SPLASHES OF DARKNESS; SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN VOL. 1 - COMIC REVIEW

3/8/2021

This is emphatically not Jaws set in the deep dark woods, but James Tynion IV does tap some similar sensibilites: vulnerable people vanishing, periods of uneasy tension both built and shattered by a trail of bodies,

Comic-books are a medium, not a genre; they can tell any story and suit any palate. You want horror? I've got bottles of the stuff. Welcome to 'Splashes of Darkness.'

SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN VOL. 1
(COMIC REVIEW BY DION WINTON-POLAK)

You get inured, sometimes. The sheen goes out of the world. All you see is the grim and the gritty, the sour and the shitty. Times like that, you don't want something fancy laid out on the bar; you just want a hit of something raw to match the horror and hollow you out awhile. What you've got here is simple, hard-hitting, and straight down the line: Something is Killing the Children. You gonna just sit there and take it?

When the children of Archer's Peak begin to go missing, everything seems hopeless. Most children never return, but the ones that do have terrible stories of terrifying creatures that live in the shadows. Their only hope of finding and eliminating the threat is Erica Slaughter, a mysterious stranger who believes the children and claims to see what they can. She kills monsters. That's all she does. She bears the cost because it must be done.

I took a bit of time away from the world of comics while I was setting up my editing business, so I had no idea what this little beauty was when it dropped through the door. It sat there for a couple of days before I cracked the cover. There was something unsettling about the scratchy white lettering, the...directness of the title, the shadowy menace of the cover. It held a promise (and a memory) of fear that I wasn't quite ready to face. Ridiculous I know, but true horror is a visceral experience; it bypasses rationality.

This is emphatically not Jaws set in the deep dark woods, but James Tynion IV does tap some similar sensibilites: vulnerable people vanishing, periods of uneasy tension both built and shattered by a trail of bodies, an expert haunted by long experience (yet widely disbelieved), and a creature which remains invisible or only half-seen for much of the story. The focus shifts neatly between the panicking populace whose fear sparks our own, and the (ambiguously) heroic hunter we cling to for comfort. Erica Slaughter kicks all kinds of ass, but she's probably not the kind of person you want to hang out with. She's more Blade than Buffy, and I have a sneaky suspicion there's some kind of demonic pact going on with that weird-looking toy octopus she lugs around with her.

It's not enough to have a cool character, though; presentation is everything. Fortunately for us, Tynion is a *cracking story-teller with a deep understanding of the craft. Fuck, it's all right there from the start, at the heart of this book: monsters may be shaped by a skilled hand, but it takes an audience to bring the shadows to life - animated by our shared imagination. The first issue **alone is a densely-packed masterclass that gives us the themes, the world, tone, characters to root for, plot seeds for the future, and a monster that will mess up your pants.

Bringing this vision to life is the partnership of Werther Dell'Edera, an excellent illustrator, and Miquel Muerto, whose subtle colour-work adds essential depth and highlights to the world. The cool blues, greens and autumnal browns have a chilling effect, helping to evoke the atmosphere of quiet dread in town, raising goosebumps with every shadow and breeze in the woods. There is a starkness to the artwork - the expressions on the characters' faces, the pacing of the ***panels, the long-shot perspectives of the town, dwarfing its sparse population - all of which suits perfectly the mood of Tynion's story.

Dell'Edera uses delicate fine-liners which allow for sharper detail and greater nuance of expression: anger, fear, aggression, suspicion - scratched into the canvas with every twitch and wrinkle. These feel real to me. Human beings. Captured in moments of quiet vulnerability, emotional pain, and day to day life, rather than those familiar comic-book heroes who live in perpetual extremis. That said, the action - when it comes - is furious, painting devastation without excess. Both artists and writer understand that the result of an attack is far more impactful than the set-up (particularly when it comes to the monster), giving us the sense of terrifying speed and a helplessness to do anything about it. Quite the trick really, when you consider that all we ever see in comics are static images, perused at our own damned time.

I was hooked by it. This book ticked every box for me in terms of emotional investment, gripping plot, a world to admire and explore, and a whole bunch of questions begging to be answered. If I have any criticisms at all, it's that it is occasionally hard to know whether the panels crawl across the double-page spread or should be worked down individually. I understand why it required so many panels and so many pictures for pacing and tone, but flow is an essential part of the comic-reading experience. Can I recommend it? Abso-damned-lutely. Will I be buying the next volume? Hell yeah! I don't know if this is a limited run or an ongoing series, but if the quality of story-telling remains this high, and the artwork this compelling, I'm in it for the long haul. Now...where’s volume 2?

Written by https://tinyonionstudios.com/
Illustrated by Werther Dell'Edera
Coloured by Miquel Muerto
Lettered by Andworld Design
Published by Boom! Studios

Available now!
Reading experience: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Dion Winton-Polak

* In point of fact, he's just won the esteemed Eisner Award for Best Writer, 2021.
** And happily, we get 5 issues in this volume. Savour them!
*** Numerous, capturing small moments, giving us time to think and to empathise.