Sunday 23 October 2011

Cut...

Cut is a horror graphic novel from Dark Horse comics, with story by company founder Mike Richardson and Todd Herman and Al Milgrom on pencil artwork and inks respectively. The first thing you notice about this book is its size: published in the “digest” comicbook format, Cut is small enough to fit in your pocket and runs to around 115 pages.


The plot? Glad you asked:20-something Megan wakes up to find herself held prisoner in a strange abandoned house. But who – or what – has kidnapped her?


In brief, Cut is a solid but unexceptional horror story. The creative team have done a fantastic job of creating a real atmosphere of terror throughout without resorting to the Hollywood horror staples of explicit violence and gore. There's only one full page splash that I can remember, and the writer saved it up to ensure it had the most impact: unlike many comic book full page shots, the page is entirely justified. (I'm thinking here of the typical monthly DC or Marvel titles, where you only get 22 pages of story to keep you going until the next issue, and sometimes anywhere from 3-5 of those can be full page “impact” shots – they look great but are nearly always style over substance and you end up getting less bang for your buck).


Special credit has to go to the art and colours team who work their magic to create deep, moody scenes – reminiscent of Dark Horse favourite Hellboy, or British artist Kevin Walker – punctuated with a handful of brighter scenes, flashing back to before the horror began. Although it doesn't rely on cheap visual tricks, the heroine of the piece does spend the second half of the story topless, admittedly for a (flimsy) narrative reason. (For the curious amongst you, Megan takes her sweater off and hangs it out of the window in order to collect some water from the rain to sustain herself).


Ultimately Cut felt to me like it was lacking in the story department: the plot could use a bit more meat on its shambling narrative bones. On the other hand, the ending does leave you wanting more from the story which, in horror, is not always a bad thing. My problem with the book was that it all feels slightly inconsequential – and I can't make much further comment without ruining the twists of this short graphic novel...


The Dark Horse comics website offers up a 15 page preview of the book here.