CREEPING DAWN
Rise of the Black Centipede
By Chuck Miller
Pro Se Productions
189 pages
Chuck Miller is emphatically one of the bright new voices in
the New Pulp Fiction movement and last year burst on to the scene with this
book. It introduced the world to
his truly mondo-bizarro hero, the Black Centipede.
Describing Miller’s twisted, odd and vibrant style is a
challenge in itself. Unlike
traditional classic pulp writers, his work is a hodge-podge blend of history
and fiction and told from way too many different perspectives.
Written in first person narrative, the Black Centipede is a
young man who crosses paths with the infamous Lizzy Borden of Massachusetts and
through her encounters a mysterious being calling herself “Bloody” Mary Jane
Gallows; the supposed spiritual creation of Borden and Jack the Ripper. If that wasn’t twisted enough, our hero
is saved from being murdered when his own body is possessed by another alien
entity representing itself in the shape of an ugly, creeping black
centipede. Once this merger
occurs, he finds himself capable of many super human feats of strength. He becomes, like Will Eisner’s Spirit,
virtually impossible to kill.
From that point on his adventures have him crossing paths
with real life figures such a gangster Frank Niti and newspaper tycoon, William
Randoph Hearst who wants to turn the Centipede into a popular “real life” pulp
hero in his own magazine. Then
there are villains like Doctor Almanac, voodoo fighter Baron Samedi who battle
across Zenith City, each with his own perverse agenda and little regard for the
citizenry caught in the middle.
It’s fanciful stuff indeed but this reviewer wishes Miller
would make an attempt at sticking to one point of view. Towards the end of this first outing,
we are given an entire chapter told to us by a police officer who was on the
scene. Supposedly this is
necessary because the Black Centipede was on the other side of town when the
incident took place. Still paragraph after paragraph of hearsay is as deadly in
a novel as it is in a court of law.
Writing rule of thumb, Mr.Miller, show us, don’t tell us.
Still as this is his first book, that one flaw is easily
overlooked for the overabundance of originality infused in this book. With “Creeping Dawn,” Chuck Miller
clearly establishes himself as a voice to be reckoned with. We predict a truly brilliant future for
both creator and his one-of-a-kind hero.
