A majority of the time when I'm reading a horror comic, or a very graphic comic, I sometimes stop and ask myself; "What happened in this writer / artist 's life that made him what he is today?!"  Ben Templesmith is one of those people that comes across as "fucked-up" to me.  Yet, I can't help but love his gruesome art style.

I've browsed through some of his older, more recognizable stuff (30 Days of Night, Fell) and started to grow a more dark appreciation for the unique style of his art.  Some of the characters he creates are just down-right creepy.  In Welcome To Hoxford, we get nothing but an entire cast of creepy and screwed-up characters.

Templesmith has also written a few comics in the past, but I feel this new series he has created will be quickly the talk of the comic book world.  We follow a rather large psycho named Ray Delgado through an abusive childhood, and screwed-up life in the military.  Something in his mind snaps of course, and he develops a nasty biting habit early on.  Fast forward to three strikes later, and he's being shipped-off to a new maximum security prison being run by a Russian company.  That's when things start to get weird.

Ray is confined with some of the worst rapists, child molesters, thugs, and cop-killers in the nation.  But when a inmate or two start disappearing, we quickly discover that the Warden and his guards might not be human after all...and crave the taste of human flesh.

I was a huge fan of the television show Oz when it was on HBO, and this comic gives off a slight Oz vibe.  I'm really interested to see what direction Templesmith takes it in these upcoming issues.