“Spectregraph” #1

Tynion, Ward, and Bidikar on an old dark house comic? I cannot think of a better team to scare the living pants off of me. Things would have to go horribly awry for this to be anything but magical. That’s not foreshadowing. Just a statement of fact.

Cover by Christian Ward

Written by James Tynion IV
Illustrated and Colored by Christian Ward
Lettered by Aditya Bidikar
NEW SERIES DEBUT from DSTLRY! Modern masters JAMES TYNION IV and CHRISTIAN WARD join forces to bring you their next horror classic. A ghost story steeped in the decay of a century of capitalism.

For years, the mansion has sat strangely, nestled into the coastline just a short drive north of Los Angeles. Rumors have haunted the place for years. Its owner a titan of American industry, with a strange fascination in the occult and the paranormal. For decades, the richest men and women in the country have whispered to each other, trying to understand what he was building alone in that mansion for all those years. And now finally, with his death, and his estate finally open for sale… They are eager to find out for themselves.

Two of the most celebrated visionaries of the medium, multiple-Eisner Award winners James Tynion IV (THE NICE HOUSE ON THE LAKE, SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN, W0RLDTR33) and Christian Ward (BATMAN: CITY OF MADNESS, INVISIBLE KINGDOM) invite you into the world of SPECTREGRAPH, a haunting, cerebral horror novel that peels back the layers of America’s opulent wealth and uncovers the rot underneath. But be careful: once you enter, you may never leave.

To truly dispel any ambiguity, “Spectregraph” #1 is a marvel of a first issue. Densely packed and full of uncertainty, it continues Tynion’s dominance in the field of horror comics, somehow catching lightning in a bottle once again. It also appears to be another exploration of conspiracy, albeit less explicitly than in “Department of Truth.” Much is left unclear at the end of this issue. That is to its immense benefit.

Like I said at the top, this is an Old Dark House comic, with, of course, a modern spin and distinctly modern preoccupation. From page one, I could not imagine this tale being told by anyone other than Ward. I know not everyone is a fan of his character work, though he has gotten much better at keep characters consistent and, shall we say, less like an ice cream cone left to melt in the sun? To be sure, there is some wonky perspective throughout but that only adds to the ominous and off-kilter feel of the project. There is something wrong and we’re here to watch it come for our protagonists.

Look at the way Ward lights Mr. Hall. First, before we know anything about him, he is lit in blues and blacks, just another man in the rain, before he emerges into an even darker room, now cast in shadow, a brilliant, blazing white behind him obscuring all else. He is a revelation, a focal point, the center of everything. Then, he smirks at us, and from then on he is bathed in the reds, oranges, yellows of the fire. From heaven, unto hell. Promethean, perhaps. Dangerous, certainly. With each new sentence he utters, the dread seeps in more and more, and the fire more and more an appropriate backdrop for him.

The menace of an empty, darkened hallway. The beauty of a sunny drive by the sea. The intricate chaos of an art-deco, clockwork door.

The unnaturality of the shadow in the corner.

“Spectregraph” is at once fairly unsubtle in its application of horror tropes and supremely adept at deploying them, wearing the reader’s nerves down in as many ways as possible without overloading us with obvious tricks. There’s the hook that sits over the entire issue: “There are no such things as ghosts…but there should be.” The creepy crowd from the Thanatos group and Vesper’s ulterior motives when meeting Jane. The abandoned manor house that locks you in if you mess up the codes.

And the baby, left home alone, the gnawing fear that Jane has fucked up one too many times, that she won’t be back to be there for him, eating away at the corners of your mind.

It makes Bidikar’s lettering stand out all the more because of its restraint. No sound-effects, save for what Ward has drawn in, and the word balloons melt right into the page. Organic, effortless, and sometimes looking as if they were punched out of their world into ours. Coming off the page for us. And, perhaps, it isn’t the only thing.

In addition to other old dark house stories, “Spectregraph” is in conversation with works such as “From Hell” and “Sandman.” This isn’t a surprise, as those works loom large in Tynion’s larger body of work, but it is surprising to have it feel so directly responsive to the two. The opening is reminiscent of Burgess’s revelation at the onset of “Sandman” while the use of grids (mostly 12, not 9) and the upper-crust, occult conspiracy echoes the preoccupations of “From Hell.” I wonder if this feeling will melt away as the series progresses or only get stronger. It’s possible, too, all three works are drawing from similar wells.

This comic would be nothing without a strong lead and in Jane, we have one hell of a protagonist. She’s not genre-savvy, walking past red-flags the size of a mausoleum, and neither is she a particularly likable person thus far. She is a major fuck-up and somewhat selfish. In essence, she is the perfect lens through which to view this story because she is disastrously human, trapped having to make awful choices to live in this world while she manages to make things worse because of who she is.

This is a must buy comic for anyone, even if you don’t usually like horror comics; the one BOO horror moment is 100% worth putting yourself to experience the rest.

Final Score: 9.7. This is what A-tier comics, and A-tier horror comics, look like folks.

Editor’s Note: The original review had noted the comic as selling for $20 retail, instead of the actual $8.99. $20 reflects the price through DSTLRY’s webstore, which is inclusive of shipping, bagging and boarding.