Titan Comics 2017
Written by Ryan O'Sullivan
Illustrated by Szymon Kudranski & Samien Worm
Additional Colours by Guy Major
Lettered by Simon Bowland
Still shell-shocked by the horrific events that took place at the Beacon Mental Hospital, Detective Sebastian Castellanos finds himself investigating a gruesome murder in Krimson City that might be his key to understanding what happened in his terrifying encounter at Beacon.
This is based off a third person survival horror video-game and much like the other franchises that come from video-games it's incredibly well adapted to the comic book medium. Ryan is able to take the premise and expand upon it and with Detective Castellanos he brings us an unwitting and unknowing hero things play out extremely well. Before it seemed that only a certain few franchises were given the cross-media treatment now with Titan Comics it seems that anything is fair game. Thank goodness too because honestly, I wouldn't want to miss out on this dark psychological thriller.
I've got to hand it to Ryan for his ability to write this story like he's doing. I am so surprised by what I'm seeing and what I didn't see coming that this is literally taking my mind on a trip it wasn't prepared for. I mean the twists, turns and all-around way he is managing to weave the different aspects into one cohesive story is masterfully done. For someone who has never played this game or heard of it before I want more of this from these guys.
I am a huge fan of the fact that even after reading this I'm still not sure what the heck is going on. I have no real idea if Castellanos is in Beacon Mental Hospital still hooked up to some machine or if he's a patient there or if he's out actually canvassing crime scenes looking for the killer. That and the fact that we aren't 100% sure if his wife and daughter are even still alive. I mean he's in a world of trouble and I don't know which way to root for him to go. So much information and misdirection going on in these pages that it makes reading so much damn fun.
The interiors here don't help matters any in determining what's real and what's not. Still the linework here is superb as the attention to detail in the characters from their faces to their hands are so tight. Page layouts are utilised extremely well with their angles, perspective and even backgrounds. The splotches of colour here and there make this even more eerie than I could have thought possible throughout the grey scale work. This is very much a case where the interiors enhance the enjoyment of reading the story.
One of the greatest horror effects of all time is the human mind. It can do things that nothing else is capable of doing and that's allowing a person to be scared beyond belief by what it perceives. To help it along that path storytellers like Ryan are able to use the story they've created to lead the readers mind to places where they scare themselves thanks to what Ryan has done. He has more than effectively used my own mind against me to take me places that the darkest recesses of my mind wouldn't normally travel to.
Also by using confusion and misdirection as he's done here he has ensured the fact that readers will scrambling to come back to see what's going to happen next and of Castellanos' fate.
Titan Comics keeps bringing us stories that fascinate, thrill and take the reader places they've never dared to go alone.