Posted in: Comics | Tagged: aftershock, Black Eyed Kids, horror, joe pruett, Szymon Kudranski

Black Eyed Kids #15 Review: Unnerving Cult Horror

Gus continues his attempts to get through to his ex-wife and get his daughter out of town. Plus, Jessica confides in him about Reece and what her own plans are for getting away.

Things get away from Gus, though, and all his plans may be for naught.

Cards on the table, this is my first experience with Black-Eyed Kids, and I was more than a little lost reading it the first time around. I read it multiple times back and forth and took a look at some summaries and plot synopses of the series. I've come to something of an understanding of what's going on, though I wouldn't bet real money on a trivia question. Let's just say this isn't the most forgiving series to new readers, though you could easily say the same of many of the Big Two's offerings, and I praise many of them on a near-daily basis.

In any case, what I read, I did enjoy once I got some understanding of it.

I really groove on the cult vibe of the town. People are wholly devoted to the teachings and the terrifying children. You have people like Gus who is just trying to get his family and get out, which is also a pretty cool callback to the Wicker Man (you know, the good one).

When things start going down, the pacing gets really quick and frantic. There is a lot of tension, and you feel for the people who are being victimized by the children. There are some shocking moments to get your jaw to drop. The black-eyed children themselves are effectively creepy, and there is a lot to enjoy for the horror/suspense fan.

The characters have their own unique motivations and are really interesting. Some of them kind of talk in the same way though (the ones who aren't the black-eyed kids). While their personalities may be different, they don't show too much in the dialogue.

I wasn't expecting to be snagging a last issue, or, in this case, the last issue before a hiatus. The ending is a real cliffhanger, and it does kind of suck that there isn't a real sense of closure to get out of it. I understand that the hiatus was likely not planned, but it's still disappointing.

The art of Szymon Kudranski is largely quite good. There is a sense of warped reality in the style, and the black background motif is pretty cool once you realize that it's not entirely literal. The faces can get a little uncanny; there is a scene of Gus running with his head turned which looked like someone just decapitated him and stuck his head back on wrong. That wasn't actually what happened, by the way.

Guy Major's colorwork is atmospheric and eerie. It effectively adds to the ominous tone of the visuals.

Black-Eyed Kids #15 is a compelling and creepy read. The characters are all quite cool, and the black-eyed kids themselves are really unnerving. This is a great read for the horror reader, even if it is the final issue before a hiatus, which makes it completely understandable if you wait for the collected edition. That being said, I do recommend this comic. Give it a try.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!