There’s something quite cold about Scott Snyder and Jock’s Book of Evil, a new series from Comixology. A mix of prose and art by Jock, the story features a terrible future where most of the humans as we know them today are psychopaths. How would a world where the majority of us were lacking empathy, making decisions and shaping how society works? It’s a frightening thought, which the first issue realizes well through the point of view of a teenager not yet at the age where he’s turned into a psychopath. For his sake, you’ll hope he turns soon.
The concept of this story suits the prose format since it puts you right inside the mind of the main character, Homer. He has that name because his friends discovered a book about poets, not because a loving parent gave him that name. In this strange future, people wait for their switch from “animal” to “human” when the psychopath element kicks in. The dehumanizing starts early, it seems. That’s a theme that runs throughout, but we understand the concepts from a child indoctrinated in a system that separates psychopaths–the ideal–from the animals–humans who are more like most of us today.
This future is frightening but doesn’t put the scary at the forefront. You have to discover it in between the time’s social norms or between the main character’s interpretation. This creates a story that can be even scarier than gory tales as it creeps up on you and requires you to use your empathy to understand the disturbing nature of it all. It’s in the same vein of Brave New World, as an outsider protagonist uncovers a world of injustices justified by the majority.
Art helps humanize these characters.
Credit: Comixology
Make no mistake, though, this is a frightening read. Empathizing with the main character, a child, is a disturbingly horrific experience. He understands the world around him as normal but has some semblance of what it was like in the old days to be able to reflect and see things aren’t as good as they could be. Through some frightening interactions, we gather he’s unsafe, and thus the horror can happen at any moment. Like any good sci-fi, though, we begin to understand how bad it can be by letting our imagination take ideas and our somewhat naive narrator’s thoughts a bit further. They either don’t know how bad it is or are pretending not to know, which makes things even scarier.
Jock adds layers to the prose throughout the book, largely through the visage of those who seem insane or the kids we meet that are deeply human, even if society calls them “Embies” who are not yet old enough to be animals or actual humans (who we’d call psychopaths). Jock uses yellow in an exciting way, particularly in the opening scenes, with the lines of the road reminding us some people belong on one side or another. Yellow is used to highlight keywords throughout the prose, too, which helps create a sense of alarm.
The art is nontraditional for a comic, with a good mix of panels made up of photos or blending into the prose background. One page may have a comic strip as if laid on the prose page, while in another, it’s drawn into the margins around the writing. One thing is obvious, though: a story like this is more about ideas and thinking. Thus, it suits the prose format.
Regarding the title, it’s too much of a spoiler to explain, but let’s say it’s not what you think. It’s a clever title for the book since our main characters live in a world where they are not yet deemed “good” or “bad.” A book of evil may serve either side.
Given Jock’s fame and incredible abilities, it does seem like the inclusion of his art can be random and underused. There are scenes where you might wish you could see more, like the infirmary, but the prose is all you get. It reads like Jock read the prose and created some art to pair rather than a more thorough collaboration. Still, what we do get from Jock is always impactful.
It’s unclear who is doing the letters, it might be Jock or the book designer Emma Price, but it’s well done. There’s a lot to take in from font size, placement, and how it is broken up over the page. The voice of the character is played out well across the page.
Stories like the Book of Evil are more crucial than ever in a world where people seem more and more disconnected from their fellow man. A thought-provoking horror that’s as scary as it is relevant.
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