Dark Horse Comics 2015 --On Sale July 15th
Created & Written by Zack & Nick Keller
Illustrated by Joanna Estep
Coloured by Kelly Fitzpatrick
First thing I noticed is Joanna’s interior artwork because it’s so lovely. The attention to detail and the mood she is able to set here is remarkable. I loved how she started with the birds and went to this village in the middle of nowhere going from sweet and innocent to incredibly creepy in a matter of pages. She really has set this atmosphere for the reader to grab onto and fills out Zack and Nick’s writing. It really is just lovely work.
A couple is out, off the grid camping and just getting back in touch with one another when they happen upon an old community. One of those settlements that is now deserted and long forgotten by everyone, it’s not even on the map. It’s the kind of town that you can only hope to come across it’s so complete and not overrun with vegetation or in such disrepair it really is like stepping back in time. Only this trip for Niles and Justine isn’t one of discovery as it quickly turns to one of terror.
Next thing ya know were at a Catholic School. It seems to be one of those all girls school where the students are put when they are on their last legs, see no one else will take them. What the girls have to do with this story is beyond me but Maggie she seems to be a handful and a budding lesbian who acts out because being different with no one to turn to has done a number on her. Then there’s Bee, Bee Burton, and he’s being bullied and pushed into a drain that has one of those local urban legends attached to it. The kids roles are unknown to us but they’ve been introduced to us nicely and the intrigue of what they represent is definitely there.
Alright Niles and Justine may have stumbled on something neither of them are fully ready to comprehend but I’m really pleasantly surprised by their ingenuity and will to survive. What they don’t know is how they ended up where they did how it got turned on or that someone watched them make their escape. The mask our mystery man wears goes all the way back to the black plague and it’s been an ominous symbol of death and fear ever since.
Okay there’s a nice variety in the characters we’ve seen. How they all fit into the play is unknown but something they boys have more than adequately instilled a desire to learn. The whole issue is like that perfect trailer for a movie that doesn’t give any of it’s plot away but just introduces you to enough about it to ignite your imagination. This is fantastic i’m not sure where it’s really going but it has this horror feel to it and seems to have been set up so that we’re already creeped out and sitting in anticipation of what’s to come.
Extremely, and i do mean extremely, well thought out, executed and illustrated this is a book you have to tell your shoppe or online service is one you need to have.