Cults. It’s always cults.
Creative Staff:
Story: Zac Thompson
Art: Eoin Marron
Colors: Mark Englert
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
What They Say:
It is 1928. Veteran of the Great War and part-time private eye Guy Horn travels to a remote community in Western Canada to retrieve his estranged brother from the clutches of a dangerous cult. As Guy struggles to gain control of his own personal demons, he’s tantalized by the cause and its charismatic leader, Brother XII.
A tightly plotted horror-mystery based on a true story wherein writer Zac Thompson (I BREATHED A BODY, UNDONE BY BLOOD,Ka-Zar) joins forces with artist Eoin Marron (KILLER GROOVE) for a new miniseries that blends the unexpected twists of hard-boiled detective noir with the uncanny traditions of folk-horror.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Zac Thompson books tend to be pretty tough reads for me in that they cover difficult ground and get into some really grim areas. That’s not a bad thing but I definitely weigh what I’m reading at the same time to make sure I’m not stacking too many grim things all at once because his books will really take me down a path. For this series, he’s paired up with the very talented Eoin Marron who has done some great stuff with AfterShock previously and I’m excited to see them back and working on something that’s further back history-wise. Their artwork here is great with the settings and locations while delivering engaging and solid character designs that feel like they really are of the period rather than just displaced people from the present day.
The story here takes us back to the late 1920s in British Columbia – Victoria, to be specific, as Guy Horn has arrived to look for a woman named Myrtle. He’s taken that on as a job but it comes with the additional mission for him in trying to find his brother that was in the same picture, a brother he hasn’t seen since before the war. Guy’s journey is one that takes him to a difficult place to deal with as the weather is not to his liking and made worse by his wounds from the war, which includes an intriguing face-covering that helps to hide away the wounds and damage there. Guy does his due diligence in trying to find Myrtle in this city and realizes that it is, once again, the kind of place where you have to get to the real grunt workers to find out what’s going on as nobody else is talking. And that’s what gives him his first clue as to figuring out where she might be.
The residents of Victoria aren’t interested in talking about the real threat that exists within it in the form of a man named Brother XII. It takes time for Guy to learn of him and where he is, giving us a chance to know Guy and the city, but arriving to the actual small island that Brother XII has occupied with his group makes things pretty clear as to what’s going on. Yep, we’ve got a cult here. Every red flag goes up and, watching this while playing the January 6th Committee hearings at the same time in talking about what are essentially modern-day cults, all the parallels are there and it certainly makes for an easy shortcut to understanding what’s going on as Guy ingratiates himself as someone wanting to join there. The discovery of not just Myrtle but his brother being there – who doesn’t recognize him – makes it clear that he’s in for the full experience, but it just leaves me repulsed by such situations.
In Summary:
Everything about this book is really well-executed. The script is solid with all the details, the dialogue flows in a way that feels right, the settings and backgrounds look great, and I love the character designs. But it’s also a story of a cult of some sort set in 1928 and running just as many parallels to today. Normally, that would be my jam, but at the same time we’re in the middle of some really dark times, and adding more of it is cathartic to some degree and moreso for some than others, but it can also be something that you can spiral with. I’m intrigued to see more and if there is something greater at work here and to just savor the artwork and the characters. But I’m also fighting off some real wariness about reading about another cult.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: July 13th, 2022
MSRP: $4.99
