Recently Jamie began to see a monster in his closet, he hopes when his family moves to their new home the monster will stay behind. Mild Spoilers Ahead!
Cover by Gavin FullertonWritten by James Tynion IV
Illustrated by Gavin Fullerton
Colored by Chris O’Halloran
Lettered by Tom NapolitanoThom is getting ready to move his family across the country. He and his wife Maggie aren’t on the best of terms, but they believe it’s just a bump in the road and once the stress of the move is behind them, they can get to work on the issues that seem to be at the center of every argument. Recently their four year old son Jamie has had a hard time going to bed, claiming to that a monster comes out of his closet at night to torment him. Thom and Maggie treat it as all parents do, but is something far worse than Jamie’s imagination at play?
The night before their big move, Thom runs to the store to get more packing tape. Knowing, or at least feeling that he is in the way while Maggie attempts to sort everything, he makes a stop at a local bar for a few beers before heading home. Right from the start of the issue, writer James Tynion IV (“Something Is Killing the Children,” “Batman”) lets us in on the intricacies of Thom’s feelings, both about himself and his marriage. As he speaks to the bartender, someone he knows on at least a casual level, the script is a succinct and perfectly executed example of small talk that verges on big feelings and understanding. We have all been in Thom’s situation. Feeling the stress and anxiety over a major change, even a good one, and looking to express how we’re feeling to get an outside opinion without imposing our stress and need for reassurance on those around us. It is just one adult equivalence of that monster in the closet. We need to be told the problem isn’t there, or at the very least that we are making far more out of it than whatever the reality ends up being. Responsibility and anxiety weight heavy over this issue from jump. Tynion’s naturalistic ability to bring us into his quiet and emotionally grounded stories is something that is always fascinating and incredible to experience. As a reader, you expect to go in and get the same ham-fisted writing that unfortunately plagues the vast majority of horror and fantasy stories, whether it be comics, novels, or films, but Tynion grounds his characters in a world that is like ours, but when the lights go out, something sinister and gut-wrenching is ready to reveal itself to us and the unlucky few within the story.
The majority of this opening issue lets us sit with Thom’s stress and inability to act, Maggie’s anger and frustration – as of now seemingly warranted, and then Jamie’s bedtime fear. Forcing us to sit with their problems and shifting emotions allows us to get into their mindsets well before giving us any horror or supernatural element to face. Every page feels heavy with apprehension and disappointment. It isn’t explicit as to how old Thom and Maggie are, but whether they are late 20s or in their 30s, it is clear that their relationship has had some hurdles placed throughout, which seem to be tied to Thom’s faults – and their choice to have a child. They both seem to be happy and willing to be parents, but the extra strains that come with having a kid clearly has not helped any of their issues, big or small.
Tynion always nails emotional strain and trauma. Mostly using horror or science fiction to anchor his ideas and the points he is making into something otherworldly, so that can help readers more easily, or at least readily digest some big ideas, “The Closet” may be one of his most easily accessible. Especially accessible to anyone dealing with the daily stress and responsibilities that come with a long standing relationship, home ownership, parenting, or all of the above. It is definitely speaking most pointedly at Gen X and Millennials, those who are smack in the middle of these major life changes and moments, but can still easily remember their childhood and wide range of emotions, falsehoods, and terror because it wasn’t all that long ago that they were dealing with these things and looking up to someone to make it better or to guide them through it.
Continued belowArtist Gavin Fullteron brings his signature heavy line work and painterly aesthetics to this comic filled with dark rooms and quite moments. Having this issue set entirely at a dimly lit bar and a dark home in the evening allowed for him to play with the inky black night, dancing shadows, and the stark contrast between a little boy’s dark bedroom and the bright yellow of a bare bulb at the center of his closet. Fullerton and colorist Chris O’Halloran team up to give this book a very specific style. While gripping so tightly to a wide range of realistic emotions and details, it ventures into a more comic strip, pulpy vibe much like Sean Phillips’s work. Dark, gritty, but with just a touch of uncanny to keep the story in a world close to, but just outside of ours. O’Halloran’s work is gorgeous, playing against and with Fullerton’s line work and giving the book a look that has to come to terms with its use of shadow, produced through a light source and wallowing in emotion. You feel his hand brushing this world’s emotions into full existence.
The focus on the dark spaces in this little family’s life just adds to that underlying pang in your gut. You know the one. The one that tells you that you’re about to go through something exhausting and the only way out is through. Of course, by the time we get the horrifying reveal in Jamie’s room at the end of the issue, that other pang you know comes into play. The crippling fear that your nightmare, your terror, was justified and you can’t do anything about it. As someone who suffered from night terrors as a small child, I can readily recall that feeling when I swore I saw a thing move in the corner of my room and it was going to hurt me if I didn’t get to the light in time, or one of my parents didn’t come to check on me. Having this comic play on both my childhood fears and the stress from anxieties of adulthood was a one-two punch to the gut, and I love Tynion for writing it that way. It is so perfectly spot on. Whether as a child or an adult, you know that the thing you are avoiding in the dark is there, and maybe if you close your eyes it will go away, but more often than not if you don’t handle it, it will take a bite out of you.
Final Verdict: 8.5, A solemn and truthful look at the feelings, and the monsters, hiding in our closets.
