By d. emerson eddy — Mystery, science fiction, fantasy, all genre fiction really has a special place in my heart, but it's horror that is thoroughly coded through my DNA. Maybe it was reading Stephen King's IT, maybe it was sharing schlock-filled horror b-movies with my family, maybe it was Swamp Thing, horror took hold when I was a kid and never let me go. Thus, October is one of my favorite months, as everyone seems to be in the swing for spooky and scary things, and I get to do one of my favorite things, write and talk endlessly about all of my favorite horror things. True, I don't let temporal limits constrain me to one month of proselytization, but it's during October where I can practically run down a street with an axe and ask strangers whether or not they read Sutter Cane.

This month, I wanted to focus on a few different kinds of horror, that tap in to the various strains across the genre, starting with a work that self-describes as “rural noir”, Revival – Volume One: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Mark Englert, and Crank! It drops us into Wasau, Wisconsin where everyone who died came back, but they're not zombies.

Revival feels like the same kind of horror you find in Stephen King and Joe Hill novels or of Fargo, full of that small town charm and a focus on characters as they navigate the setting, rather than being led around by the plot, mixed with a central concept that reminds me of the French series Les Revenants. We're introduced to a pair of leads in the sisters Dana and Martha Cypress, straddling the divide of an officer that's part of the task force trying to discover the nature of the revivers and a university student who is one of them. They're joined by a cast including their Sheriff father, a CDC scientist, an investigative reporter, a seemingly psychotic exorcist, and more as they try to figure out whether or not all of the revivers are dangerous, since some of them seem to have come back...wrong. Along with something strange wailing in the woods.

There's a clean, innocence and wholesomeness to Norton's artwork, perfectly serving as a comforting facade to the horror that lies beneath. His Wisconsin is populated with beautiful people, children that look like children, and a landscape in the first volume layered with snow, seemingly hinting visually even that there might be something buried just unseen. So when the weird and gruesome occur, you're that much more unsettled by it. The line art is enhanced by Englert's colors, who chooses a kind of neutral grey as a base, leaving the brighter colors on the characters to really make them stand out.

Though there definitely are some moments of humor, both absurd and situational, Seeley keeps the tone of the dialogue and interactions fairly straight. The self-appointed exorcist is out to lunch, and there's an undercurrent of severe racism and xenophobia amongst some of the characters, which just further deepens the social and political aspects of the story. Crank! gets the opportunity to give us some excellent unique word balloons for the things in the woods and some dialogue boxes suited for journal entries.

Revival is a series that plays out similarly in structure to the old school serialized television format. There are shorter incidents across various issues, but there's a propulsive focus on the characters that grabs you and makes you want to see exactly what happens next. Seeley, Norton, Englert, and Crank! create a world that is enthralling and compelling as the mystery of what exactly the revivers are plays out. This is one that you're going to want to have the entire series on hand once you dive into it.

Revival, Volume One - You’re Among Friends

Revival – Volume One: You're Among Friends
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Mike Norton
Colorist: Mark Englert
Letterer: Crank!
Publisher: Image Comics
For one day in rural central Wisconsin, the dead came back to life. Now it's up to Officer Dana Cypress to deal with the media scrutiny, religious zealots, and government quarantine that has come with them. In a town where the living have to learn to deal with those who are supposed to be dead, Officer Cypress must solve a brutal murder, and everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect. The sell-out hit series created by NYT Bestselling author TIM SEELEY and Eisner winning artist MIKE NORTON is collected with bonus material!
Collects REVIVAL 1-5 and the FREE COMIC BOOK DAY short story
Release Date: December 12, 2012
Price: $9.99
More Info: Revival, Volume One - You’re Among Friends

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.