The Nasty, a tough new comic title from Vault Comics, involves a young fella, obsessed with slasher films. He just loves the things, can’t get enough. So much, in fact, that a dark ’slasher guy’ spirit entity attaches himself to the boy. “Thumper”, as the boy is nicknamed, moves along through life in Scotland, with the entity hanging around behind him. By 1994, Thumper’s still a shy, quiet teen, who hangs out with fellow slasher fans and, well, watches slasher films. Yep.
It’s off to a start, with John Lees writing, and George Kambadais with Adam Cahoon on art duties. Kambadais and Cahoon handle the assignment well, tilting their panels, adding oblique shapes behind characters, then coming in close to show faces. In terms of visual style, it is perhaps a mix of ‘comic strip panel sequences’ and innovative angles and dramatic poses. The colouring relies on strong hits of complementary colours, coupled with loads and loads of creepy shadows. Letters by Jim Campbell. Well done, artists!
Yes, it’s off to a start, but a slow one, unfortunately. Lees writes clever dialogue, with heavy Glaswegian (Scottish) expressions fully on display, plenty of swear words, and some nice sarcasm. But too much back story intro. We wander along behind Thumper and his ‘attached slasher’ for many many many pages, tagging along, hoping to God that something will shake loose. Something more than someone sneaking up behind us, and saying BOO. We want the story to fake us into complacency for a few beats, sure, as all slasher stories do, but we also want a tight script, and sorry Elvis, but with “A Little LESS Conversation”.
Vault Comics, The Nasty #1, $4.99 for 27 pages. Adult language, horror
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