SPLASHES OF DARKNESS WHITE: KNUCKLE (COMIC REVIEW)

27/7/2021

Cy Dethan is a fucking genius. I hate him. The sympathetic monster is not a new trope, but *rarely have I seen it handled so deftly, nor with such emotional force.

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.'

WHITE: KNUCKLE
(COMIC REVIEW BY DION WINTON-POLAK)

White Knuckle is a murky cocktail brought over by a grinning bar shark at a stag do who fucking dares you you down it. They won't tell you what's in there, but it looks septic somehow. There are milky lumps floating about in it; swirls of brown and yellow turn your stomach. You feel unclean just looking at it but - well - you came here to drink, after all. Try not to choke on it.

White Knuckle is a complex psychological thriller, reframing the 'retired gunslinger' motif into a modern tale of violent drives, degeneration and damnation. Forty years ago, the Gripper was a man to be feared - a serial strangler with a string of victims. Now nearly seventy, Seth Rigal lives on the verge of poverty, waiting for the death he knows he deserves. Tortured and confused, he finds himself stalking the daughter of his final victim - only to find himself rescuing her son. The last thing he needs is attention, but when a local reporter gets him in his sights, Seth loses his grip entirely.

Cy Dethan is a fucking genius. I hate him. The sympathetic monster is not a new trope, but *rarely have I seen it handled so deftly, nor with such emotional force. The key lies, I think, in Rigal's vulnerability. He's a man haunted by the darkness inside, weakened by age and infirmity, caught up in events he has no control over. That helplessness ellicits our empathy despite ourselves, with a copy-cat killer adding further contrast to the Gripper of old and the broken soul that's left before us.

The heart of the story is Michelle Brooks - last living remnant of Seth's muderous past. She is damaged by trauma, struggling to live a normal life, but her ex-husband is a piece of shit. The simple light she brings to the comic - and to Seth's life - is wonderful and painful to behold because we know it cannot last. Her hesitant attempts to form a human connection with Rigal make redemption feel tantalisingy possible and damnation almost inevitable, whichever way the chips fall.

I was not an instant fan of Valia Kapadai's art, but my appreciation has grown with each reading. There's a rough, sketchy quality to the lines, and the colouring is watery - washes of drab and greasy tones that make your fingers feel dirty. The more we crawl inside Dethan's story though, the more appropriate this creative partnership seems. Both writer and artist have a deep interest in small, telling details that help to round out a real, fallible human being, whether it be the self-delusion of Michelle's husband, or the gleam in her kid's eyes as he describes his own grandmother's murder.

Kapadai's art well evokes the killer's bleak despair; his face is so sad, his lank hair, sunken shoulders and hunched posture so pathetic; the action scenes are filled with angry scratches and fierce glares - all pulling us inexorably into his mindscape. Kapadai reserves her most startling images and the brightest colours for the ghosts of the past: the hallucinations and hauntings that intrude upon Seth, begging for release or cursing his name, and the psychodelic excesses of the 'Laser Crypt' where Rigal loses all sense of reality. It's powerful stuff, well used, and helps to differentiate the psychological layers for the reader in a way that feels quite natural.

This is an absolute killer. It's a tough read, no doubt - dark, brutal, emotionally tangled and surprisingly painful by the end - but it's well worth your time

Written by Cy Dethan
Illustrated by Valia Kapadai
Lettered by Nic Wilkinson
Published by Markosia
Available now!

Reading experience 5/5
Reviewer - Dion Winton-Polak

* The closest parallel I can think of is a criminal called Angus Thermopyle - in The Gap series by SF author, Stephen R. Donaldson - trapped and screaming in the prison of his mind.

Check out Dion's other comic book reviews here