And Then Emily Was Gone by John Lees, Iain Laurie, Megan Wilson and Colin Bell
CRUEL, unsettling and sinister, the ferocious, nightmare world of And Then Emily Was Gone still sits waiting at the end of my bed for me every night since I finished reading it, staring at me in the darkness, waiting for me to think I'm safe again before unleashing it's remorseless, horrifying creations on me one more time.
The rag tag band of Scottish creators responsible the sleepless nights of myself and, I would imagine, and many other readers, have struck a killer blow with this sleeper hit, effortlessly sliding a knife into the guts of the comics world and then stepping back to watch us all bleed out.
And Then Emily Was Gone is steeped in the traditions of the horror genre - the remote, hostile community reminiscent of The Wicker Man and even The League of Gentlemen, the child fighting back while adults capitulate or succumb to evil, the gallery of grotesques who fill the pages of the five-issue mini-series, and even the bogeyman, here in the form of Bonnie Shaw, a diabolical and primal force in so many of the best scary stories.
But, here, the fabulous creative team of John Lees, Iain Laurie, Megan Wilson and Colin Bell, do so much more.
Where films often dial back the visual horror early on to play a more subtle, teasing game with their audienceAnd Then Emily Was Gone revels in its medium, hitting us with both barrels from the outset in a relentless assault of dark twisted imagery (brought deftly to life by the Wilson’s vivid, visceral colours) and haunting narrative (perfectly delivered by Colin Bell’s intricate and accomplished lettering) that only a comic could properly pull off in the sustained way this does.
The compelling, broken character of Greg Hellinger - who has not slept in years and is plagued by visions of hideous twisted creatures – strikes the right notes of troubled and vulnerable to act as our guide on this macabre roller-coaster, but it is in the fearless Fiona that the story finds it heart, moral compass and drive, her determination to discover the fate of her best friend Emily Munro, uncompromising until the bitter end.
If the creators had stopped there we might well have still had a good book, but luckily for us they didn’t, becauseAnd Then Emily Was Gone finds another layer of depth in its supporting cast, each of whom we believe Lee and Laurie know in unflinching detail.
It is this in this band of monstrosities that the Island of Merksay comes to terrifying life, each
Buck-toothed, hair-lipped, wrinkled, deformed grotesque, we believe, has their own intricate backstory. Single panel stories at the back of each issue detail the harrowing history of another new inhabitant of the island, giving the impression that the architects of this disquieting tale have only just begun to frighten us.
In Bonnie Shaw himself, the authors have unleashed a truly terrifying creature, who like all the best bogeyman has firm roots in local mythology and culture, but plays into a much wider and more sinister tradition of the need to assert dominance over our children through fear.
This depth in character is matched ably by the extent to which the island itself is characterised as a place where something evil has taken hold and even been nurtured and allowed to flourish, creating a powerful sense of claustrophobia and foreboding, which seizes the reader by the throat as the walls close in on Fiona and Greg and we grow ever more fearful over their fate.
Technically And Then Emily Was Gone is a superlative performance of sequential storytelling, and it is quite possibly that which has allowed it to shatter the glass ceiling that traditionally separate the alternative press from the mainstream.
Lees and Laurie both use every inch of the opportunity the comics medium offers to create a rich, surreal, terrifying, nightmare which perfectly balances the need to provide a satisfactory conclusion and yet leave us unsettled and scared enough to wonder what might be lurking in the shadows the next time we fall asleep.
When those plots do collide it is with an impact that helps make every new story beat a palpable thud in your chest and a quickening in your pulse.
His unique, complex characters interact in a variety of ways, conveying a range of emotions and motivations and it only adds to how unsettling And Then Emily Was Gone is that those voices ring with such clarity.
Laurie is a superb talent and one whose work a reader can become utterly lost in, which here helps to achieve that claustrophobia and mounting sense of danger.
His spidery, shaky, jagged lines create much of the mood of the book and give life to the abominations that litter the book, blurring the boundaries of reality when let loose on a dream sequence, rendering the scenery and location every bit as frightening as the hideous cast.
I wonder whether any consideration was given to toning down his cartooning, for any fear that it would interfere with the grim nature of the story. If it was, the right decision was made NOT to do that, because it is in that style that the book’s cast are rendered as grotesque as they are.
And Then Emily Was Gone does everything right from the first panel to the last, drawing us into a true nightmare tale and leaving us unnerved and shaken by the experience. Right until the ending we fear for the fate of the characters and even with the final page turned there is enough left dangling to keep us awake at nights, at least until Lee, Laurie, Wilson and Bell shanghai us on a boat bound for Merksay to scare us all over again.
You can find John Lee on Twitter @johnlees927 and online at johnleescomics.wordpress.com and Iain Laurie on Twitter @IainLaurie. And details on where to buy And Then Emily Was Gone at visitmerksay.wordpress.com.
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