The first issue of “Harrow County” was great, and from there it just gets better. Check out my spoiler-free review below.
Written by Cullen Bunn
Illustrated and Lettered by Tyler CrookAs Emmy learns the secrets of her world from the strange and terrifying Tattered Skin, her father’s unusual behavior becomes ever more frightening, and the townsfolk begin to assemble with a deadly intent!
When I reviewed the first issue of “Harrow County” I didn’t talk too much about the plot or characters. Instead I focused rather more broadly on the writing and art. That’s because when I love something as much as I love this comic, I don’t want to ruin it for other readers. I want them to be able to meet the characters for the first time on the page. Assuming you’ve all picked up issue one, I’m now free to talk about Emmy, her father, Old Man Riah, Bernice, and the witch, Hester Beck.
I latched onto the relationship between Emmy and her father immediately. He’s clearly concerned about what his daughter might be, even perhaps fearful of her, but he also genuinely cares about her. He doesn’t want to see what Riah thinks she is, or perhaps even what he thinks she is. So he hasn’t seen any signs, no curdled milk, no stray dogs sniffing about, no brimstone stink, and he’s never heard her complain about her dreams…
…But Emmy is having strange dreams, dreams about the tree where Hester Beck was hung and burned. Emmy has a connection to Hester, there’s even the implication that she is some manner of reincarnation or manifestation of the witch that once unleashed many evils on Harrow County. Whatever that link is, it scares Emmy. She senses a world around her, a world full of countless haints. And at the end of issue one, she finally met her first haint in person, the bloody Tattered Skin in the woods.
Issue two opens with a double-page spread, the one we showed Tyler Crook inking back in April. I suppose given the pre-order form for issue one, it isn’t much of a spoiler to say Emmy and the Tattered Skin haint form an interesting kind of friendship… or perhaps wary alliance is a more accurate description. Emmy is surprisingly comfortable with this haint though, and it speaks volumes about her own unusual nature.
One of my favorite elements in the first issue was the dream sequence. There’s another one in this issue, and it’s even better. The dreams are a real highlight for me. Tyler Crook pushes them to such a delightfully surreal place. What we see isn’t literal, but rather coming from an emotional place instead. He’s doing such a great job with these so early in the series, I can’t imagine where he’ll take them next, but I’m eager to find out.
I don’t think I shall ever tire of Tyler Crook’s work on this book. After reading this issue, I immediately read it again, although this time reading the drawings alone. There’s a page in there, nothing fancy, just various panels of the farm at night, but each panel references key points in the story so far. There’s a panel of Hester’s tree, setting a foreboding mood right from the beginning, then a panel of graves of all the dead farm animals, then a panel of Shaky the calf with its mother, then the room where Emmy had had a conversation with her father about leaving the farm in the previous issue. All of these panels frame Emmy’s mental state as she sleeps. It’s subtle, but it’s very effective for setting the mood.
Of course, when I’m reading through this second time, just reading the images, it’s not just Tyler’s work I’m seeing. On a page like the one I described above, you can glimpse all the other things a comic writer does. Each beat was carefully set-up in issue one so that this page could be populated with images that connected to specific moods, themes, and associations. In execution, this page works invisible magic, lulling its reader into a spookier place.
Which brings me to that element that I loved the most in this issue… the tension. It’s there right from the opening double-page spread, and it steadily builds through to the final page. Bunn and Crook seem to having so much fun with it too. I believe the best stories are games with their readers. Hitchcock knew this well and relished the game. I feel Bunn and Crook share that particular trait. There are some people that believe all exposition is an evil to be avoided as much as possible. I doubt Cullen Bunn is one of those people. He sees dramatic potential in exposition. He sees how the right bit of exposition at the right time can turn a person’s world upside down. He uses exposition to challenge and motivate his characters. He uses exposition to make you sit you on the edge of your seat.
Continued belowRight now, there is no comic I enjoy reading more than “Harrow County,” and it’s barely begun. I look forward to spending many more issues immersed in this world Bunn and Crook have created.
Final Verdict: 9. This is horror comics at its finest.
(You can check out a preview of the second issue up on Comic Book Resources now.)
