Image Comics 2016
Written by Jim Zub
Illustrated by Djibril Morissette-Phan
Coloured by K. Michael Russell
Lettered by Marshall Dillon
Back Matter by Holly Raychelle Hughes
Farrah Durante is a middle-aged actress hunting for her next gig in an industry where youth trumps experience. Her frustrations become an emotional lure for something horrifying out beyond the water... something ready to exact revenge on the shallow celebrity-obsessed culture that's led her astray.
From the title I have to admit I wasn’t expecting something like this. I love being surprised this way too because the opening alone was absolutely shocking to me. Honestly from what happened I thought that perhaps this woman was having a dream or nightmare depending on your point of view. Djibril really sells it too because it’s quite unexpected and rather spectacularly gross.
Move backwards six hours and the story begins. Jim sets this up beautifully he creates this character in Farrah that Djibril brings to life visually in such a stark honest way that you feel for her in a way. She’s so desperate to be an actress, get a job and be employed and yet she comes across as this pathetic waif of a woman with no pride in her appearance and her body language is already defeated. To see and read this on the page so immediately is the kind of things that stand out to me.
There’s a scene on the beach with a bum where Farrah is wallowing in her own self-pity over her life and you want to shake her, wake her up and do something but you can’t you’re helpless to do nothing but watch then the catalyst happens. A failed suicide attempt and something that will change her life forever. Is this some sort of outer space creature?, and unknown life form from the sea?, we don’t know it does seem like a parasite of some form or another but i’ll be damned if it’s like anything we’ve seen before.
Djibril is a new artist for me, i’d recognize a name like that, and i’m extremely impressed with his work here. I like the way he uses the page layouts through angles and perspective to control the flow of the story. That two page spread is eerie and fantastic to see. The use of backgrounds is strategic and nice to see as it fills out where the characters are gives us the bigger picture.
I love this kind story it’s a great combination of one woman’s struggle to survive in an industry where she’s considered over the hill or past her prime and a horror story. A creature feature if you will and the way Jim has brought this to us with a level of intelligence and interest is amazing. There isn’t anything cheesy it’s just full of smartly done dialogue and story and a surprising thing living within her body. That we don’t know what it is or where it’s from well that’s only something that will keep us coming back to find out.
This will surprise, thrill and entertain you in all the ways will leave you wanting more.