In his introduction to Monsters, the fifth themed anthology from Accent UK, editor Dave West notes that the very word seems to have been corrupted by common use to mean very large. It’s an interesting point, but one that needs a little further development – after all, monster doesn’t just mean “Hairy three-eyed creature”, but derives from the Latin root monere which means ‘to warn’. It is not such a big step then to say that monster stories, at their heart are warnings – don’t go into the woods at night, for example, or do not meddle with the mysteries of science. As a genre it is inherently conservative, as it has to define a normalcy in order to show something that deviates from it.

Of course, this means that no-one can ever agree what monsters are.

It shifts. Sometimes Dracula is the beast after your blood, but at other times he’s the unwilling victim of his own compulsion. The Frankenstein creature only wants to throw the pretty flowers into the water, until the little girl dies. Monster switches to martyr as we watch. And what about our human monsters – the Hitlers and Stalins and Idi Amins? Again, it changes depending who is looking.

Monsters contains twelve short stories that seek to examine this idea from a number of different angles, each a little different from the last. In the best tradition of

The outstanding story is 'Lusca' by the writing team of Moore and Reppion and artist David Hitchcock, thanks largely to the wonderfully evocative artwork by the latter, which charges this sea bound tale with a heavy, doom-laden atmosphere that far surpasses anything suggested in the script. However, this particular story feels somehow truncated, as though it were merely the opening chapter in a much longer work.

The other great highlight is editor Dave West’s giant robot tale 'Programming', for which he provides both script and art. The story tackles what it is that makes a monster head on. In this story the answer to this old question is very definitely us – we make the monster literally, out of cogs and wire and steel.

West’s name also pops up in two other contributions in the anthology as well. To be fair though, he does apologise for his ubiquity in the volumes introduction. West co-scripts with artist Andy Bloor on the werewolf story 'Maybe Tonight', which benefits from Bloor’s deep inky artwork, but again feels somehow incomplete, as though it were the beginning of something. If so, I look forward to seeing more of Bloor’s art, which combines Jacen Burrows and Charles Burns in an attractive way. I could easily see him working at Avatar, for example.

These are the stand-out stories in the anthology. The other tales work to a greater or lesser degree, although some tread ground that has often been covered before, and the two short comedic pieces both seem overlong.

The comic is as beautifully presented as the previous editions, and though I miss the iconic covers of those earlier editions, Shane Oakley’s contribution to the front of the comic is a wonderfully horrible example of monstrosity. Even better is Garen Ewing’s back cover, which manages to play on the tensions of the monster story in one unsettling image. The other good thing about the back cover is the price of £3.00, which seems incredibly cheap for the quality of the publication, especially when compared to the inflated prices of some other small press offerings.

Monsters is a perfectly good anthology, well presented and more than value for money. It’s exactly the type of thing that should be encouraged – a solid set of stories with a strong theme. I hope to see more like it.