A family of ranchers is haunted and hunted by an unknown and mostly unseen force that has caused disturbances for decades.
Cover by Suspiria VilchezWritten by Zac Thompson
Illustrated by Valeria Burzo
Colored by Jason Wordie
Lettered by Joe SabinoIt is 1996 and the Gorman family runs a cattle ranch in Utah. When add occurrences and haunting events begin to unfold around them, they mystery around what is causing these disturbances may not be what they have expected. As legends of skinwalkers and evil spirits have been a part of this region of the U.S., having been a belief of various indigenous tribes, the symptoms of these events seem to tie to these supernatural creatures, but in fact something from beyond the stars may be to blame.
Based on true events, which were then adapted and discussed in the feature documentary film of the same title in 2018, “Hunt For The Skinwalker” #1 is treated in the same respect. This opening issue looks to drop us right into the Gorman Ranch and we see how each family member, mostly the parents – Tom and Ellen, are effected by these moments. It starts off as almost harmless pranks. Tools going missing, groceries getting re-bagged on the kitchen table after having been put away. The adults, of course, keep these moments to themselves rather than looking crazy to their spouse or children. Even when things begin to ramp up and the family and their animals are put in possible danger that they never try to really figure out what is happening. They shove it down like so many strong emotions and attempt to move on with their daily lives.
Much like Dark Horse Comics’s “Blue Book,” this series is working in a similar capacity to shows like Unsolved Mysteries in which it re-tells true stories and claims of the supernatural in a dramatic manner. Serving as an illustrated docu-drama, this first issue is very specifically scripted by Thompson. The majority of the script is documentary style narration with very little dialogue between characters. As the issue focuses on the strange phenomena, it plays out in a very episodic way as we see each family member getting tormented and teased by this spooky entity. Thompson gives us plenty of history and background on these sort of disturbances. And as with most stories like this, there is a point where it begins to shift away from the supernatural and moves towards unexplained science. Thompson takes a break from the Gorman family in the middle of the issue to tell us about a story that is fully seen as a Skinwalker encounter in 1977. So while each event does line up with that of the skinwalker legend, things begin to head towards an alien and UFO explanation. This is backed up by personal accounts from the family.
While an easy read, the scripting and storytelling is a bit clunky. It doesn’t exactly fall apart, but when you are adapting a set of stories that claim to be true, it’s hard to keep the road smooth when these occurrences seemed to happen on and off without any real rhyme or reason. And these gaps, and incoherence unfortunately translate to this comic.
Valeria Burzo’s illustrations are competent, but there is little to discuss about it. At best, the storytelling through illustration works, to discuss its style or aesthetic, there is very little here. This feels like something she did for the paycheck rather than having any sort of oomph or emotional strength behind it. It exists, it tells the story, and you completely forget it by the time you turn the page. Jason Wordie’s colors give the work a little extra depth to latch onto, but again, there is very little to say about it. It is here and it exists and it helps tell the story. As this is a documentary in comic book form, I’m not really looking for something insanely over the top in terms of design or even style, but the work has to feel like it is more than just good enough. Overall, this book looks like it came out of a comic book assembly line and was printed just to say it was made.
I think this docu-drama format just doesn’t lend itself all that well to the comic book medium as it feels like only half a piece of entertainment. The horror and real life peril and dread simply don’t translate to the page in any of the comics that make this same attempt. Which is really unfortunate.
Final Verdict: 5.0, The attempt to blend both horror comics with paranormal mystery docuseries simply never meshes the way the creatives hope it will.
