Now that’s how it’s done. That’s how you go about terrifying your audience by presenting an eerie tale through literary storytelling and spectacular, spectacularly creative art. Yes. A resounding yes. Kudos, Round of applause.
Now that it’s been optioned for screen, our library is finally getting these books. Well, it did one and two anyway and I sincerely hope they’ll get the rest, because this was so good. First off, some words on the art. For me, the story is always the main course and art matters, but it can take a secondary role as presentation does to a meal, say. But here the art isn’t merely good (which it is and I would have liked it even if it was regularly laid out in nine even sized panels to a page or whatever), it’s so freaking creative. The way the panels are used in structuring the story kinda blew my mind. There were such wildly original constructs from an ingenus two page cubic construct to a variety of visually fascinating and exciting displays. A singular display of sheer excellence. Now to the story…I already knew I liked the author going by his original offbeat take on superheroes that he had so expertly Black Hammered in. And here he sticks with the color, but makes a barn out of it. A mysterious building that appears and disappears throughout time, unleashing various madness on those who behold it in all its ominous splendor. The story begins with a priest who has (reluctantly and against his wishes) been transferred to guide the flock of the eponymous town after his predecessor apparent death. The reluctance proves justified almost immediately as the priest gets thrown at least up to his shoulders into the soup of it, murders, mysteries and all. But he isn’t the only one affected by the black barn, there’s also man freshly out on his own after a time in a mental institution, who is obsessed with it and (in a reverse of what therapy is supposed to do) drags his therapist into this obsession. And many others, including local police detectives and a possibly secret society of Ploughmen. In this town, black barn is Rome in the way that all roads seem to lead to it. It’s a journey well worth taking, albeit strictly literary, otherwise it’s too frightening. Not since a certain tv series adaptation of a certain Maine based author of literary nightmares has someone gotten so much mileage out of a barn. And this is shaping up into all sorts of awesomeness. Can’t wait to read more. Recommended.
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