scheduled for a May 29 release.