NORTH 40 #1 (OF 6)

Review by: Bedhead


Size: pages
Price: 2.99

Horrible is not horror. I hesitate to say this as I realize it’s not a profound or new thought. We’ve all had that college conversation about Jaws where we proudly offer our astute and learned insight that the film is based on NOT seeing the shark. But after reading North 40, I fear it may be time to go back to the mini-fridge, break out that last lingering Pabst and cold whatever’s-in-the-Chinese-takeout-box, and once again drunkenly declare to Ultimate-Frisbee free basers: Horrible is not horror. Heck, horrible not even that horrible, at least in comics. After many years of reading about bloody fists bursting through bloody faces, the average comic reader standard posture when presented with unthinkable acts of seemingly endless violence is really just a polite shrug. I mean c’mon, ten years ago Ennis had a midget porking a giant meat statue—when it comes to comics everyone knows horrible is the base line that the authors are just jamming off of. And yet here’s North 40, the story of all the horrible things that happen when a poorly defined evil infects a poorly defined town populated with poorly defined characters. Basically, two wily teenagers read a forbidden book (really, the worst kind of books) and then half the town turns into demons while the other half appears to get powers that may help fight the demons. Oh, and then a whole lot of horrible breaks out just every which way (heads get bit off, bodies rot in various places, etc). And that’s about it. Because the focus on the horrible we’re not given enough time to learn anything about the dozen or so characters that bloodily pop up here and there, and as such we don’t care about what icky mess their about to be hurled into. Without that connection to the characters, all the chaos starts to just look like an exercise in (beautifully) drawing horror comics. Instead of walking us down the path of a story, requesting that we keep our eyes on the path and ignore the screams from those dying just off the road, the creators elected just give us a bird’s eye view of the entire, tired local, denying us the thrill of anticipation that drives great horror. Never once in reading this was I surprised, compelled, or scared. It all just comes off as, well, kind of horrible.

(As an aside, if you’re interested in good horror, I just finished Geary’s “The Borden Tragedy,” which scared the dying-by-an-axe-from-your-daughter crap out of me.)

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

  1. i agree with everything you’ve said except i will give it a chance. because well, i like the art a lot and i want to keep reading it.

     

    don’t judge me.

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