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“Canceled” #1

By | April 22nd, 2022
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Horror is an interesting genre, especially for comic books. While comics are most famous for their superhero tales, the horror genre used to be fertile ground for the medium, and companies like E.C Comics created some truly wonderful and creepy stories that have been fondly remembered throughout the ages by millions until they were crippled by the Comics Code in the 1950’s.

The thing is, the nature of the medium made it somewhat limiting in its capacity for horror. Since comics can’t rely on sound and jump scares to instill fear in the audience, they tend to fall back on creepy visuals and ironic moral lessons and schlocky horror.

“Canceled” #1 is a comic from Scout’s new Black Caravan imprint that looks to continue the grand tradition of scary sequential art. Let’s see if it lives up to the history.

Cover by: Fredy Bardales
Written by David A. Byrne
Illustrated by Pabliku Man, Renan Balmonte, MedManga, and Nick Justus
Colored by Renan Balmonte and Trevor Rubin
Lettered by Joel Rodriguez

Black Caravan Imprint: From the writer of Stake comes the first Black Caravan Premiere title, Canceled! When washed-up kids show host Larry finds himself replaced by Cruncho the Clown, he tries to destroy the local town television tower, but instead gets himself electrocuted…and sucked into the airwaves. Canceled crosses four eras with four different artists with unique styles including Pabliku Man, Renan Balmonte, Medmanga, and Nick Justus and incentive covers from Ed Bickford and Zu Orzu!

“Canceled” #1 opens on a children’s show host from the 1960’s named Larry who gets fired from his show for poor ratings. It’s unknown whether his alcoholism played a role in his poor performance, but this was the 1960’s where everyone smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish, so it’s probably best not to talk about that. The day of his last broadcast Larry has a bit of a meltdown where he swears revenge on all the parents who complained about him and then proceeds to electrocute himself to death in a drunken stupor. In typical supernatural horror movie fashion, Larry comes back as a clown demon who lives in the television and tells children to kill their parents, setting off a wave of panic and fear that is quickly solved when parents remember that all they have to do is turn the television off.

But the story doesn’t stop there. You see, it’s revealed that the plot above is just the synopsis of a cheesy horror movie from the 1970’s, which was used as a clip from a Japanese horror movie, which made its way onto a modern streaming platform, ensuring that Larry the Clown lives on and that no parent is safe when they leave their children in front of the screen for too long.

“Canceled” #1 is written by David A. Byrne and in terms of writing and storytelling mechanics, it’s a very interesting book. Byrne presents the book as a sort of anthology, uniting different characters from different eras and tastes with a common theme and a common character. While Byrne does a very good job at making all of the characters relatable and engaging in a very short amount of space, the highlight of the issue is how Byrne moves from story to story. By placing each story in a form of broadcast media that is unique to each time period, Byrne allows the comic to move and flow in a very organic and interesting way that keeps the reader on their toes. Also, it’s a great bit of subtext that encourages the reader to think about the nature of entertainment and how violence and death can continue to affect us long after the original act was committed, even though it really should be easy to get rid of.

While “Canceled” #1 has some interesting ideas and some interesting plot mechanics, it doesn’t really go anywhere and doesn’t seem to have that much of a point in a broader narrative sense. Granted, there are plenty of themes and ideas presented in the subtext of the comic, but it feels like “Canceled” #1 is more of a one shot as opposed to an ongoing or limited series. There doesn’t seem to be much of a point for this comic existing outside of it saying “Look at this creepy clown demon that lives in all our broadcast media. Watch your children carefully.” and there’s a sense that there’s a missed opportunity to build a larger story around this idea. While it may be admirable that the creators of the comic were trying to do something different, it feels like this comic could have really benefited from the introduction of a protagonist that is destined to face down the screen demon and defeat it once and for all.

Continued below

The artwork for “Canceled” #1 is provided by an ensemble group of artists that includes Pabliku Man, Renan Balmonte, Medmanga, and Nick Justus. The choice to have different artists come together and separate each story with a different art style is an interesting idea and very effective at creating a visual shorthand for the audience that each story takes place in a different time with different values and different levels of technology without interrupting the flow of the narrative. It’s a very good idea, and something that would be really cool to see in other comics.

While combining the talents of various artists is a fun idea and works very well in a broad narrative sense, the fact that this is a horror comic means that it has to rely on its visuals to be an effective horror story, which means we have to focus on the details of each individual artist. While the book doesn’t inform the audience as to which artist draws which segment of the story, each artist is pretty effective at delivering creepy and shocking imagery. The highlights of the issue are the first story, which uses a realistic black and white style with very realistic proportions and children’s faces that are twisted and contorted into absolutely terrifying masks as they murder their parents, and the third story that uses a more manga influenced style to shock the audience with dark shadows and gallons of blood and body parts. Your mileage may vary with each artist, but it all comes together effectively.

“Canceled” #1 is an interesting horror comic that is both fascinating and frustrating at the same time. It’s clear that a lot of thought and care went into this book and it pays off with an effective villain, creepy artwork, and great narrative flow, but if the book is going to continue than it feels like it’s going to be difficult to keep the audience engaged enough to pick up the second book.

Final Verdict: 7.1- It’s a well crafted book with some great ideas and subtext, but unless it’s supposed to be a one shot it doesn’t feel like it has anywhere else to go.


Matthew Blair

Matthew Blair hails from Portland, Oregon by way of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He loves everything comic related, and will talk about it for hours if asked. He also writes a web comic about a family of super villains which can be found here: https://tapas.io/series/The-Secret-Lives-of-Villains

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