A look at the horror of "Colder" by Tobin and Ferreyra

- by Señor Editor, 24 January 2013

Horror comics often get overlooked by the casual readers. Sometimes they're not really scary at all, since, because of the medium's restrictions, they can't rely on popular scaring tactics employed in movies, and they lack the "reader's imagination running wild and building up the atmosphere" component of horror books. Often they’re just offering you your regular monsters, doing what regular monsters do, instead of things that could actually freak you out. This is not the case with Dark Horse’s “Colder”, a comic by writer Paul Tobin and artist Juan Ferreyra, that goes beyond cheap scares and reaches into the dark depths of the human mind. It’s a whole new brand of insanity in a comicbook mini series form, and it’s well worth your time.

The central character of “Colder” is Declan, a mental hospital patient who suffers from an unexplained condition that makes his body temperature constantly drop. Many decades ago he witnessed a bone-chilling scene during a fire in the asylum he was in. A scene that defies any explanation and would make anybody lose their damn mind. In the present day, Declan is living with Reece – a nurse who’s now taking care of him, as he’s shut himself down from any contact with the outside world and has been bounced from hospital to hospital until the doctors gave up on trying to explain what the hell is wrong with him.

(from left) Declan, Reece and a crazy guy in... we'll get to that.

Declan isn’t the only person who somehow is still around after that fire many decades ago – there’s also the creepy being called Nimble Jack, who looks human enough, but is something of an insanity parasite - feeding on the mentally ill and being able to plant the seeds of craziness into a person’s mind. He can sense the insane wherever they are, and we first meet him when he drops by (as he's not exactly human, he squeezes through the bars in the window) on a criminal in jail, presenting him with a belt and an idea to hang himself.

Nimble Jack chooses the finest leather. "Colder" #1, all images here © Dark Horse Comics 2012-2013.

Let’s just say that everything he does gets more and more disturbing from there, and the full scope of his weird powers has yet to unfold. The story is on issue 3 out of 5 as I write this (I am only writing about this now and not after the series ends, because it's too good to wait and you own it to yourself to buy this), so it’s a good moment for those that don’t “tradewait” to jump in and pick up what’s been published. And it’s worth it, as the story gets progressively more amazing.

Nimble Jack's brand of insanity and the way he pushes people into full-on crazy territory, exaggerating their various anxieties, phobias etc., is far from the only interesting thing happening here. Declan, having met Jack in the past and possesing some knowledge about him, is able to access the various insane people's minds and view the world as it appears to them. It's called "The Hungry World" and it's creepy as all hell.

Tobin's writing is really great. His dialogues sound real, the regular people act like regular people, the crazy people act in a way that will probably make you feel a bit uncomfortable, and the way Nimble Jack makes people slip into insanity and shatter their mind is all just brilliant, perfectly executed writing.

This of course wouldn't be half as effective if it wasn't for Juan Ferreyra's beautiful, sometimes realistic and clean, other times nightmarish and haunting, art.

Declan and Reece during a visit in "The Hungry World".

There's much more to this book than just gore or crazy visuals. There's the constant uneasiness and despair and a carefully built-up feeling of fear of losing your mind. That's impossible to describe in a review or show via just a few loose panels (and I've been careful to not spoil the best visuals). You have to read this book. It sucks you in and sends you on a very rewarding journey into horror as it's rarely seen nowadays. It's one of the best horror comics I've seen in years and something of an unsung hero among Dark Horse's many great releases.

Check it out. It's some proper freaky stuff... 


No, seriously, buy this book. You will love it! Reading or planning to read "Colder"? Excited for it? Let us know in the comments!

Tagged: comics.

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