cover image Sideshow

Sideshow

William Ollie, Dark Regions (www.darkregions.com), $18.95 paper (135p) ISBN 9781888993837

After a disorienting over-the-top prologue, Ollie delivers a lurid but memorable take on the dark carnival theme. South Carolina boys Justin Gabriel Henry, Mickey Reardon, Danny Roebuck, and bully Bo Johnson are magnetically drawn to the charms of Hannibal Cobb's Kansas City Carnival after a ferris wheel magically sprouts one October day in Godby's field outside of Pottsboro. Strange things begin happening as Cobb wields a perverse hold over the townspeople using his freaks and assorted evil tricks. The boys are soon tasked with stopping the carnival and freeing its prisoners, as The Amazing Rubber Woman asks Danny to rescue them before "the dark… tears us apart." Despite Ollie's rowdy, somewhat overheated prose, he manages to score some satisfying moments as the odd carnival hurtles to a wonderfully weird conclusion as nostalgic as an old EC comic. (Aug.)