In the vein of horror anthologies like Tales From the Crypt and Vault of Horror comes Hello Darkness from BOOM! Studios. I generally love anthology books because they’re like a buffet, with a sampling of writing and art from a variety of creators that adds up to an enjoyably eclectic mix of stories.
Unfortunately, Hello Darkness #1 delivers more yawns than chills.
The double-sized Hello Darkness #1 kicks the series off with seven stories of various lengths, two of which are the first part of serialized tales that will continue through the next few issues. The book is loaded with talent, with writers Jude Ellison S. Doyle, James Tynion IV, Garth Ennis, Steve Orlando, Robert Hack, Dave Cook and Sarah Andersen and artists Becky Cloonan, Letizia Cadonici, David Cousens, Werther Dell’Edera, and A.L. Kaplan, which makes it even more surprising how lackluster most of the stories are within its pages.
The best two stories in the book are the opener and closer. The opening tale “Contagious” (written by Jude Ellison D. Doyle and illustrated by Letizia Cadonici) features a town where the children are going mad and killing their parents. It’s told from the point of view of a girl who’s a loner, trying to make sense of what’s going on as one kid after another at her school suddenly turns into a murderer. Will she turn into a killer too?
This story’s a good one, but could have been much better had it been longer. The short page count hurts it because we barely have time to get to know the main character before the story reaches its denouement. Had it been longer and told in more detail, it could have been as terrifying and unsettling as Death Note or some of Junji Ito’s best work. Letizia Cadonici’s manga-style art is brutal and lovely, simultaneously cute and malevolent and saturated with atmosphere.
The closing and most gripping story in the book is “The War, Part One” (written by Garth Ennis and illustrated by Becky Cloonan), an intimate story of a group of friends dealing with the uneasiness of the world, which seems to be on the verge of World War 3. The best horror makes you feel dread and anxiety on a primal level, it fills you with unease while reading it and lingers in your mind once it’s done, and this story does that, holding a mirror up to the current crazy state of the world and taking things in the darkest directions.
Becky Cloonan’s art is wonderfully stark throughout, reminding me of those old Chick Tracts that churches tossed out, filled with illustrated pics of “sinners” on an inevitable path to Hell. This is the first of several parts to the story and I look forward to seeing where it goes in future issues.
I feel this series has potential, but would work best with longer stories. Instead of having seven stories each issue, maybe just have three serialized stories and one self-contained story each issue and devote more pages to each. This would give the writers and artists room to really expand on their ideas and tell some genuinely disturbing stories in the future.
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