MemeMachineGo!

Thanks to The Great Comics Sorting/Bagging project, I finally had some entire series in the same place at the same time and could read them all.

One I'd been looking forward to was Strange Detective Tales. During the Universial monster movie craze in the '30's, lots of monsters and various other strange entities ("creeps" they call themselves) moved to LA hoping to sell their stories and make big bucks. Well, the fad passed, but the creep community remained. A detective agency consisting of Renfield and a mad scientist's assistant is the only place creeps seeking justice can go.

The story gets weirder from there, featuring the Green Mafia (the aliens who landed at Roswell), Renfield's ex, and Howard Hughes. The art is Gahan Wilson-esque, and perfect for the tone.

...and it hasn't been collected and its 3 issues will be a pain to find. Sorry about that.

I'd also like to note that the backup story in issue 1 was excellent -- a haunting tale of an aged supervillain whose memory isn't what it used to be, and who doesn't have long to live, calling up his long-retired never-too-bright henchman, trying to figure out whether he'd ever gone through with one of his schemes, installing a failsafe in his body to poison the whole world if he died.