Ever been terrified of the dark? Ever feel like there is someone in the shadows, hidden, waiting for your fears to intensify before he reveals himself and begins to unmercifully stab and slice your body to pieces. The last thing you hear is your own death curdling screams, leaving a horrific blood splattered scene of utter chaos on the walls. That’s just what you’re about to embark on with Leave On the Light #1 from Insane Comics, the leader in underground independent comics.
You start off this horror / mystery with one of the most horrifically graphic murder scenes I’ve ever seen in a comic book. Shit, this murder is so damn intense, it rivals some pretty good horror movies. Then we meet the detective who has seen this very same type of crime scene, but the one responsible for those vicious murders has been fried in the chair, eight years ago! How can this very same thing be happening again?
From the looks of it, computer graphics are used to REALLY enhance the preliminary artwork. Good thing, because it easily covers up mistakes, it also makes the comic book look and feel like a black & white CGI movie rather than a black & white independent comic. Bad thing, because when using this technique, if there are any mistakes (like scale proportions or character movements) they can look very awkward. Thankfully you get a whole lot more of the great than you can even find bad in this first issue with so many flashes of brilliance.
Review:
First off, I really want to give this book a fantastic rating for panel storytelling! Very rarely do you get an underground indie book tell its story so well in its panels that you can almost go without words. Along with that notion, the CG lighting and shading in this comic are magnificent to look at and play very well off the story.
Next, I do have to knock points off for some of those awkward looking character pose and scale ratio proportions being off a few times. Also the lettering could use a whole revamping, just a tiny thing, but truly would do wonders. Leave On The Lights really is hard not to admire and it is making you want to see and know more. Fans who don’t get what’s going on, will not understand the ending of issue one and might give it up. Those that are clever enough to really understand what Leave On The Light means, are absolutely itching for more. Murder / Mystery fans that take great delight to be shocked and creeped out, will really dig into this bloody mess of pure gruesome horror that will have you saying, LEAVE ON THE LIGHT!
PopCultHQ Rating:
Purchase your copies in digital or print from Insane Comics: Leave On The Light #1
Preview pages:
