Something is Killing the Children Vol. 1

This was the Eisner award winner for best new series in 2020 and it deserves it. This is a horror, graphic novel about a town where children are missing or showing up as bloody body parts. Something or someone has devoured them and left the entrails. One kid survived, and now everyone thinks he’s to blame. James used to have nightmares and would tell his friends about them until his life became a nightmare. Erica Slaughter just pulled into town. She is all pissed off and grumpy business. She knows what’s going on in town and she is there to bring it down. This book was a horrifically good time. But volume two and three will be critical as there are so many unanswered questions. Questions like what is up with the octopus? Who all show more those people sitting around the table with a glint in the light? Will James survive? And what the hell will Tommy do now that he can “see”. I’m telling you right now if you read this book, have book 2 and three on hold, the wait is going to kill me. show less

Believing is a different thing than knowing. You’re old enough to know that there aren’t monsters in this world. But you don’t believe that. Not really. You hear a noise in the woods, or see a shadow shaped wrong and you’re still afraid.

When the children of a small town in America (it's always a small town in the states) start disappearing or are butchered, Erica arrives on the scene trying to figure out what it is before more children fall prey to the monster. While she has a vague idea of what it could be, we find out that she’s up against something much scarier by the end of the first book.

Something is Killing the Children may not be the most beautiful comic book I’ve ever seen, but the plot was pretty great and I loved show more that our main had her clothes on. I loved the way the writers depicted the reactions of the townspeople; they were angry and grieving, drinking to excess and falling apart. Some were attempting to regain control by lashing out at the one child who survived and the new woman in town. Erica also makes a great main because while she’s angry at the person she’s working with (who we never really see), she doesn’t get mad at the people around her in the town; she’s seen these reactions before and is used to dealing with them. She apologizes to the boy when she snaps because she recognizes how messed up all this is for him and is gentler than expected. She’s a great contrast to those heroes we see who demolish things in their way and act injured when no one loves them. show less

Scaaaaary. Really gruesome stuff, undeniably, and I'm very much pulled in by the questions and implications left unanswered at the end of this first volume. There was so much of that, it almost felt as though this book was trailer instead of a full-fledged novel of its own. Who were the men in that mysterious group? What is Erica's role? What's up with the stuffed animals? So much to find out, it's a good thing the next book is sitting next to me. Only complaint is that I occasionally had trouble following the sequence of panels when they'd cross the fold. It took me out of the story enough that I didn't become as immersed as I might have liked.

Gory and intriguing! I love the jumps between present and past, very effective way to tell the story.

Similar to Stranger Things, in that small town meets cosmic horror way. Erica and the monster feel very anime-inspired.

A fairly decent riff on the monster hunting genre that crosses a Buffy the Vampire Slayer lead (or maybe more Billie Eilish) with the darker storytelling of Supernatural. It's not original, but I'm sure Tynion will keep it interesting enough to string me out for several more volumes.

The art is okay, but I'm annoyed by the random use of two-page spreads with small panels that seemed intended to make me read the panels out of order again and again and to lose chunks of art in the binding.

This one's been on my radar for a while, but every time I went for either the comics or the trades, they'd been snapped up. On that basis alone, I figured it would be good.

It is.

Of course, the standout character is Erica Slaughter. This whole things feels like a Stranger Things/Buffy the Vampire Slayer mash-up, but to assume it's only that is to do it a disservice. There's a bigger world here that's only hinted at in this first volume.

The art doesn't excite me much, but there is something about it that works, and works well in the context to the story it helps to tell.

Oh, and the octopus is a nice touch.

When children begin to go missing there is no hope. Until a mysterious woman arrives and she is the only one who can destroy them.

The graphics of this novel are sharp and crisp. I was on the edge of my seat reading this entire storyline. Plus, the story has one badass female who kills monsters with a chainsaw! What's not to love? Yes, the story is a tad bit gory with the killing of children, but that's part of the storyline!

In this first volume we get some closure as to what was happening while at the same time opening up to the next segment of the story. I can't wait to continue the read.