…So at some point, something is going to happen one would hope, because it sure doesn’t here.
What They Say:
A pair of teen suicides raise terrible questions, but can a grim private eye commit himself to a case that is so closely connected to his own haunted past?
The Review: (please note that content portions of review may contain spoilers)
The Creep introduces the readers to a man named Oxel who appears to be a form of private eye by inference as it is never actually spelled out directly as such. His life isn’t an easy one as he has an unnamed (at this point) disease that has caused his head and hands to grow unusually large and his health isn’t at its best as he has been having progressively more headaches of late. Just to top off the wonder that is his life, it seems that the female companionship he does have is from a woman who traffics in the oldest working profession.
The story opens by reveling that lately one of his old college friends has been pressuring him to investigate a case for her as it seems her son Curtis had recently committed suicide shortly after the death of his only friend Mike. Finally convinced to look into the matter, Oxel makes his first priority to seek out the boy’s father Greg who was also a college friend and discovers that Greg has no answers for Oxel either as things between he and his ex-wife were strained and he had been spending almost all his time at the used car dealership he owns desperately trying to keep his head above water. This has lead Greg to a series of regrets as before Mike died he barely saw Curtis as the pair where always with Curtis’s grandfather and distance didn’t close after Mike’s death when Curtis’ grandfather seemed to no longer want to spend time with Curtis which lead to Greg having more visitations but apparently it didn’t grant insight into his son’s thinking. Despite the pain his old friends are going through is Oxel going to find out if there is any reason for him to even take this case or is this simply going to turn that no one is going to be able to find a reason for Curtis’ suicide?
Ever see a name attached to a project and immediately get excited? Now in the case of an actor it can be hit or miss as they tend to portray vastly different characters in their craft but when you have come to have respect for an author and their long body of work it feels like one might be safer in taking a plunge as they are in control by and large (one assumes) of the final product and one hopes that the magic they showed in a previous tale will translate going forward. As a result when The Creep by John Arcudi was offered how could one say no? While his name may not resonate with the vast public like some other comic creators, he has worked on some pretty big titles over the course of his career and even had a hand in creating one himself that became the basis a rather sizable hit in The Mask.
The thing is that this comic isn’t building off some work that has existed before so it is depending a lot on both the author’s name to lure people in as well as the premise. Once in the book though there really is little that jumps out to grab the reader by their collar and drag them in as the book goes for a more muted approach and outside a couple of incidents it either doesn’t have a “hook” or is hiding it so well that it may not catch on with everyone who picks up this volume, particularly if they weren’t entirely already completely sold on the title from either the description or the author’s previous works but took a chance out of curiosity. While it may seem impatient to want something to happen it is a fact of life that the majority of people have just so much time and money to devote to their pursuits and while revealing everything in a first volume is not wise throwing something out for the audience to grasp is generally a good idea least they decide that a less than spectacular first outing is the only chance they are going to give a title as they can instead focus on titles they enjoy more.
It is difficult to know what is being built up to here as not just events (or lack of) but also the artwork is used to hide the tale in a fashion as the panels all use a fairly basic style and color scheme that seems to be painting events as being from a slightly older era, which the absence of cell phones being present during the run and some of the other hints look to point to, but the book looks like it is being real careful in not divulging much of anything this early on. In fact if it weren’t for two odd events, one which happens to another character and one which Oxel experiences himself this might be a title that could be easily written off but given the author’s bibliography and their presence there is the hint that there may be strange things to come in the title that will create some interesting development, but that is really a matter of speculation and conjecture and may be more from a sense of hoping than anything based on any event that actually happens in this issue.
In Summary:
The first issue of The Creep looks like it is accomplishing more in terms of setting the environment both in terms of visuals and the characters that will play a role in things than attempting to grab hold of the viewer and drag them in though there are a couple incidents that are just off enough that they may catch the reader’s attention and imagination. With possibly the most minimalist set up being presented right now it looks like the story is going to be counting on its author’s name and the basic story premise that was used to solicit the title more than anything in the issue itself to convince readers to keep this title on their pull list as what is shown here may not be enough for those who cut titles early that may not live up to expectations.
Grade: C+