- Publisher: Dark Horse
- Story By: Paul Tobin
- Art By: Juan Ferreyra
First of all, if you didn’t read the first issue of COLDER, you need to head on down to your local shop and buy that puppy immediately. You can’t miss it. It’s the one with the cover of a guy shoving fingers through his face. But if you’re expecting pure gross-out horror, look elsewhere. COLDER is a wonderfully subtle, mysterious, and frequently horrifying journey into the nature of madness.
There are so many things that this comic does right—namely, not giving you the entire story in a couple pages of exposition (which always seems to happen around the second issue of a mini-series) so the “plot” can move on. No, COLDER #2 focuses around the fact that you, as a reader, and Reece, as a character, have no idea what the hell is going on, and that’s incredibly scary. Even Declan, the frigid survivor we’re supposed to see as a protagonist, is creepy and esoteric.
Juan Ferreyra’s imagery is surreal and perfect. Nimble Jack, a cavorting villain of sorts who seems to feed on insanity, drags an agoraphobic woman into an internal nightmare full of people with giant eyeballs for heads. In a disturbing flashback, Reece is exposed to the kind of inhumane treatment that the mentally ill received pre-1950. There’s a scene of suicide that made me terribly sad, and a nightmarish vision called “The Hungry World” that left me clawing for the covers. That’s not to say that Paul Tobin’s script is second tier—in fact, as spoken by our glacial hero, the dialogue is wonderfully philosophical.
This is good stuff. In fact, each one of these elements, if found by themselves in other comics, would be considered effective. When they happen within the same few pages, it’s a dizzying spell.
Basically, if you aren’t reading COLDER, you’re missing out. Hugely. Don’t make that mistake.
