Scout Comics 2020
Written by Max Hoven & Aaron Crow
Illustrated by Gabriel Iumazark
In this grimy horror romp, Francois, a stunning middle-aged woman, has developed a worsening affliction and seeks a young caretaker to upkeep her lavish creole mansion deep in the mystic bayou of Louisiana. Kenny, a teenage halfwit looking for a summer job, stumbles right to her doorstep. Free rent, free meals, high pay, easy work, and a provocative boss... what's there for Kenny to refuse? Well, there's the blood-covered kitchen spilling over with raw meat and the bolt-locked steel-plated attic door he's restricted access to. Are these red flags worth the risk of missing out on a wild summer romance?
This was completely and utterly captivating to me. I love a good horror tale and this one checked off a lot of the boxes that I look for. Scout has this way of finding talent and letting them shine and with a slew of new offerings on the table, their release schedule looks amazing, they are finally making that huge push for a share of the market. It is no secret that I have been a huge fan of Scout Comics for a while now and they have such a range of genres for you to choose from and the emphasis seems to be related to horror in some way, shape or form. This book just goes to show why they remain one of my go to company’s for my comics reading enjoyment.
I love the way that this is being told. The way we see the story & plot development emerge through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is laid out beautifully. Right off the bat when we first meet Kenny we see how he’s portrayed and can immediately identify with him. I appreciate the humour of his assessment of the situation and yet through circumstances beyond his control he has to follow through. It is so well written and structured that it takes only a couple of pages before there’s no turning back for the reader. The character development that we see here is phenomenal! Kenny may be that perennial slacker that we all have known in our high school days and the way we see his and Francois’ relationship grow is believable. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists and turns along the way showcases not just the way the book is structured but how well everything works together here.
The interiors here are amazing. There is a part of me that’s instantly reminded of the old school Disney films, I am talking The Great Mouse Detective and the Rescuers. They have that fine line effect and yet give off the mood, vibe and oomph that we need to experience this properly. I don’t quite know how to put in words just how this makes me feel so I can only imagine that each individual would have their own unique experience with it. The backgrounds that we see are delightful, they work well with the genre and the overall aesthetic of the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show this marvellous eye for storytelling. The colour work is bloody brilliant in how it’s so dark, mysterious and in how it’s laid down. The various hues and tones we see within any given colour that are being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is phenomenal work. The way we see the blurred colour in the backgrounds and how the light streaming through windows has an effect it’s just effin bloody brilliant!
This is an extra large sized issue and it is worth its weight in gold for every single page that we see. The story has some wonderful unexpected layers to it that we see and then by the end we want to see what’s next! I do think I know what happened but it’s not for certain so what I would love to see are more stories set in this bayou, even if they are the past fleshing out what we learn here I would be more than happy with that.
This is a beautiful, unnerving and haunting book that you will love and completely want to see so much more of.