Ryan Fitzmartin

 Filmmaker & Writer

Recent Writing

Macabre Daily •

Menace In The Abandoned Mine!: “The Devil's Luck 2” [Review]

Ferigato’s work is just as impressive as it was in issue #1, and he handles the transition to the new mine setting of “The Devil’s Luck #2” very effectively. Darkness heavy settings in comics can often feel one-note, but Ferigato makes expert use of black and blue to create layering and depth to the caves. As with issue #1, his control of light via coloring is excellent, with warm yellow lanterns creating high contrast and stylization. Ferigato puts a ton of effort and attention to the specific...
Macabre Daily •

EC Comics’ “CATACOMB OF TORMENT #6” Tantalizes with More Twisted Tales [Review]

“The Composite Man” follows the plight of Riel Tran, a woman being stalked and harassed by a group of men to the point of insanity. Working closely with a police sketch artist, she tries to identify her attackers, but the cops are always three steps behind and doubt her stories. Bors escalates the narrative well, and Riel’s story is compelling and grim as her life disintegrates around her in just a few short pages. The ending isn’t particularly notable as Bors rushes to wrap it up at the end. Th...
Macabre Daily •

Todd Mignola Talks The Family Ties And Feuds Of “THE CROWN: A TALE OF HELL” [Interview]

MD: Of Hellboy’s three siblings, do you see yourself as a Gamon, or a Lusk, or perhaps more as Gamori? Or are you the Hellboy of the family?TM: Oh, geez, I don’t really see myself as any of them—although, as a writer, you always inject a bit of yourself into every character. You can’t help it. Now, do I recognize aspects of my childhood self in Gamon? I do. And clearly Mike does too.MD: I have a sister, and I found the sibling rivalry fairly relatable! Do you feel as if you and your brother are...
Macabre Daily •

Pig Wife Is A Must-Read Saga Of Multi Generational Madness [Review]

Standing at a towering 540 pages, “Pig Wife” is the massive debut graphic novel from animator and writer Abbey Luck. Standing in the tradition of “From Hell,” “Persepolis,” and “Watchmen,” Luck’s horrifying and expansive story of family tragedy spans decades of trauma and terror. Featuring breathtaking, truly disturbing art from Luck and Ruka Bravo, “Pig Wife” announces the arrival of a powerful new voice in comics and horror.WHAT’S IT ABOUT“Pig Wife” is the story of the Harlow family and their...
Macabre Daily •

Over 100 Years Later, “HÄXAN" Remains A Radical Sociopolitical Horror Film [Retro Review]

It's not often that I get the pleasure of saying "I've never seen anything like this", but tonight I did! “Häxan” is a film not like any other; it's a film essay, a history lesson, a horror film, and a fiery feminist political statement. I've mostly heard this film lauded for its monsters, makeup, and striking visuals, but it was the political and religious themes that struck me the hardest. “Häxan” is a film about witches, yes, but not really in a fun and cool way as I expected. Seeing it on th...
Macabre Daily •

Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Man Discussion With Artist Jesse Lonergan [Interview]

MD: How did you come up with those complex and original overlapping and curving panel layouts? Was that in Mike Mignola's writing or did you decide to design those early pages that way?JL: I think one thought leads to another, so on page 4, there’s an evolution sequence, and circular panels felt like a good way to convey the passage of time, echoing the sun traveling across the sky, the cycles of the moon and the orbits of the planets, circles within circles, showing different passages of time....
Macabre Daily •

"The Devil's Luck #1" Discussion With Writer Rafael Scavone [Interview]

Macabre Daily: The original Hailstone was set in the Old West. What motivated you to change the time period of the story to the Great Depression? Rafael Scavone: Since the first series, Hailstone was conceived to work like a horror playground where, at each volume, a new horror story is presented in that snowbound town. Once I decided to follow this path, shifting the historical time became a powerful tool for shaping different horror stories in that same place. Devil's Luck was set in the Great...
Macabre Daily •

Gold Teeth And Greed In The Great Depression: “The Devil's Luck: A Hailstone Story” #1 [Interview]

Dentistry has never been so dangerous as it is in “The Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story #1.” Rafael Scavone and Eduardo Ferigato’s vicious new crime story brings darkness to a snowbound small town of Hailstone, Montana. This is Scavone’s second trip to the town of Hailstone; his previous series explored the town during the Old West. “The Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story #1” is a grubby and grim classic tale of small-town crime, and I am hooked on this first issue.WHAT’S IT ABOUT?Leopold Auberon, a...
Macabre Daily •

Hellboy Ventures Into The Fog! Hellboy and The B.P.R.D. The Ghost Ships of Labrador #1 [Interview]

The first sign that a reader is in for a good time with a Mignolaverse comic is seeing Laurence Campbell’s name on the cover. Of all of Mignola’s various collaborators over the past 25-plus years of Hellboy comics, few are as evocative as Campbell. Campbell’s scratchy art is some of the creepiest and most haunting to ever grace a comics page, and his work on The Ghost Ships of Labrador is no different.As Hellboy and Abe investigate the unfortunate town of Red Bay, the fog and mist seem to float...
Macabre Daily •

IN MEMORIAM: James Ransone [Interview]

Ransone would go on to be an HBO Icon and a regular part of the David Simon ensemble, playing Corporal Ray Person on “Generation Kill,” and Nick on “Treme.” Ransone went on to guest and series regular roles on a variety of TV shows, “Low Winter Sun,” “Mosaic,” and “SEAL Team,” to name a few. He achieved critical notice for his independent film work in Sean Baker’s “Tangerine,” playing Chester the Pimp. Ranson’s unique energy perfectly fit Baker’s style, and he delivered maybe the funniest work o...
Macabre Daily •

EC Comics’ “CATACOMB OF TORMENT #5” Serves A Trio Of Twisty Tales: [Review]

The strongest and most entertaining story is by far ‘Necronomiccomicon’. Dorkin has come up with a very clever concept, a delightful little satire of fandom and collecting culture. It’s a perfectly executed short story that establishes fully developed characters as well as its unique concept, and delivers a fully satisfying narrative arc within a dozen pages. Lukas Ketner’s art displays some terrific facial expressions, gnarly violence, and the final panel is absolutely killer. ‘Necronomicon’ is...
A Place to Hang Your Cape •

The Top 10 Freakiest Hellboy Monsters! (Listicle)

The pages of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy comic are full of weird and wild monsters. For twenty five years, Mignola and his collaborators have come up with some truly strange and creepy creations. The key to how real these monsters feel is how fleshed out they are. Rarely does Mignola create a flimsy and dull creature and toss it away. He paints his creatures in three dimensions, giving them minds, motivations and often eloquence. Drawing on the rich tradition of gothic horror, many of his creatures a...

Archived Publications

Multiversity Comics •

Blade II: A 20th Anniversary Retrospective [Retro Review]

In May 2002, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man would see release, becoming the first film to open to a $100 million dollar box office in one weekend. The film industry would never be the same. Superhero movies in the mold of Spider-Man would go on to dominate the industry. Marvel would soon become the biggest name at the box office; Spider-Man would change everything. A few months earlier though, in March, a smaller Marvel film was released. An R-Rated, gritty vampire action film, with a black leading acto...
Eleven-ThirtyEight •

How Lucasfilm Games Can Be a New Era For Everyone [Essay]

After eight years and five new games, the divisive era of EA Star Wars exclusivity has come to its conclusion. On January 11th, Disney signaled a change, launching the “Lucasfilm Games” brand, and promising “a new and unprecedented era of creativity”. Two days later Ubisoft announced a new open-world Star Wars game was in development, confirming that EA’s grip on Star Wars gaming had ended. The death of EA’s monopoly was long awaited and long called for by fans and prominent gaming personalities...
Eleven-ThirtyEight •

The Case for Mid-Budget Star Wars [Essay]

Star Wars is at a crossroads. While The Rise of Skywalker’s worldwide box office will gross over a billion dollars, that’s a far cry from The Force Awakens’ two billion. ROS will end up below every Avengers film, both Jurassic World films, and even its predecessor The Last Jedi. Perhaps most shockingly, the finale to the Skywalker saga could well end up with a lower total gross than DC’s Joker. Uncertain, the future is.


Imagine it’s 2016, and someone says to you an R-rated psychodrama would m...
Multiversity Comics •

Captain America: The Winter Soldier A 10th Anniversary Retrospective [Retro Review]

“Whose strong and brave, here to save the American way? Who vows to fight like a man for what’s right night and day?” These are the opening lyrics to “The Star Spangled Man,” the in-universe Captain America theme song from a glorious era of swashbuckling, swastika smashing, do-gooder action. In the 1940s, the bad guys were obvious –right and wrong never seemed so clear. It hasn’t been quite the same since. The modern world is a complex, difficult place, and those 1940s ideals seem outdated. Or a...
Eleven-ThirtyEight •

I Swear It’s Good Now: Why You Should Return to Battlefront II [Essay]

Is it possible to overhaul a video game so radically that it becomes almost an entirely new, better product? I think so, and I think Battlefront II proves it. After well over two years in release, Battlefront II has been revitalized with new game modes, playable characters, and skins. The wealth of new content is a shot in the arm that’s resulted in a completely changed game. 


I don’t really play a lot of online shooters. I’ve dabbled in Battlefield and Call of Duty as much as any other gamer...
Multiversity Comics •

The Killer: Film Review [Review]

Is there a director more suited to telling the story of a cold, calculated killer than David Fincher? The man who has so expertly turned his eye to countless serial murderers takes his vision to those who slay for pay in The Killer. Fincher’s vision is ruthless, tight, and thoroughly planned to the minute detail. Fincher and his team take a rather boilerplate revenge tale, and make it tremendously thrilling.The script, adapted and condensed from the French comic of the same name, is your standar...
Multiversity Comics •

Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham Film Review [Review]

Something evil lurks in the shadows, a greater horror than any Batman has ever faced. After decades of facing a plethora of horrors on screen, Batman finally finds himself locked in battle against H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Christopher Berkley and Sam Liu direct this adaptation of Mike Mignola, Richard Pace and Troy Nixey’s comic, with a script by Jace Ricci. It’s DC’s latest foray into the horror genre, and it’s a fascinating effort to take Batman into new territory.The story does a terri...
Multiversity Comics •

Light Carries On: Graphic Novel Review [Review]

What if death wasn’t the end? What if we got another shot at living, a second chance to find happiness and meaning? Ray Nadine’s supernatural drama “Light Carries On” explores queer romance and the meaning of life and legacy with tenderness and warmth. The Chicago set story is a moving dive into the emotional roils of a life unfulfilled, and a death unresolved. It’s a slow-moving but engaging walk through the life of one person and the afterlife of another. “Light Carries On” is a poignant and h...
Multiversity Comics •

The Wolverine: A 10th Anniversary Retrospective [Retro Review]

Editor’s Note: As a site founded on the idea that X-Men Origins: Wolverine is good, actually, it seemed fitting to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its sequel. Thanks to Ryan for stepping up to the task and reevaluating this second standalone Wolvie outing. For those craving more Wolverine film goodness, we’ve got you covered.When talking about Wolverine movies, the first movies that comes to mind are the Oscar Nominated smash-hit Logan, or the infamously derided X-Men: Origins: Wolverine. The...
Multiversity Comics •

Extraction 2: Film Review [Review]

Action heroes never truly die, and despite the ending of the first Extraction film, Chris Hemsworth is back again as Tyler Rake. The world’s greatest expert on getting people out of dangerous places is back. This Rake is smashing his way through a Georgian prison. For fans of the first film, Extraction 2 provides all the same shooting, punches, kicking, and car smashing. Extraction 2 is loaded from start to finish with virtually non-stop top-notch action, although whenever someone pauses for dia...
Multiversity Comics •

Noir Burlesque: Graphic Novel Review [Review]

“Noir Burlesque” is a gritty story of murder, mayhem and gangster’s molls. Dangerous men and seductive women fill the pages of Enrico Marini’s brutal story about mob violence. It’s a dark and grimy tale, sometimes to the point of verging on parody. Enrico Marini is clearly in love with the world of “Noir,” and he crafts a story that while effective, sometimes feels too much in love with its own grittiness. The story isn’t as grim and bleak as something like “Sin City,” but all the tough guy talk...
Multiversity Comics •

Kali: Graphic Novel Review [Review]

Violent, energetic, and frenzied, “Kali” is an erratic whirlwind. Thinly scripted but heavy on extreme violence and gorgeous action, Kali comes from the Mad Max: Fury Road or Crank school of storytelling. This is a comic that is loud, aggressive and in your face. Writer Daniel Freedman and artist Robert Sammelin have crafted a tale of post-apocalyptic desert revenge. “Kali” is vivid, brutal, but it’s also strongly lacking in good characters or interesting dialogue.Cover by Robert SammelinWritten...