Horror host.

Reading that phrase, what comes to mind?

Cassandra Peterson, vamping it up in a tight black dress as her sexy, silly siren of cinema Elvira?

Maybe in your mind’s eye you picture John Bloom, rednecking it up as his alter ego Joe Bob Briggs on late night television, celebrating B movies, drive-in flicks and creature features in his own inimitable, hayseed fashion?

Or maybe you imagine any of the numerous, lesser-known but no less essential horror program presenters that intermittently poked fun at and stoked interest in any number of genre flicks – a tradition which began on television in the 50s and continues on to this day on TV and the internet. Vampira, Zacherley, Ghoulardi, Crematia Mortem, Count Gore de Vol, Svengoolie, Penny Dreadful and Dr. Gangrene (to say nothing of Gilbert Gottfried, Caroline Schlitt and Rhonda Shear on USA’s “Up All Night”) – all names and personalities well worth seeking out in order to understand an important and still vital part of our favorite genre’s history.

It’s an obvious love for this endangered yet still very much extant form of horror story presentation that informs Count Crowley, a four-issue comic book miniseries Dark Horse Comics began releasing late last year. With its horror host heroine, monstrous villains, and kitschy stylistic details which touch on everything from old school horror comics to late night scary movie TV programs, Count Crowley is the coolest damned funnybook you haven’t been reading. But with its final issue having just been released, there’s no better time to jump aboard and check out one of the best new comics to have hit stands in recent memory – and this writer is more than happy to tell you why you should do just that.

Subtitled Reluctant Midnight Monster Hunter, Count Crowley concerns Jerri Bartman, a down-and-out TV personality who’s just lost her job due to both her alcohol addiction and the unflinching honesty she displayed in her reporting (her last assignment found her drunkenly outing a scam at a local renfaire). Fortunately enough for Jerri, her brother Ben is the head of KSKB, the television station that once employed her. With the station’s resident horror host having gone missing, Ben sees an opportunity to help out his sis while keeping her continued employment at the station a secret. With a little makeup, a shock of Bride of Frankenstein white in her hair, and a costume that’s part Lugosi’s Dracula, part biker chick chic, Jerri finds herself back on the air as “Count Crowley”, a hard-drinking, trash-talking purveyor of late night B movies.

With her uninhibited, zero-fucks-to-give attitude about her current position, Jerri tears into both the movie she’s presenting and its intended audience, delivering a cutting monologue that dresses down filmmakers and film fans alike. The result? Jerri becomes an surprise hit as the character, drawing the attention of not only her viewing audience, but a number of actual, honest-to-goodness monsters as well. That’s right, after Jerri’s first appearance as Crowley, she finds herself running afoul of creatures typically relegated to the types of movies she’s meant to introduce to late night viewers. In short order, Jerri is pulled into confrontations with a werewolf, a disembodied hand, and a lethal, lumbering ghoul, all while trying to track down her mysteriously missing predecessor and figure out just why in the hell she’s become the target of the supernatural since taking her new position on “Friday Night’s Scream Theater”.

As penned by actor David Dastmalchian (The Dark Knight, Blade Runner 2049), Count Crowley stands as one of the smartest, most fun comics currently on the stands. As informed by any number of horror comics, B movies and spooky television, Dastmalchian gives us a tale which pays homage to the kitschier aspects of our favorite genre, all while presenting a weighty story of trauma and addiction hiding just under the surface of this otherwise fun tale of monsters and monster hunters. Even for its period 80s setting, it’s a story which ultimately proves quite timely, giving us a heroine informed by her very #MeToo past and a set of unseen villains who use various forms of media to wield their diabolical influence.

Married to this smart, superb script is some pretty stunning art by Lukas Ketner (Witch Doctor, Kill the Minotaur), whose dynamic, wonderfully ghoulish work recalls the classic EC and Warren comics of yesteryear. It’s a wonderful marriage of visuals to story, and only underscores the fun of this tale. Aiding Ketner is colorist Lauren Affe, whose contributions bring the art to life with a simultaneously colorful and gloomy palette that perfectly suits the story’s intermittently creepy and comical tone.

With its razor sharp writing, indelible heroine, and gorgeous artwork, Count Crowley is one of the best damned comics currently haunting your local comic shop. If you’re a fan of tales with strong female protagonists, classic monsters, horror hosts, and 80s-set tales of the supernatural…well, 1) we can be friends. And 2) consider Count Crowley absolutely essential reading.