Halloween is nearly upon and DSTLRY’s Come Find Me: An Autumnal Offering is a one-shot full of ghostly stories that will entertain and delight in disturbing ways. The roster of creators involved in the anthology is almost intimidating, thus making it little surprise that the issue, cover to cover, is among the most consistently excellent anthology comics I’ve ever opened. Each story, while distinct, has the air of folk horror about it, less slasher or monster movie and more the type of tale you might hear around a campfire or whispered among neighbors. The result proves mesmerizing and lingers in all the right ways.ย
HamletMachine and Joe Pavelka kick the anthology off with a lusciously rendered tale involving an obsessive musician and demon who deals in music. The musician seeks to play the suffering of a living being and moody artwork, with sharply contrasted blacks, whites, and greys, is like a poetic how one might indulge too deeply in one’s pain and spread it to others, full of dramatic flair.
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Becky Cloonan’s tale, rendered in her signature shadowy, thick-lined style, begins a warning to both the reader and its protagonist to “Stop here.” The story is a haunting tragedy of a single mistake — or perhaps not — that haunts the main character long after, ending in a chilling final moment.ย
The third story, by Molly Mendoza, shows a remarkable commitment to its theme. The tale of a man who can’t get over the loss of his drowned lover is practically waterlogged, rendered in sharp blues, and with layouts affecting the notion of descent and ascent from the depths, all leading to a nightmarish ending.
VanesaR. Del Rey and Andrew Betsch present a story that casts the struggle of a union man’s family and the bosses of a company town in terms of a biblical apocalypse. The starchy linework and bleak colors convey a sense of desolation, and though justice may be served, the harrowing price reminds the reader that all things have their cost.
Celine Loup’s story of alpine horror is a bit more challenging to follow than the other tales in the anthology. However, freehand linework and flat colors offer an immersive aesthetic and stunning compositions. While the story beats are muddied in spots, the visuals convey the themes of corrupted innocence and lurking dread well enough to be incredibly affecting.
Lastly, horror comics master E.M. Carroll offers an economically told tale of love after death turned sour. Over a few pages of grotesquely detailed designs, Carroll gives readers a fully formed story of gothic love and tragedy as devotion is taken to its twisted, fatalistic end.
Come Find Me: An Autumnal Offering is a prestigious offering of seasonal comics. Of the six stories, there’s not a weak one in the bunch but the anthology stands out for how well the varied stories work together, each benefiting from the darkening mood further established by the harrowing ending of the one before it to create a compilation builds on itself into something greater the sum of its parts.
The distinctly resplendent visual styles and quality of storytelling on hand in Come Find Me: An Autumnal Offering is an embarrassment of comic book riches. Coming out on the eve of Halloween, any reader immersing themselves in Come Find Me: An Autumnal Offering will find the mood more than sufficiently set for an enthusiastic haunting and the working of witchcraft. More impressively, the stories within Come Fine Me are impeccably crafted enough to make rereading a rewarding new Fall tradition.
Published byย DSTLRY
Onย October 30, 2024
Written by variousย
Art byย various
Colors byย various
Letters byย various
Cover byย Beck Cloonan
