By Jacob Cordas — I didn’t know Cullen Bunn wrote Eden when the editor here asked me to review it. I didn’t notice Cullen Bunn’s name on the creator page as I jumped past it - an attempt to not let my biases about the creators impact the review. I didn’t realize it was written by Cullen Bunn when I finished it and started thinking about this positive review.

I had recognized Dalibor Talajić’s fantastic art from his work on Hit Monkey. In Eden, he experiments with open space, imbuing the world of this comic with an ethereal quality. It feels less grounded than it might otherwise. The vagueness of the world lets it flow like a fairy tale, or a bar story mumbled at you from a sailor in the corner. It’s able to be horrifying in its lack of details. The world starts and ends in the void, where anything possible can be created. Talajić is able to take us through this hyper-reality with no pause or difficulty.

We especially should make note of the way the tattoo imagery overflows the world. His art moves the world, represented here by taking over the pages they are created on. Where would normally be the emptiness between moments instead is conquered by our protagonist’s imagination made real, Talajić’s imagination made real. It’s excellent and haunting work helping take a classically minded horror story into something a bit more modern.

But I didn’t know it was written by Cullen Bunn. And I suppose at this point is as good as any to admit to the simple truth — I’ve never really been all that into Cullen Bunn’s work. He’s not a bad writer, but his writing has never done anything for me outside of frustration, at least with the books of his that I’ve read. Punk Mambo felt like reading a comic so targeted at me it was malicious. Unearth was the kind of work I should love but couldn’t get under my skin. Lobo was a Lobo comic. Maybe at this note, my internal biases had just been too much and any new attempt would fall on deaf ears. I knew what I thought and I thought I knew what I knew.

I was wrong. Cullen Bunn’s writing in this is excellent. Maybe it’s the stripped down format, a single (albeit extra-large issue) with no responsibilities to an overarching story. Maybe it’s the long term partnership he has with Talajić that brings out the finer qualities of his writing. I could list off an innumerable number of maybes that really are only my attempts to let my previously held biases stay true. They aren’t.

In Eden, Cullen Bunn writes a lyrical short story. It’s reminiscent of the best parts of Dark Romanticism, pulling heavily from the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. And much like Poe, it is in its simplicity that it shines. It weaves its way through its story, while never exactly unpredictable, always disorienting. It’s straightforward but demented. It’s everything I could want from a short story and I struggled to believe who wrote it.

But fuck it. It’s a great short story. It’s wonderfully written, delightful drawn and all around horrifying. I struggle to believe it was created by who created it but that doesn’t matter. It’s good.

You should read it.

Overall: Eden is the personally my favorite thing that Cullen Bunn has ever written, a sweet and surprisingly moving horror story. 7.5/10

REVIEW: Eden by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajić

Eden
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Dalibor Talajić
Colorist: Valentina Briski
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Publisher: Aftershock Comics
Price: $6.99
Tattoo artist Niles lives his life in a kind of daze. Minute after minute, he muddles through the repetitive moments of his job, his life and his guilt. All that changes when Eden walks through the doors of the tattoo shop. She’s looking for something…different…and she finds it with Niles. But Eden is a woman surrounded by deep mysteries…not the least of which is how and why her new tattoos vanish after only a few days. As Niles learns more about Eden, he is driven to fathomless depths of both love and horror. A prestige format “One-Shock” featuring top creative talent, EDEN is a harrowing hor-ror/romance conceived and written by Cullen Bunn (PIECEMEAL, DARK ARK, KNIGHTS TEM-PORAL, BROTHERS DRACUL), drawn by Dalibor Talaji? (WITCH HAMMER, RELAY) and colored by Valentina Bri ki. Be prepared to accompany the notions of love, creation and heartbreak to terrifying places.
Release Date: May 5, 2021
Buy It Here: Eden