You’ve read haunted house stories. You’ve read haunted hotel stories. How about a haunted furnished apartment story? That’s the plot of “Lot 13” from DC Comics in a nutshell, and while things feel a touch superficial in the first instalment of this four-issue miniseries, the horror most definitely makes an appearance.
Written by Steve Niles
Illustrated by Glenn Fabry– A terrifying new horror series from the ghoulish minds of Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and Glenn Fabry (PREACHER)!
– A family making a cross-country move makes a horrifying discovery in an old apartment complex. Can they survive the night?
Moving cross country can be a bit of a pain, but by the end of this issue the cheery couple intent on settling into suburbia have a lot more to deal with than getting their stuff into a van and keeping the kids in line. Their problems, of course, are of the spooky nature, because when it turns out their house isn’t ready to move into yet, they rent out the nearest cheap apartment they can find…
It’s not the most original of stories, but a standby premise can work pretty well when sympathetic characters keep it grounded. That, I think, is the main problem with this first issue of “Lot 13”: the parents, who banter quite a bit and get whole pages to themselves, come across as smug and self-assured rather than likable or interesting. Of course, this could very well be intentional (smug people are much more fun to terrify than the regular kind, I’m sure), but when the main characters of a story aren’t very compelling (at least, not so far), there isn’t much to keep one’s attention except the expectation that horrible things are going to happen to them. This is fair enough: plenty of horror stories are based on that premise, too. But if you’re a fan of character-driven tales, this issue will read like it’s missing something.
What this issue does have in spades is deft pacing. An opening scene set in 1670 is perverse thrills all through, going straight for the jugular in depicting a trial that’s all kinds of disturbing. Directly after that we get to the wholesome banter of the modern-day parents, and from then on the creepy factor is dialed up bit by almost imperceptible bit. It all culminates in one hell of a final page, solidly setting up the premise for the rest of the series at the same time as evoking a tangible sense of dread.
Glenn Fabry’s art style vacillates between grotesque and understated here, and while the results aren’t exactly consistent, the overall style is effective in terms of getting across a sense of malaise peculiarly suited to suburbia. Which is to say, apart from the flashback scene I mentioned (which is gory as anything), the horror in this issue is of the quieter, slow-burn variety, saving the biggest shock for that final page. The faces are expressive to the point of being hyperrealistic, and this adds another layer of creepiness to the proceedings. Meanwhile, the oddly static quality to Fabry’s art works both for and against the prevailing mood, getting across an eerie feel but sometimes failing to engage the reader in the action.
One odd thing about his issue is the lettering: whenever two characters are depicted conversing in one panel, their speech bubbles sort of nestle into one another in a way that’s as hard to describe as it is tough on the eye. The best lettering job (in my opinion) is the one that’s so smooth and intuitive that you don’t notice it on first read, and I’m afraid here the technique is more puzzling than innovative.
Flaws aside, though, “Lot 13” has a lot of potential. It may take another issue to see whether this one is worth sticking with until the end, but as things stand, if you’re looking for slow-burn, traditional horror story, this comic is worth a browse.
Final Verdict: 7.3 — Browse
