Down in the Boneyard
Keith Minion
White Noise Press, 2006
Lettered 52
36 pages

After the crap that was The Church of Dead Languages (story-wise) and the mediocrity of Werewolf Porno, I had almost no hope for this chapbook. I mean, hell, it’s illustrated and written by Minion and he runs the press, so how good can it be? Well, it’s really damned good! The four stories herein are not going to transform the genre, but they do demonstrate that this guy can write quite well. His style is very visual, descriptive, which might not be a surprise considering he’s an artist—but one thing does not necessarily prove the other. The proof is here, though, in this chappie. My favorite story was the first one: “Killer.” But they’re all examples of solid storytelling, quality fiction. And there’s a nifty little gallery of ten illustrations in the back. Great stuff from several stories Minion has illustrated. My only gripe is that the cover and title have nothing to do with the contents. There is no boneyard, nothing even remotely related to a cemetery, in fact. But that’s a very small niggle in light of the content.