By Clyde Hall — A high security IKEA for reanimated cadavers, assembly required. A kidnapping by black bag operatives which doesn’t surprise their jaded abductee overmuch. A town where monsters live, and no, it’s not called Midian. It’s A Town Called Terror, and Issue #1 provides a very cinematic first act featuring all the ingredients listed above. 

Henry and Julia West are engaging in a moment of matrimonial polka when their home is entered by a group of masked intruders. The criminals tranq dart Julia, overpower Henry, and clean the scene before leaving with their captive. It appears this constitutes a summons back home for Henry on behalf of his deceased father. Henry’s a native of a place called Terror and, having escaped it in his youth, it’s a location he never intended revisiting. Julia tries reporting her husband’s kidnapping to the authorities, but the lack of physical evidence supporting an alleged abduction leaves them skeptical and largely unmotivated as the initial chapter winds down. 

The title launch is a visual style heavyweight with welterweight expositions. It holds its own in the Round One battle for piquing reader interest, and that’s no small win given spartan dialogue and atmospheric, rather than detail-rich, panels. It’s a horror narrative built on inference and suspense rather than gleefully sanguine scenes of slaughter. Their approach raises expectations that the creative team’s aiming high, their potential elevated above simply jump scares. The way they handle the subdued introduction instills confidence; if there are shocks yet to come, they should be the equivalent of cinema moments usually punctuated by popcorn-blizzards and gasps. 

Writer Steve Niles deserves much of the credit, and it’s clear he’s working well in tandem with artist Szymon Kudranski. Together, they get the narrative elements lined up for visual storytelling which allows less-is-more dialogue moments. Their efforts are a measured seeping of information, like narrative filling a syringe the way blood does in a slow draw.  

By foregoing the more excessive horror landmarks in his rendering, Kudranski makes the drive into Terror a memorable part of Issue #1. Are those figures and heads the stuff of wood carvings, statuary, and mad topiary? Or are they ashen, fleshly remains displayed like tastefully posed heads on pikes? Or tortured souls fused into cursed flora? Are the ravens casting unnerving glares of contempt at carrion candidates still stubbornly upright? His work here invokes a thoroughly and thoughtfully creepy atmosphere. 

It's unclear which parts of the lettering are done by Scott O. Brown and which additions are by Marshal Dillon, but it’s a solid collaboration. Especially appreciated is the creative breaking-and-entering scream effect and the sound fonts for that sequence standing out in both form and stark white coloration. With the dark setting, they make viewable the audible intensity of the sounds.

While the issue has much in its favor, a bad, overused horror and crime drama trope stopped the story’s momentum entirely. It’s one of the few narrative flow obstructions I’d exorcise from all fiction if I had the spell craft handy. This comes when Julia calls the police reporting Henry’s abduction by masked gun-wielding men who forced their way into her home. She’s told by dispatch that she has to wait 24 hours to file a report. This is without any member of law enforcement having first viewed the scene and taken stock of its dearth of physical evidence.  It’s just a cringe-worthy moment. In actual practice, there’s no required time period necessary before filing a missing persons report, and certainly not when details like ‘home invasion’ and ‘multiple armed intruders’ are involved (read more here). Yes, it’s just a scary story and not real life, but unless the officials in our tale are somehow being manipulated into refusing the investigation or being compelled by supernatural means, this is a suspension bridge of disbelief too far.  

Overall: If it’s been too long since a horror comic raised your gooseflesh or bestowed a case of jimjams, you owe yourself a look at A Town Called Terror #1. After the first read, go back and devour every page for its visuals alone. This title’s beginning oozes atmospheric chimeras slavering and thrashing, ready to be unleashed. Even its cover logo is a thing of crafted, gothic elegance. 7.5/10

A Town Called Terror #1

A Town Called Terror #1
Writer: Steve Niles
Artist: Szymon Kudranski 
Letterers: Scott O. Brown and Marshall Dillon
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
"A MESSAGE FROM HOME," Part One-Henry West is brutally kidnapped in the middle of the night while his wife Julie watches, terrified. Henry awakens to the reality of his whereabouts, but Julie, with no evidence of the phantom crime, is unable to get help to search for him. A new series from the minds of cutting-edge horror creators STEVE NILES (30 Days of Night) and SZYMON KUDRANSKI (SPAWN, Punisher).
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Clyde Hall (He/Him) lives in Southern Illinois. He’s an Elder Statesman of Geekery, an indie author, a comics fan/reviewer, and a contributing writer at Stormgate Press. He’s on twitter at: (@CJHall1984)