Welcome to my nightmare
Welcome to my breakdown
I hope I didn't scare you
That's just the way we are when we come down
We sweat and laugh and scream here
'cause life is just a dream here
You know inside you feel right at home here
~Welcome to my Nightmare


Alice Cooper Vol. 1: Welcome to My Nightmare (Alice Cooper, #1-6) by Joe Harris is the continuing adventures of the original shock rocker. Harris is the creator and writer of comics and graphic novels such as the hit Image Comics sci-fi adventure series, Great Pacific, and the supernatural thrillers, Ghost Projekt and Spontaneous for Oni Press. He has written iconic characters and titles for DC Comics (Batman, Fury of Firestorm), Marvel (Slingers, X-Men), and Dark Horse (Creepy).

What does a the King of Shock Rock do forty years after his prime? He becomes a comic book hero...well maybe not a hero but something close. After making a deal with a demon to get famous Alice Cooper is bound by contract to recruit pop boy bands to fame. Obviously the work of evil promoting that kind of music. Cooper is the Lord of Nightmares and since freeing himself from the clutches of the evil manager Lucius Black you would think he would retire. That for Cooper is not the case.

The comics are drawn dark with plenty of black and purple giving a nightmarish tone to the work. The story lines are good and include a piece on bullying without being too After School Special about it. Although dark there is no good vs evil or light vs dark, rather dark vs dark and rock and roll of course. There are references to other bands safely hidden from copyright infringements like Think Floyd and Deep Violet, but you know who they are anyway.

Nicely done and nice to see a rock legend presented to a younger generation or perhaps this is for the benefit of the fifty plus crowd. Either way is works. Although I am not a usual reader of graphic novels, I liked this mainly for the rock and roll theme and tribute the Godfather of Shock Rock. It's nice to see rock and roll fighting the "good" fight.



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I love the concept - a comic book about rock legend Alice Cooper with demons and nightmares. Along with the illustrations that's all I loved. The writing wasn't great. It was sometimes confusing. I couldn't wait to finish it so it'd be over with. Disappointing. ( )