Chapter Eight: A Familiar Face
March 14th, 2007 Milwaukee, Wisconsin
“Welcome to your first comic book store!” Jonathan giddily announced while holding the door open for Stella. Walking into this strange new world that was Deranged Comics and Games, Stella saw unfamiliar faces looking her over. In the back, a heavy-set guy with big poofy hair sat at a table surrounded by a few other men as papers and dice lay scattered about. The table-top gamers stopped mid roll to stare at the store’s potential new customer.
“Hey, Jonathan,” a goth looking girl in a Wednesday 13 shirt greeted them with a smile, “so this is the is the girl you’d been telling me about!” Stella blushed nervously as she wasn’t always comfortable with people discussing her. Still, looking around at the other people in this store, Stella was glad to see this place wasn’t a total boys club. Stella gave a timid wave as the girl said, “I’m Rachel, the store manager. It’s great to have you here. What kind of things do you like to read?”
“Um,” Stella looked around at all the single issues, shelves filled with graphic novels tables covered in labeled boxes and answered, “all kinds of things I guess.”
“Alright, well these are our newer releases.” Rachel said while walking over a display rack against the wall covered with comics. “They’re all arranged alphabetically, and the boxes on the tables are older back issues. If you have any questions let me know.”
Stella nodded politely as Rachel went back behind the cash register. Looking at the comic book rack was like gazing upon an alien world, its god like citizens clad in spandex fighting the good fight for all time. Stella scowled at the sight of some of the barley dressed female fighters. “You know I was thinking,” she heard her boyfriend Jonathan say, “we should start a new charity.”
“Oh yeah, for what?” Stella asked, her eyes still perusing the titles.
“We should raise money to buy some more clothes for these female characters.” He quipped while holding up one of the offending floppys.
Stella rolled her eyes as she still wasn’t used to his cornball humor. “It’s a good thing I like you.” she said.
Looking back to the shelves, Stella noticed the titles displayed weren’t all spandex. She recognized some manga like Death Note and Oh My Goodness which her roommate Amber liked. There were a few horror books too, including what looked like several separate issues all with Halloween in their title.
“Rob Zombie’s Halloween.” Stella said out loud as she picked up her first comic book. The name Rob Zombie stuck out to her as she was a fan of his music and his House of 1000 Corpses movie.
“Oh, that’s right.” Jonathan went on to explain, “Rob Zombie was set to do a remake of the original Halloween, but the studio canned that so they could do Helloween. Zombie’s idea was for two movies,” Jonathan continued, “one about a young Michael Meyers in the sanitarium, the other basically redoing the Halloween night he escapes. This series is about Zombies first idea.”
“Wow, neat.” Stella said while taking issues 2-5 off the shelf.
Looking over her shoulder, her curly brushed against him as Jonathan leaned into her saying, “Supposed to be a six part series.” Jonathan then made his patented goofy smile and said, “I guess that means I’ll have to bring you back here for the sixth issue!”
He didn’t notice her blushing as his attention immediately diverted to the cover of another issue. It was a cyberpunk style collage of computer images straight out of the Matrix, only the monitors were dripping in blood. Jonathan quickly reached for issue one of Halloween: H2K Rebooted. Yanking the title off the shelf he said, “Check this out. Ever since Devil’s Due comics got the rights to the Halloween they’ve been doing all the follow ups to those anthology films. Pretty neat stuff.”
Jonathan then snatched Halloween title featuring a pair of dueling werewolves explaining, “Oh, this one is a crossover between Halloween Six and some 80’s TV show called Werewolf. Ever hear of that?”
“I don’t remember anything from the 80s. Do you?” She said teasing her boyfriend who was just a few years older.
“Oh, she burned you there Jonathan!” A thin man in a Bart Simpson T-shirt laughed as he approached and introduced himself to Stella. “Hi, I’m Aaron. Buying some Halloween comics huh?”
Stella nodded while looking down at her books. Aaron then asked, “Did you hear they’re doing a movie with Halloween and Hellraiser.”
“Helloween, right?” Stella responded, naming the title of next year’s crossover film.
“That’s right.” Aaron said excited. “Rumor is the cult leader from Halloween 3 is gonna get Michael Meyers and the characters from the anthology films; like the sea monster from H20 and the vampire from Resurrection, to team up against the Cenobites! Trying to top Freddy vs the Devil I guess.”
Another man approached and chimed in, “Hey Jonathan, that reminds me, did you hear they’re doing a comic crossing Pumpkinhead with Friday the 13th? It’s gonna be called Devil of Evil, Demon of Vengeance.”
“No Paul, I haven’t.” Jonathan said, but looking at his shirt, filled with the image of the titular character from the hillbilly horror movie known as Pumpkinhead, he added “and I can’t tell who your money’s on either.”
Paul then laughed saying “Wow, my sarcasm detector is going off the charts.”
Aaron then mimicked holding a scanning device, and in a nasally voice said, “Oh, a sarcasm detector, that’s a really useful invention!”
While the four all laughed together Stella saw a familiar face walked out from the back of the store. “Jesus mighty, you guys need to make like Jon and get a girlfriend.” Stella knew she’d seen this man before, with his mustache and dyed orange hair, but she couldn’t remember where.
“Oh hey, it’s Harry, the owner.” Jonathan pointed to him and said to Stella, “This is guy is like the Howard Hughes of comics. Remember this moment as we don’t see him here that often.” Then looking to the shop’s owner he said, “Harry, this is Stella, you might not recognize her, as last time you saw her it looked like she was dancing in a barbecue pit.”
“Oh,” Harry recalled, excitedly pointing at her saying, “you were at the movie dressed up as Freddy Krueger.”
Stella shyly nodded as Harry complimented, “That was a great costume!”
“Thanks.” She wondered how much he meant it, given she was slim and not all buff like Nightmare on Elm Street’s Kane Hodder.
“Have you been finding everything OK?” The owner asked.
Stella held up her Zombie Halloween comics as John said, “Yeah, it’s your lucky day. She’s about to buy her first comics!”
“Awesome,” Eying the five titles she held Harry said “Just so you know, issue six of that will probably come out next week. Despite how Johnny boy here is crackin on me, I’m always here on Wednesdays. You can come by and pick it up then.”
“Sounds like a date.” Stella said.
“Well how about that!” Jonathan jokingly protested. “You know some guys have a story about losing their girl to Mick Jagger or Robert Plant, here I lost my girl to Comic Book Guy!”
By the following Monday Stella had forgotten all about that humorous exchange as she stared at the computer monitor. “Bleep, bleep, bleep,” and the sound of the clacking keyboard echoed through the dormitory. Over AOL instant messenger Jonathan informed Stella of a poetry reading at the coffee shop that would be held in two nights. The memories of their first date lingered in her nostrils as she recalled the smell of freshly ground coffee. Memories of hot java were replaced by the actual present aroma of melted butter. “Hey love bird,” Amber said “I made some popcorn. It’s almost showtime.”
“Oh right!” Stella realized she’d lost track of time and excitedly typed “c ya l8r” into the instant messenger chat window. She smirked as her computer instantly bleeped back with the message “Not if I see you first.” Stella then left her desk to join her roommates on the couch.
The A&E network was on the television and the station hyped its series premier. Bates Motel was a prequel to Psycho set in the 1970’s. Early in the episode, an old car with luggage tied to the top drives by the beautiful Oregon coast. To one side were mountains lush with greenery, while the other side small waves crept onto the sands as the scene was scored with soft piano music. The scene then cut to an interior shot of the car, driven by the youthful beauty that was Norma Bates. In the passenger seat, her teenage son Norman flipped through the radio dial, stopping on a news broadcast that altered the mood of the splendid scenery about them.
Stella’s ears perked up as she heard the familiar voice on the show’s car radio. “in one of the most shocking and brutal crimes in the annals of American history.”
“Who is that?” Stella wondered aloud.
“Oh right, I heard about this.” her flatmate Michelle answered. “That’s Jon Larroquette.”
“Larro-who?” Stella asked.
“He was on an 80s show called Night Court.”
“Did you watch that when you were a kid?” Amber coyly asked.
“Fuck, I’m not that old!” the senior student said while playfully tossing a piece of popcorn at her.
“Anyway,” Michelle added, “he did the opening narration in the Texas Chainsaw movies.”
“Oh, right.” Stella said.
“Yeah, I heard the guy that directed Chainsaw pitched for Larroquette to have this bit.” Michelle said, pointing at the screen. “He pitched the TV show to appease the studio after killing Norman off in Psycho II. In his notes he had this idea kind of backhandedly tying in Psycho with chainsaw.”
“Isn’t that that director that disappeared or something?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, Stella,” Michelle chimed in, “aren’t you reading a book about him?”
“Yeah?“
“So where is he?” Michelle asked.
“Buried at my house.”
Michelle laughed. “Stella you’re hilarious.”
“Yeah, just kidding,” Stella said, “he’s tied up in my room.”
“Jonathan better not find out.” Amber cracked on her before asking, “but really what do you think happened to him?”
“I don’t know. The book talks about this obsessed fan he had who they suspect murdered his sister. They both disappeared, so who knows.”
“Man that’s fucked up. I heard he killed himself.”
Stella tensed as those words were spoken. She loved these girls. In her short time here they became like a new family to her, but not even they knew of that dark night she had all those years ago.
After the TV episode was over, Stella went back to her desk, carrying with her a peculiar feeling she just couldn’t shake. That book they were talking about sat at her desk. Thumbing through it, she found a picture of George Kohler. He looked heavier his face looked fuller than she remembered him looking on TV. It was an old picture from before he broke into the business. Back then he had this bombastically big poofy hair. As she focused on his eyes, there was a familiarity with him she couldn’t place, it wasn’t just from seeing him on TV. Placing a bookmark to keep the page she pulled out her sketch book. Her pencil scratched the pages, lines formed the facial features of the missing and possibly departed director. The top of the pencil floated up to George’s forehead, about to draw his massive mop of hair, but it stopped. Almost instinctively, the pencil drew a crew cut on the head instead. The wooden pencil then returned down to the face where it drew a small mustache above its lips. Her hand dropped the pencil as she looked down at her work. Her hand then reached for her colored pencils, her fingers gripped the utensil that was orange in color. Stella was able to see the finished product in her mind before she continued. Thinking back on her day, butterflies fluttered in her stomach as the thought fully dawned on her. It was not a sensation of fear, as if she had something to be afraid of, but it was a shock, a realization of a truth that had stood before her. Still looking down at her drawing while her hand effortlessly colored the sketch pad, she knew it was true. The resemblance was uncanny.
Hard Coal Studios 