The Strain
Story by Guillermo Del Toro, David Lapham, & Chuck Hogan with Art by Mike Huddleston
I enjoy Del Toro films. I think he’s a fantastic storyteller so when The Strain showed up in the Diamond Previews, I kept my eye out for it. Dark Horse Comics very rarely leads me astray and I’ve come to expect wonderful stories with art to back it up. Plus, with this comic, you also get David Lapham (writer on Deadpool Max and Deadpool Max II, another series I’ll be reviewing) so it had extra reason to be on my pull list that week.
I sat down to read it, fully expecting a haunting tale and to be honest…it totally delivered! Not only is the story rich, but it creates that old time-y feel of an old wives’ tale, similar to the Boogeyman we all grew up fearing. Opening scenes are from the past as a crinkly old Jewish grandmother telling her grandchild a story of a giant son of a noble house and after disappearing in a cloud of mystery, returned home and then children began disappearing. It’s certainly chilling and acts as a befitting prologue as we jump to present times. Ephraim works with Disease Control and is spending a court allotted weekend with his son. His relationship with his ex-wife seems very strained and a call about a Boeing 777 landing at JFK sets the story in motion. The plane lands as scheduled with no hiccups only….all exits are sealed from the inside, the blinds are pulled shut on each window, and when the doors mysteriously unlock, everyone seems to be dead. Ephraim seems perplexed, even more so when an odd coffin/sarcophagus type of box is unloaded from the plane.
I’m extremely curious to find out what happens next.
Huddleston is fantastic. I’ll be reviewing his other comic that came out very recently (Mnemovore) so I’m hoping the art is equally as stellar. It kind of reminds me of Mignola but just slightly. That could be due to colorist, Dan Jackson, but I don’t know…I kinda feel like I was watching a movie! The one page that really sticks out for me is Ephraim is playing video games with his son. I genuinely feel their connection and I almost feel like I’m having fun with them.
Definitely check out The Strain. It’s only $1.00 too!
UPDATE: What I DIDN’T know is that this comic is based on a book! I refuse to wiki it as I don’t want to spoil anything at all for myself.
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OMG YES it’s out! And Shame on you Leia for not knowing The Strain was a book series. Read them ALL. NOW!
i knoooow!!!! talk about not doing my research -_- i am going to pick them up asap.
I watched an interview where Guillermo talked about developing the creatures for this. Cool to see it has found a good medium
The only problem I have with Del Toro’s work is the creatures look very similar to each other. I’d like to see him branch out a little more design wise.
in this comic or in general? because Pans Labrynth had really fresh creature design
after pan’s labyrinth, everything started to look similar is what i mean. for instance, i personally couldn’t tell with hellboy 1 that del toro was on it. hellboy 2 it was blatantly obvious.