Have you heard of this Something is Killing the Children comic book? You probably have, it’s one of the rare breakaway hits of the modern age. But in case you’ve been putting it off, Halloween is the perfect time to check out James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera’s hit BOOM! Studios book.
The premise, at least as it starts, is pretty simple. Erica Slaughter is a big-eyed, masked monster-killer who travels from town to town, trying to stop the event of the title of the book. Sounds like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or a million other supernatural series, right? Well, in a sense, it is. Tynion and Dell’Edera aren’t reinventing the wheel here. But what they are doing is improving on it.
The slow, decompressed pace of the book is all about focusing in on the actual cost of these monsters, and the children (and adults) they slaughter. Erica feels every single death, even though she probably shouldn’t. Her job is often in shades of grey: using a child as bait, or betraying one adult to save another. She can’t make attachments like a Buffy because those people just die. All there is, is the mission, the next monster to kill.
…But of course that’s not completely true. And slowly, inch by inch over the course of this book, we see how Erica’s origin began, the people she was connected to, and why she’s on the run. We also blow out the world of the book exponentially through one-shots and the also excellent spinoff series House of Slaughter.
While Tynion is methodically laying all this out, not enough can be said about Dell’Edera’s incredible art. His precise, semi-realistic style is augmented by monsters that look like shadows come to life, straight out of a nightmare. And the whole book wouldn’t work with the iconic silhouette of Erica Slaughter. It’s a beautiful book to look at, even while you’re watching kids get ripped apart.
There are a lot of versions of Something is Killing the Children out there, so I suggest starting simply: with Volume 1. It collects the first five issues. And while it’s a quick read, you’ll also quickly find it haunting your dreams. Something might be killing the children, by Tynion and Dell’Edera are killing it with this book.
It’s spooky season, and you know what that means: time to curl up with a comic book or graphic novel that will scare your socks off. With that in mind, we’re posting a new horror book to check out every day of October, for our 31 Days Of Halloween Comics. Awoooo! Looking for the rest of our picks? Check them out on the Halloween tag.
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