THE AUTUMNAL #1 (Vault Comics/Nightfall, release date September 23, 2020) Daniel Kraus, writer. Chris Shenan, artist. Jason Wordie, colorist. Jim Campbell, letters.
FOUR OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE STARS.
The first half of this book dangerously did nothing for me and seemed formulaic trauma, alcohol, hard-knock kind of set-up, but the art and the middle-to-end certainly peaked my interest. Kat, a not-great mom who seemingly reared herself elsewhere, has a middle school aged daughter, Sybil, and is called away from Chicago back to her small- Nor'Eastern town in New England a-la-any-Stephen-King-Book for her estranged mother's funeral.
Apparently, this dead woman has a reputation in the town our main character isn't familiar with. No one, and I mean no one, shows up to her funeral, and everyone is real skittish about touching leaves. Kids play hopscotch nearby singing weird-as-shit local nursery rhymes. A weird, weird place that looks gorgeously orange and lush. At the end of the book, the grandmother in the casket doesn't look like herself -- with something going on the last page that won’t spoil here.
If there was ever an eerie, ominous horror book to read in the fall, this is it. Family secrets, possible ecological terror, maybe a dash of wicca, or curses, or something is lingering just beyond sight.
I'm going to hold my breath on this one, and tell you to try this if you enjoy the taught, slow burn of small-town horrors like The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix or eco-horror concepts like those found in The Happening or The Plot (also by Vault). Guillermo Del Toro does atmosphere and family stuff quite well, much like this.
Novels like this include The Willows by Algernon Blackwood (Nature), The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H. P. Lovecraft (tone), Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (sense of place and forboding).
I believe this is a four or five issue limited series, but I'll need to confirm that. The next issues, properly built, could catapult this to a five star rating.
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