Confession: I use Amazon when looking for new comics before buying at a comic store. It's great since I can read reviews to whittle out bad purchases and then get what I want quickly without waiting on shipping. I know I could buy digital comics, but I want physical media and I want it now ...ish. This is how I stumbled onto Wytches. Now I plan on more research before future purchases.
Wytches' four page cold open is the best thing Volume 1 has to offer. Hands down. It's presence is eerie and it's story is chillingly harsh. Unfortunately the rest of the comic failed to match this momentum. The storytelling does hit some high notes but, like the cold open, only when the story is in small bursts.
Even then, the high notes were a splash page of Sailor's diary and the last five pages of the comic. The rest was a throwaway. The majority of characters were bland or highly unlikeable, making all attempts rousing emotion fail miserably... but maybe I'm just heartless. I almost wanted to stop reading because I really didn't care what happened to anyone. I even started rooting against certain characters only to be left agitated with the story's final outcome.
On a positive note, I found the artwork incredibly beautiful. Jock's worth with rendering characters, monsters, and environments was visually appealing but Matt Hollingsworth's use of color really sold it. Although, the combination of shadow and color in some forest scenes felt a little murky. I wish the color/shading of the forests mirrored the eerie simplicity of the cover. In fact, it would have allowed me to further appreciate the use of color and likely ramp up the horror atmosphere employed in forest scenes.
All-in-all, this volume felt like one long, drawn out, mediocre story. I think this series could benefit from telling a series of short stories that highlight the lore of Wytches, since their bite size stories were more successful. Even then I'd rather pledge myself than read Volume 2... I just didn't get the appeal of this series. In fact, I'd like to pledge Stephen King and whoever else gave such quotes of high praise on the back cover.
Buy It, Borrow It, Skip It? Skip It.
"The most terrifying comic you've ever read." Shame on you, MTV News.
No comments:
Post a Comment