It’s the ‘Home Of America’s Prettiest Autumn”, the town of Comfort Notch. In Vault Comics’ The Autumnal #1, though, things fall a few notches below pretty.
As New York Times Best-Selling author Daniel Kraus (The Shape of Water, Trollhunters, The Living Dead, etc) writes it, it’s a mother and child reunion gone wrong. The small town of New Hampshire serves as the perfect setting for horror. And it’s a well-told tale, as we get to know the characters… Sybil, a girl in trouble at school in Chicago; her mom Kat Somerville, a woman with relationship trouble; and Kat’s late mother, who is, well, dead.
Chris Shehan contributes well-choreographed, well-orchestrated scenes of chaos, dysfunction, and desperation, New England Style. The figures are well proportioned, the settings believable. Shehan has found a way to demonstrate this suspense story without the panels feeling crowded. There is space and a luscious atmosphere within. Jason Wordie colours with the autumn in mind, of course, a riot of warm earth tones following a cool, dark urban beginning.
It’s a beginning, a wonderful thing, and I think if you like spooky New England settings and family mystery, you’re going to find this one a real wicked treat!
Vault Comics, The Autumnal #1, $3.99 for 34 pages of content. Assume Teen rating.
Newsdesk