Ryan Fitzmartin

 Filmmaker/Writer/Producer

Recent Writing

Macabre Daily •

Dave Baker And Nicole Goux On Carving "PUNK'N HEADS" [Macabre Daily]

Macabre Daily: If you could each pick one album for a reader to listen to pair with Punk’n Heads, what would it be?Dave Baker: Oh, man. Probably either “Walks Among Us” by the Misfits or “Glow On” by Turnstile. I was listening to both of those records while working on this and there’s a bunch of hidden little things gems in the book that reference them. I also like “Her’s” a lot. Different genre, I know. But I’m sure there’s something in there as well. So, Songs of “Her’s” would be another solid...
Macabre Daily •

Mike Mignola Takes Readers On A Mystical Journey In “Uri Tupka and the Gods" [Review]

Mike Mignola is a singular voice and talent, and new adventures in the “Lands Unknown” have found him more hands-on with art and writing than fans have gotten in a long time. This new graphic novel is a work of beautifully grim mythology in the way that only Mignola can tell it, an eighty-page trek across a land of gods, monsters, bandits, and blasphemers. It’s a brand new story in a dangerous new world, but it has the old familiarity of a master storyteller sitting down at a campfire once again...
Macabre Daily •

Blood On The Streets Part 2: Revisiting The Purge Anarchy [Essay]

James DeMonaco saw it all coming. America’s descent into government-sponsored white supremacist violence in the streets has been both slow and shockingly fast. It has always been here, whether in the form of lynchings, police brutality, redlining, deportations, and stand your ground laws. Still, the brazen, unrepentant horrors we witness every day on the news now seem unfathomable just twenty years ago. Yet some people saw the imperial boomerang swinging back, long before it hit. DeMonaco’s “The...
Macabre Daily •

Writer DB Andry Dives Deep Into Oni Press' "Estuary" [Review]

Who doesn’t love good aquatic horror stories? From ghost ships to Lovecraftian nightmares and good old shark movies, and everything in between. Next week, Oni Press will deliver “Estuary #1”, the first in a four-issue limited series. Oni Press describes it as “A chilling tale of secrets buried deep beneath the surf of the idyllic Pacific coast written by rising stars Tim Daniel & David “DB” Andry (“Crush Depth, Morning Star") with gorgeously atmospheric artwork by modern horror virtuoso Maan Hou...
Macabre Daily •

Teamwork Makes The Zombie Dream Work In  “John Carpenter's Toxic Commando [Review]

Do you remember where you were, eighteen years ago, when those “Left 4 Dead” TV Ads aired? Zombies rushing through the streets, guns blasting, and the tagline: “It’s the zombie apocalypse. Bring friends”. Do you remember the first time you held out on the hospital roof in “No Mercy,” watched the plane crash in “Dead Air,” or started the fireworks in “Dark Carnival?” How about the first time you got grabbed by a smoker, tossed by a tank, or heard the weeping of a witch? Horror fans and gamers hav...
Macabre Daily •

15 Years Later, “THE RAID” (2011) Is Still That F*cking Good [Retro Review]

Fifteen years since they sliced and stabbed their way into winning The People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness, “The Raid” actors  Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and Yayan Ruhian have gone on to international stardom. Collectively, they have appeared in films from the “Fast and Furious”, “Mortal Kombat”, “G.I. Joe”, “Star Trek”, and “Star Wars” series. Director Gareth Huw Evans has not only got a pile of films under his belt, but he’s also successfully created a B...
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...
Macabre Daily •

Resident Evil Requiem Is An Ambitious And Gripping Elegy For The Legendary Horror Series [Review]

Thirty Years since the release of “Resident Evil” on PlayStation One, Capcom faces down a long legacy with “Resident Evil Requiem". The series spans dozens of games across every conceivable console, from the GameCube to the N-Gage to the Oculus Quest 2 VR. This incredible catalogue contains some of the most beloved and acclaimed games of all time, as well as some of the most controversial and hated. Capcom has completely reinvented the series twice to massive success, and somehow remade its best...
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...
Macabre Daily •

Carmen Red Claw Rides The Rails: Carmen Red Claw: Belly of The Beast #3 [Review]

What would a Western comic be without a good train heist or train rescue? In issue #3 of “Carmen Red Claw: Belly of the Beast”, Mike Mignola and Rae Allen continue their mission of mixing classic western tropes with the strange and supernatural. It’s not unusual to see a hero in a western hop from a horse onto a train, but the train doesn’t normally have monsters and mythical beings on it!Cowgirl and monster hunter Carmen Dascher, hot in pursuit of a curse-spewing cattle rustler, has hopped onto...
Macabre Daily •

A Doctor In Darkness: The Devil's Luck #4 [Review]

Rafael Scavone and Eduardo Ferigato’s penultimate chapter of “The Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story” brings the action to a boil, as the body count rises and a mysterious stranger comes to town. Small-town doctor Dan Beacon finds himself sliding down into the deep end of a pool of blood. As in every issue of “The Devil’s Luck”, desperate times bring desperate measures, but the outlook is starting to get dire.“The Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story” follows the violent struggle over a set of gold teet...
Macabre Daily •

Swords, Sorcery, And Suffering Await In The “Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man #1” [Review]

Stenbeck’s art is, as always, superb. His stylings have a distantly cartoonish feel, but also a realness that makes for gritty impact. Like with his various acclaimed illustrations on various “Witchfinder”, “Baltimore”, and “Frankenstein” titles, there’s a sense of storybook surreality, a blend of real and surreal. Strangely, the specific work on “Lands Unknown: The Skinless Man” reminds me of the violence of Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Primal” or later “Samurai Jack”. It’s very fanciful and heightene...
Macabre Daily •

Hidden Irish Horror Gems To Watch This Saint Patrick's Day! [List]

Everyone in America loves St. Patrick’s Day, wearing green, downing some Guinness or Jameson, and watching (English Actor) Warwick Davis put on an accent in a Leprechaun flick. This year, though, why not kick it up a notch and check out some films produced locally in the Éire itself! Ireland has a vibrant film industry and has for many years, so this Tuesday, don’t simply watch “Leprechaun in Space” again! Check out some homegrown Irish films, turn up the Kneecap, blast some Fontaines D.C., and...
Macabre Daily •

Todd And Mike Mignola Deliver Torment And Treachery In "The Crown: A Tale of Hell #1" [Review]

The Mignolas have not returned to Gammon and Lusk after all this time without good cause, though, and “The Crown: A Tale of Hell” is quite captivating and good fun. The dialogue is snappy, but carries the grandiosity that readers have come to expect from Mignola’s demons. This might be a bickering family, but they are bickering about the fate of a kingdom. Spending time with Gammon and Lusk as they feud is quite fun, but it’s the introduction of Sedara that makes this comic. The inspiration is c...
Macabre Daily •

Blood On the Streets: Revisiting “The Purge” Series - The Purge (2013) [Essay]

James DeMonaco saw it all coming. America’s descent into government-sponsored white supremacist violence in the streets has been both slow and shockingly fast. It has always been here, whether in the form of lynchings, police brutality, redlining, deportations, and stand your ground laws. Still, the brazen, unrepentant horrors we witness every day on the news now seem unfathomable just twenty years ago. Yet some people saw the imperial boomerang swinging back, long before it hit. DeMonaco’s “The...
Macabre Daily •

Digging Our Teeth Into "The Devil's Luck” 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 •

Rachele Aragno Gets Gothic With “Leonide The Vampyre: House of Yonda #1” [Interview]

Macabre Daily: The costumes and architecture in “Leonide” comics are always so gorgeous. Where do you draw your design inspiration from: more fictional or factual reference material? Rachele Aragno:  Thank you so much! Mike and I tried to understand what we wanted to see: the era, what the various character categories wore, and what social class each character belonged to. Then I did an in-depth study of the costumes, some tied to the Victorian era, others earlier, and I tried to rework them to...
Macabre Daily •

Rae Allen Rustles The Hellboy Universe into the Weird West: Carmen Red Claw #1 [Review]

Allen fits her story neatly in the standard mold offered by most of Mike Mignola’s classic paranormal investigator adventures. Longtime Mignolaverse fans will settle into the comfortably familiar formula as Carmen tracks monsters while uncovering hints of a larger and more sinister evil. Seeing as this is Carmen’s debut, small hints of an origin story are drizzled in, which are likely to be expanded on in further issues. The story and dialogue of “Carmen Red Claw: Belly of the Beast #1” isn’t an...
Macabre Daily •

IN MEMORIAM: James Ransone [In Memoriam]

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 •

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 •

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 •

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 •

Fortune Turns Men Fiendish: “The Devil's Luck: A Hailstone Story #3"” [Review]

Scavone comes back swinging from the slight dip in quality in issue #2, bringing back the fantastic “Fargo” vibes from the first issue. Taking the action out of the abandoned mine and back into the decrepit snowbound environs of 1930s Hailstone is a very welcome change. This unique setting was one of the most appealing things about “The Devil’s Luck”, and it’s a delight to revisit the snow-covered streets, vintage cars, and rugged townsfolk.  Flipping the dynamic from the previous two issues on...
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...
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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...
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...
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 •

Blood City Rollers: Graphic Novel Review (Multiversity Comics)

Do you like your sports with a side of the spooks? Do you think that competitions of strength and skill could be improved with a splash of the supernatural? Well if the idea of Vampires and Witches playing Roller Derby sounds enticing, then “Blood City Rollers” could be for you! This inventive teen-targeted graphic novel takes a typical underdog sports story, and adds in a healthy dose of the undead. The result is more comedy than horror, and things never get too gruesome.Cover by Tatiana HillWr...
Multiversity Comics •

In Memoriam: David Warner (Multiversity Comics)

There are no small parts for some actors. There are those of such strong talent that adding them into a movie in any way increases its quality tenfold. David Warner was one of those actors. We lost this Emmy-winning, BAFTA-nominated titan this year at the age of 80. Warner was a prolific, highly visible actor with literally hundreds of screen and voice credits to his name. He played a vast variety of genre roles. He portrayed everything from Klingons and supervillains to vampire hunters and seri...
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...
Multiversity Comics •

Dredd: A 10th Anniversary Retrospective (Multiversity Comics)

“America is an irradiated wasteland,” a voice gravely intones, as the camera swoops over the dystopia of Mega City One. This is the striking opening to Pete Travis and Alex Garland’s vicious, gritty and violently over the top Dredd. Set in a dystopia, fascist future where supercops function as judge, jury, and executioner, and gangs rule the street, Dredd stars Karl Urban as Judge Dredd. It was unloved upon release ten years ago, but it’s a phenomenal film and deserves a second look.The initial...
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 •

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...