Comics Review: A TOWN CALLED TERROR #1

A TOWN CALLED TERROR #1
IMAGE COMICS

STORY: Steve Niles
ART: Szymon Kudranski
COLORS: Szymon Kudranski
LETTERS: Scott O. Brown with Marshall Dillon
COVER: Szymon Kudranski
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Tony S. Daniel
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(April 2022)

Rated “M/Mature”

A Town Called Terror” created by Steve Niles and Szymon Kudranski

Part 1: “A Message from Home”

A Town Called Terror is a new comic book series from writer Steve Niles and artist-colorist Szymon Kudranski.  The series blends the genres of crime and horror fiction.  Letterer Scott O. Brown completes the creative team.

A Town Called Terror #1 (“A Message from Home”) welcomes you to a town called “Terror,” population 1300.  A great man has just come back from the dead – apparently not for the first time.  Meanwhile, Henry West is enjoying some post-coital cuddling with his wife, Julie, when men break into the house, drug Julie, and kidnap Henry.

In the days that follow, Julie is unable to get help for her missing husband.  All evidence, or lack thereof, indicates a phantom crime.  But Henry knows where he is...

THE LOWDOWN:  Steve Niles may be the most famous modern writer of horror comic books in North America.  Artist Szymon Kudranski has been plying his trade on the dark side of comics with stints on Marvel Comics' The Punisher and on Spawn and Nita Hawes NIGHTMARE Blog from Image Comics.

Niles presents an interesting scenario, a town for monsters and freaks, which is not necessarily a new idea.  At least two of Dynamite Entertainment's recent Vampirella comic books series deal with something similar.  Apparently, Niles is bringing organized crime and crime fiction to the world of horror, and that is where it gets interesting.

The major treat here is Kudranski's beautiful art, which is part film-noir and part EC Comics.  His still images are the graphics of luscious blacks and creepy, silky shadows.  Flickering lights on wan faces and the criss-cross, interplay of light and dark and black and white instantly transports the reader to a town called Terror, and to corrupt law enforcement, and even to a happy marriage.

Yes, Kudranski takes you there, dear readers, a scary world where you will want to be for awhile.  Now, we just have to wait for the story to kick in, and, if it does, I think I should be in Terror … for at least awhile.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Steve Niles, Szymon Kudranski, and horror comic books will to try A Town Called Terror.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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