Vault Comics brings us a new “Cult Classic” spin-off that is a wild and retro-style story of a small town and the odd dangers of interaction with alien life. Some Spoilers Ahead!
Cover by John BivensWritten & Created by Eliot Rahal
Illustrated by John Bivens
Colored by Jerrie & Monahan
Lettered by Taylor EspositoEons ago, an exploratory alien race launched a pod with unknown contents into our ocean. Jumping ahead millions of years, a small town resides near the pod’s original landing site and whatever it holds can’t possibly be good for us.
As the issue opens, Rahal drops us in completely unknown territory. We see aliens in a flying saucer, speaking their own language which is not translated for us, and set in a time humans know very little about. They then launch a pod at Earth with devastating results; scaring a group of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. It’s partly humorous and nearly equally unsettling. The unsettling nature isn’t just from the idea that this is a horror comic and that these beings have done something unknown and most likely dangerous in our planet’s past. It is more-so because it feels like a joke you want to get, but the teller has purposely left you out of the loop.
Because there is no dialogue in this sequence, it is Bivens’s illustrations that are telling the story and his work is gorgeous. He walks a line between modern and retro tastes. Everything is detailed to a point, without anything being too photo-realistic or explained heavily through drawing. And the color work by Jerrie & Monahan is absolutely stunning. They too, make the issue look like it was colored in different eras. Rather than using multiple shades, they rely on the pencils and ink to convey details and shadows in this sci-fi intro; with much of the panels using single shades over entire portions of the panels. It feels very much like the Dave Gibbons school of thought. Every set piece and character is colored in a specific manner with no colors bleeding into each other. And it feels like just one light source is in play. The use of these solid colors with strictly defined lines separating them is one of the things that makes this sequence so perfectly executed. The entire art team successfully created an opening scene that lives in both today’s comics and the comics of the 1950s like “Weird Science” and “Space Adventures.”
When the story moves ahead in time, the art style changes in a way that is almost expected from a book like this. With the use of real horror, dark humor, sci-fi, and kids, it all feels like “Tales From the Crypt” meets “Paper Girls.” However, because there is no direct mention of when the story takes place outside of minor background details, it mostly feels timeless. It’s modern day, yet has a clear through-line of those old 50s comics seen mainly in aspects of the color work. The small town of Whisper also tends to feel like a quiet slice of Reagan-era suburbia with its focus on drive-ins, middle school sleepovers, and B-horror. Which makes the use of one character’s cellphone feel so extremely out of place with the rest of the story. The phone itself looks to play an important role in coming issues, which will hopefully be the case, otherwise it is one detail that could have been cut.
When the story jumps to present day, we get a charming and sad mirror to the past events. A horror movie host introducing the next flick Night of the Saucer People with wonderful fervor, setting the mood, but as soon as he’s off the air, he slumps into his chair, feeling like it’s all for nothing. The tonal shift really tells us what this book will be about. On one hand it comes off as a cheesy monster story with tongue-in-cheek humor and gore, but on the other, there’s an underlying darkness telling us that this isn’t all gags; not everything will be alright in the end. It’s this scene that pushes us towards some really nice world building. Every detail is subtle and begins to slide into place as we turn each page. There is a comforting nostalgia as we begin to meet the kids at the center of the story. We begin to meet the characters and parts of the town that will help shape this story, and the series moving forward.
Continued belowA young boy, Irving, is on his way to his first sleepover with some friends. He’s already off to a bad start when he flips the lights on and the other kids get annoyed because they’re playing with a Ouija board. The kid who is most at Irving’s throat is Sarah, an unpleasant bully who forces the other kids to do whatever she wants. Though, it doesn’t seem to be out of fear, but more in the hopes that she’ll stop complaining. After the debacle with the Ouija board the kids set out to find something more fun and exciting to spend their time on. The issue then moves back and forth between this plot and following Irving’s older brother Artie as he drives around town and hits up the drive-thru for dinner. Both stories collide as tensions rise amongst various characters and the reveal of what’s been under the water all this time comes to a head. If you want to know the insanity that lies ahead, you’ll just have to pick up this issue. There’s too much wacky fun to spoil it now.
Bivens is definitely having fun drawing up this book. There are bizarre creatures, absolutely disgusting gore, and shockingly horrific moments towards the end of the issue. Being able to work on a book of this nature must be a dream. Drawing aliens, monsters, transformations, every day people, and small town locations all in one book would keep anyone from getting bored. Just as Bivens’s art style changes throughout the issue, Jerrie & Monahan’s color technique must keep the pace as well; and they do it very well. Even when things get scary and disgusting, there is still a touch of hokey fun on every page. The juxtaposition between small town life and grandiose monster invasion is delightful.
As for who this book will appeal to? It’s all in the title. Cult classics, creature features, and horror of all sorts are are on display in this book. Even with the clear inspiration pulled from those old comics, there are nods to the styles of both Stephen King (“Gray Matter”) and Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third King). Nods and references aside, this is an enjoyably icky monster mash. This issue not only warrants multiple re-reads (I’ll admit it took me more than one to fully appreciate it), for being such a simple plot, the idea of where this series can go is truly exciting. Rahal’s writing is clever and fun, and he’s blended up a very entertaining pop culture concoction.
Final Verdict: 8.0, “Cult Classic: Creature Feature” #1 is an incredibly well made tale of gross-out sci-fi/horror, wrapped in Americana.
