DC Black Label/Hill House Comics 2020
Written by Joe Hill
Illustrated by Stuart Immonen
Coloured by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Deron Bennett
The long-lost crew of the Derleth emerges from the wind-scoured stones and twisted pines of the Sinnikik atoll, looking not a day older than when they disappeared 40 years before. They come bearing impossible, dizzying gifts for their rescuers. But at what price?
The tension and the unforeseen horrors that await our band of salvagers keeps mounting with each issue. It’s terrifying in ways that you can’t point to one thing and say it’s this or that, but instead it’s everything woven together to create the larger picture we see that is involved in making the reader afraid and yet not able to look away or returning time and again for more. There is something about the way Joe’s able to write where he’s able to redefine horror over and over again depending on the setting. This is a modern master and right now not only do I believe he’s surpassed his father but he’s the top of the heap when it comes to what he does.
The way that this story is being told is brilliantly handled. The way we see the story & plot development move forward through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is flawlessly presented. Right from the start we’ve never felt as if, as a reader, we’ve understood what is really happening. These events that occur seem to be bam, bam, bam one after another and no one has time to stop and think. Let alone the reader and it’s this element that sucks the reader into feeling a part of the group. The character development that we see is phenomenal and as large of a cast of characters that are here, somehow, someway there seems to be enough time to get to everyone. Plus their reactions to the situations and circumstances they encounter help to keep defining who they are and who they are becoming. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way it highlights how everything works together to create the books ebb & flow.
I have yet to encounter another writer or another series that is able to do what this one does, as immediately the reader becomes engaged in the story, feels a part of the proceedings and in which the pull is so strong it’s near impossible to look away.
While the story is what I have been focusing on, Stuart's contributions are nearly as one with the words. Without him and his work on this we wouldn’t be as pulled in as we are. The linework is flawlessly laid down and how we see the varying weights being utilised to draw out the attention to detail is mindbogglingly good. Good grief Charlie Brown, how the linework is utilised to bring the characters to life and show us the crew of the Derleth plus the imagination and creativity we see it boggles the mind at how this is the best work I have ever seen from Stuart. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a masters eye for storytelling. Then there are the backgrounds we see. Talk about creating the right atmosphere, it requires that you utilise the setting the rock, the cave and the ocean and it also brings us this beautiful sense of depth perception, scale and that overall size and scope to the story. The colour work is divine! How we see the hues and tones being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work through various techniques, both bold and subtle, take this to new heights.
This book almost revolutionises the genre in comics. Joe, Stuart, Dave and Deron have taken the template of old school horror and brought it into the new millennium in ways that almost make you afraid to see what they will be doing from here on out. I have missed horror comics and I want to see books like The Witching Hour come to back to prominence. It is all starting here and this might be the absolute best book on stands today.