A peculiar opening issue that may prove to be a different sort of beast for some, “She Wolf” #1 is a brand new horror comic from the multi-talented Rich Tammaso.
Written and Illustrated by Rich Tommaso
SHE WOLF is a surreal exploration in horror as the story follows a teenage girl who believes she’s been bitten by a savage werewolf. Soon after she begins to experience feverish nightmares that seamlessly bleed into her everyday reality.
The first issue of “She Wolf” opens with our teenage protagonist Gabrielle being attacked by a werewolf. Maybe. Kind of. Really it is hard to say, as what follows is a strange descent into Gabrielle’s dreams, where we are never fully able to make out just what is real and what isn’t. Rich Tammaso is certainly not the first person to use lycanthropy to examine what it’s like growing up as young woman — the brilliant and frankly underrated “Ginger Snaps” comes to mind. However, what Tammaso delivers, at the very least, is something weirdly intriguing and very visually arresting.
The first time I read through this issue, I have to admit, I had no idea what was going on. Scenes seemed to jump incoherently from one place to the other and there were times where it felt as if Tommaso had completely given up on keeping hold of any plot. I’ve never been the kind of person to give up on something just because I don’t understand it, and especially with something like “She Wolf,” which almost felt as if it was sending me secret subliminal messages, telling me to read again, to dig a little deeper. And so I did, I read it over again at least three more times and slowly it started to make more sense. I picked up on the clues Tommaso had planted that suggest what is going on, I also started to recognise the techniques he used and why. But then something weird happened, the more familiar I became with it, the more frustrated it made me.
The ambiguity only works up to a point, but by then the plot has been completely lost through its own self-induced confusion. After being attacked, by what could be her boyfriend Brian as a werewolf, Gabrielle struggles to keep her sanity and composure as she begins to transform. Scenarios begin to repeat themselves while her changes become more abrupt and random. They never seem to leave any lasting impression on any witnesses either. On one page she briefly escapes to an outer space dimension through her bedroom mirror only to reappear again but in a semi-wolf form in front of her sister. While this scene looks amazing it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose other than reenforce the surreal nature of the book, but by this point it doesn’t feel like we need any more convincing. By the end of the issue, we’re led to the conclusion that the whole episode has taken place within a dream, but even this is left ambiguous, there is still no clear indication that Gabrielle has awoken as. This kind of obscurity makes the reader work hard, which isn’t always a bad thing, but here I don’t feel like there is enough payoff for the effort you need to put in.
It is such a shame because everything about this book suggests it should work. As a concept, I’m totally in, as I mentioned earlier, werewolves work as an apt metaphor for teenage growing pains, especially for teenage girls. Gabrielle is suitably awkward looking and drenched in sub-culture references to prove as an excellent proxy. When you take in account the scope of the issue and the techniques Tommaso uses, it is hard not to be impressed. He is very clever in creating a dreamlike state. Changes of scene take place in the middle of a page suggesting a kind of bleed effect, transitions are both abrupt and seamless. Panels go from being simple and rudimentary, which is not a negative, to breaking out into intricate and stunning splash pages. This works within the overall art style, a strong mixture of European influences and underground punk, reminiscent of something from a zine, there aren’t many other books on the shelves that looks anything like what Tommaso does. Everything looks so suitably creepy, the wolves are bizarrely elongated and lithe and Gabrielle is adorned with little nods to the occult. It comes across that Tommaso will be exploring the occult a lot with this book. That’s not to say he is trying to summon demons or possess his readers, but it is clear it will be the driving force behind it. The biggest hint being a spell book we glimpse at one point, suggesting there is more to Gabrielle’s werewolf problem than meets the eye.
This is what I want from “She Wolf,” to keep me reading, I’m going to need for Tommaso to explore his characters and invest in his story rather than spend all his time just establishing its tone, unfortunately #1 is an example of style over substance. It is completely acceptable to take an issue in a book like this and go as surreal as it is here, but not for your opener. If your main character’s motivations and the very premise of the book has been smothered under the tone of obscurity and ambiguity in issue one, then how are your readers expected to believe in its foundations?
Final Verdict: 5.0 – This is not for the faint hearted, but if you put the work in it desires, then it may work for you.
