Abattoir #1 – Review

by Darren Lynn Bousman (creator), Michael Peterson (concept), Rob Levin (writer), Troy Peteri (writer & letterer), Bing Cansino (art), and Andre Pervukhin (colors)

The Story: Real-estate agent Rich Ashwalt finds himself tasked with selling a house stained by a horrific, bloody massacre. Enter Jebediah Crone, a creepy guy who seems weirdly eager to purchase the place…

What’s Good: I’ve often felt that the best horror stories are those that feel realistic in its setting and its characters.  The closer to reality, the more unsettling the injected disturbance is.  Abattoir seems to get this.

Main character Rich Ashwalt is a strong one if only because of his normalcy.  His marital discord with his wife feels natural, as it never comes close to reaching over the top histrionics.  There’s a sense of distrust, tension, and loss, but also love.   Similarly, Rich’s relationship with his daughter is tender and paints Rich instantly as a good father, yet it never veers close to feeling saccharine or picturesque.  In many ways, the same goes for his friendship with his work buddy Patrick, which, while their back-and-forth dynamic is fun to read, feels common.  All of this makes Abattoir’s world relatable.

This makes the more mysterious horror elements all the more menacing.  There’s a constant tension and a sense of something encroaching.  In some ways, it mirrors the tension in Rich’s marriage; it’s there, roiling beneath the surface and becoming increasingly anxious to break the surface.  The gory massacre that haunts the town’s memory plays a big role in this; it’s a bubbling over of the horror and insanity that lurks below all the every day normalcy of this setting and its characters and now, in Abattoir’s world, it continues to linger.  The town and its characters are forced to confront, and unable to forget, this ugliness, no matter how much they want to.  That, in itself, is quintessentially Gothic.

The Walking Dead #68 – Review

by Robert Kirkman (writer), Charlie Adlard (pencils & inks), Cliff Rathburn (gray tones), and Rus Wooton (letters)

The Story: A mysterious new character, Aaron, makes our group a utopian offer.  But can he be trusted?

What’s Good: With this issue, Kirkman begins his next big arc and it looks to be a great one, if only because it uses the series’ age to its advantage.

This entire book hinges on the emotional wear and tear that the group has seen.  They’ve suffered so much death and horror that trusting an outsider, or believing in the possibility of something good, is almost impossible.  Aaron’s reception by the group serves as a chilling reminder of everything Rick and company have gone through.   That said, while their trust issues are merited, Kirkman also does a good job of making Aaron seem just nice enough to highlight how broken and dysfunctional our group has become; justified or not, they’ve become a paranoid and violent bunch.

Perhaps Kirkman’s greatest achievement however, is that in making a “trust issue themed” installment that draws upon the series’ lengthy run, he also fully involves the reader.  While five years of comics means that our characters have suffered a lot, it also means that we have read just as much.  With Kirkman’s distinctively merciless style, full of shocks, sudden deaths, and twisted developments, it’s perhaps even harder for us to trust Aaron than it is for the characters themselves.  Throughout the Walking Dead, we’ve constantly been hit with evil from around the corner, so really, it’s hard not to look at Aaron with a sense of dread, waiting for the shoe to drop as we wonder what awful surprise Kirkman has in store for us this time.  Our suspicion and paranoia, created by Kirkman over 67 issues, is the same anxiety that has come to paralyze Rick.

Finally, Charlie Adlard does a fantastic job this month with his illustrations of Aaron. Adlard manages to draw a “nice guy,” but there definitely is something quietly sinister about his appearance.  His facial expressions are dead on.

Wolverine: Weapon X #7 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Yanick Paquette (pencils), Michel Lacombe (inks), Nathan Fairbairn (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Dr. Rot attempts to release the animal inside Logan.

What’s Good: Last month’s issue was fantastic and this month is basically just more of a good thing.  Aaron’s “Insane in the Brain” arc continues to be a fantastic horror comic; it’s twisted, creepy, and shockingly gory for a mainstream Marvel comic.

Dr. Rot continues to be an incredibly strong character.  This month, his gleeful insanity is all the more enjoyable, as he has a run-in with some ordinary Mafia thugs.  What ensues is a delightful collision of worlds, where contact with the more mundane criminal only makes Rot appear all the more outrageous.  Also, if that female mask Rot wore last month wasn’t bad enough, this time Rot actually has it adopt its own personality, as he talks to himself in a mirror.  I couldn’t figure out whether I wanted to laugh or take a shower after reading that.

I suppose that that’s really indicative of how this issue’s build upon last month’s groundwork: it just seems that little bit more outrageous.  Where last month saw a bloody sack of brains, this one sees Rot running around with cleavers, a man with his hands removed, and an all-out chainsaw massacre.  Where last month had more of a “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” feel, this month continues that, but adds a strong dash of grindhouse, splatter-horror into the mix.  Indeed, when we enter Rot’s mad scientist lab and he goes plucking brains, it certainly feels like something out of a thirty year old horror flick.  It’s sensationalist, bloody, and delightfully campy.

On art, Yanick Paquette continues to put out incredibly pleasing work.  His character models remain fantastic.  I also enjoyed how most of the frames featuring Rot have his eyes shaded in.  The character’s only having shadowy black pits for eyes is definitely disquieting.  Paquette also extends his range a bit this month, drawing Wolverine’s nightmares in a completely different style, one that’s more blurred, painted, and hellish.  It’s a perfect juxtaposition to the rest of the comic and is suitably horrifying.  Colorist Nathan Fairbairn also continues to have a great effect on Paquette’s work, giving Wolverine’s “treatment” scenes in particular a very well-lit, even fluorescent, clinical feel.

All told, the book hits all the same right notes it hit last month.  While it shows more this month, using the suspense of the page-turn to the maximum, it still also plays up what we can’t see.  Certain areas remain cordoned off, and as demonstrated by the bandaged nurse this month, that’s often the worst part.

What’s Not So Good: Admittedly, much of the ground covered plot-wise is the same stuff we went over last month.  For instance, Wolverine repeats that he doesn’t know where he is or what his name is.  He stated those same lines through monologue a bit last month, but when he does so a few more times this month, it does become noticeable.   At one point, Wolverine’s continued restating of this existential dilemma made me wonder whether some of the internal monologue was even necessary, if it’s only there to echo what we’ve heard several times already.

The big ending this month does help, but there is a slight sense of water treading through some parts of this issue.  That said, I don’t suspect it will greatly bother anyone with a decent attention span.

Conclusion: Still incredibly experimental and creative, with a cool grindhouse flavor added in, this one’s a keeper.

Grade: A-

-Alex Evans