Comics Review: BONE PARISH VOLUME 1 by Cullen Bunn

BONE PARISH VOLUME 1 by Cullen Bunn and Jonas Scharf  (Boom! Studios, May 2019)  Trade Paperback, 112 pages.  ISBN #1684153549 /  9781684153541  

Summary from the Goodreads website . . . . .

A necromantic horror series about an upstart crime family trafficking in a new designer drug that’s just hit the market made from the ashes of the dead.

A new drug is sweeping through the streets of New Orleans—one made from the ashes of the dead. Wars are being fought over who will control the supply, and the demand is rising. While the various criminal factions collide, users begin to experience terrifying visions of the dead coming back to life...through them. 

 Eisner Award-nominated author Cullen Bunn (Harrow County, The Empty Man) and illustrator Jonas Scharf team up for Bone Parish, a haunting blend of horror and crime that takes an unflinching look at how we connect to—and disconnect from—the world around us.  

My review . . . . .

     BONE PARISH is a carefully constructed blend of horror and crime focused on the drug trade and criminal organizations. It's worth reading more than once in order not to miss the subtleties. Bunn doesn't always telegraph or detail exactly what we're witnessing in each scene and it takes a careful, slower, repeat reading to fully appreciate the brilliance of what is here. 

    

BONE PARISH details the escalating business venture of the Winters, a small New Orleans family  of mixed race who develop a brand-new street drug that provides a hallucinogenic experience like no other. Ash is derived from the bodies of decomposing corpses and when snorted, allows the user to obtain an illusory out-of-body experience through the deceased's eyes and mind.

Volume 1 collects the first four issues of the twelve-issue maxi-series. While a dangerous threat to the family seems to be contained, events are far from reaching a conclusion and my appetite is sufficiently wetted for more dark doings.

Some highlights from the first story arc . . . . .

ISSUE #1

The opening scenes illustrate the inherent dangers in Ash. A user snorts the ashes of a deceased rock star and imagines himself singing on stage and levitating before an enraptured audience. In reality, he’s standing in the middle of a dimly lit street and gathering a crowd of amused onlookers. 

  In order for the family’s resident chemist to produce Ash, the dead have to be dug up, removed from their graves, and their bodies utilized to create the powder.  As demand for Ash ramps up, and requests come in for specific deceased types the risk grows.  The matron of the family is also a user and has a ghostly advisor to guide her in the drug business.  All this gets the attention of a prominent New York criminal organization, who want to buy the business from the family. Already, entrepreneurs are attempting to duplicate the Ash formula and sell it, with often disastrous results. 

ISSUE #2

Internal family squabbles erupt over who should lead and what is the future direction for the Ash business. It appears that sometimes the ingestion of Ash will cause the deceased to manifest in body, and chemist Brigitte has a secret regarding who she’s spending her nights with. 

ISSUE #3

As the story progresses, more layers are revealed.  This is an amazing blend of crime and horror and very original. Add some crooked cops, the Mexican cartel, and things are really heating up. Double crosses, ambushes, and gun battles in graveyards. 

ISSUE #4

Even the recently deceased may become useful in grisly ways. The Winters suffer some losses but eliminate several sources of trouble.

This stuff will kill you. On to Volume 2.