Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Harrow County Volume II: Twice Told

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Harrow County Volume II: Twice Told



    Harrow County Volume II: Twice Told
    Released by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: April 13th, 2015.
    Written by: Cullen Bunn
    Illustrated by: Tyler Crook
    Purchase From Amazon

    This second trade paperback volume of Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook's masterful series Harrow County collects issues five through eight.

    The collection begins with a scene where Emmy is coming to terms with what she's just learned: she's a witch. The townsfolk keep leaving gifts at the door of the house she shares with her father. She's uncomfortable with this, it isn't necessary, but Pa? He's quite alright with it. They have a nice talk, things seem almost normal, until she heads up to her room and finds the body-less skin has escaped and has been trolling around her room.

    Nothing is going to be normal for Emmy ever again.

    As she gets used to her new role, the people of Harrow County come to her for help with things that they can't quite deal with on their own. First up, they ask her to help with 'something' up in the grain terminal that rots everything it touches. She makes the trek up to the top of the structure, the skin in her bag accompanying her, where she finds a creature hiding in the shadows. Rather than chase the creature off, Emmy reasons with it, even going so far as to name it.

    Things get darker when Jim Webb asks Emmy to help with a more personal problem. Thad Cribbets is making moves on his wife Celia and he's none too happy about that. He wants Emmy to hurt Thad, a request she finds offensive - and she makes that quite clear to Jim. Emmy sets out into the woods, she's taken it upon herself to care for the Haints that her predecessor, a witch named Hester Beck, left as orphans when she was killed by her own creations. But there's more to it than just her caring nature, she has her own reasons for this.

    When issue six begins, with a gorgeous double splash page courtesy of Tyler Crook, it's raining. Raining hard. Lots of lighting too, this storm is a big one… but the clouds aren't moving.

    Below the storm, in Harrow County, Emmy talks to Kammi, a girl who could be her twin. They're from different worlds: Emmy from the farm, Kammi from New York City. The girls figure since they share the same birthday and look so much alike they really must be twins, but we soon see a difference between the two girls when Kammi scolds Bernice, a black girl, for interrupting them, something Emmy would never even think to do. Kammi claims to understand, to know what the other girls are feeling and dealing with, but she doesn't know why she was taken away from here, the place she was born. She says without really knowing her roots, where she came from, she's always felt lost.

    Later that night when everyone else is asleep, Kammi wakes Emmy up. The rain has stopped and she wants to go for a walk. Emmy is a bit confused but obliges her, and they head to the tree where Kammi asks about the death of Hester Beck… their mother, or so Kammi says. Emmy says otherwise, says that Hester created them, that they weren't born of woman but born from the same tree where they buried her. When the skinless boy shows up, hissing in the tree, Kammi isn't afraid but remarks to Emmy 'Oh look! You've got a familiar too!' These girls have more in common than Emmy ever thought.

    Emmy sleeps in the next morning. She wakes up and Bernice has gone home. Kammi has gone into town with her Butler in the car to look around. As she walks through town, people greet her as Emmy and she doesn't correct them… until Jim Webb approaches her with a knife. He asked Emmy for help in the last issue and she wouldn't do it. Kammi, however, is not Emmy.

    We also get a nice pinup courtesy of artist Jok and a creepy two page 'Tales From Harrow County' short from Ma'at Crook. Oh, and in a first, this issue has a letter column. Read it. There's some interesting back and forth there between the readers and editor Daniel Chabon. Little things like this round out the stellar lead story nicely.

    Kammi and her butler stroll through the woods. She remarks that it's 'a beautiful day for a picnic' as they stroll ever closer to the shack in the woods where a certain creature lives. The creature warns Kammi to leave it be but she has her butler lay down a spread and prepare for the picnic she seems determined to have. Kammi invites the thing to join them, telling it that despite what it may think, they've never met before.

    She pulls out the food, rotten meat with maggots crawling all over it. The creature is intrigued as Kammi eats the spoiled fare; she knows this thing is hungry. It comes out of the shack and eats with her, and they talk about the past, about how Kammi was taken away from Harrow County as an infant.

    Meanwhile, Emmy knows something is up, something is not right. There's a feeling of dread about - the townsfolk aren't coming to her for help anymore as they have been constantly these last few weeks. Her Pa notices this, they talk as they work together in the barn, the work is piling up. Emmy offers to create ten men out of thin air to help - she could do it - but he doesn't want it done that way. As Emmy and her pa get to work, Kammi continues her stroll through the woods, getting acquainted with all of the supernatural creatures that live out there, doing what she can to earn their trust and friendship. All Emmy wanted was a sister, she let things slide for this reason, for a shot at a kinship she never knew but that any girl her age would want.

    Bad move.

    An Eisner-esque splash page opens up the last issue in this collection, as we see Emmy fearful of the haints that have surrounded her in the woods. She orders them away, but it's no use - Kammi walks out of the shadows and makes it very clear that she's in charge now. The haints don't answer to Emmy anymore. But Kammi isn't out to hurt Emmy, she wants her to join her - 'to rule together.'

    Emmy knows better and as such, she declines… and then, for her own safety, she runs. Kammi sends her butler after her, instructing him to punish her in his own way so that when he's done with her she can punish her in hers. And as Emmy runs, the ghosts give chase. Far from powerless, Emmy heads to a part of the woods that she knows best and where she has some allies. In the ensuing chaos she's able to escape, briefly, until she comes face to face with that butler, but again, she finds help in a strange place.

    Once she's out of the woods, she bursts into the house where she alerts her father…

    In what is the most intense issue in the series so far, this is where it all hits the fan for Emmy and Kammi. The conflict that's been growing over the past few issues comes to a pretty huge boil in this installment and the payoff of that buildup is completely worth it. The way in which those threads of the story are resolved (though honestly, it's probably a temporary resolution rather than a permanent fix) works perfectly given the background information that we have on Emmy, Kammi and their 'mother' and Bunn's story really ramps up the tension here. At the same time, if this issue is more focused on horror than on character development, we still get enough of those 'quiet moments' that each issue of Harrow County seems to do so well, those little bits and pieces wherein Emmy and her father bond over simple conversation for example. So it's not all flash and sizzle and scary stuff - it's just really strong storytelling.

    As to the artwork, Tyler Crook has been knocking each issue of Harrow County out of the park but in this issue in particular he's outdone himself. There are some genuinely eerie moments in this issue that are illustrated with such cinematic style that you can almost see the panels moving. The use of color couldn't be better and the character design for both the 'human' and not so human creatures alike is killer.

    In addition to reprinting the four issues, there's also some great sketchbook pages included here, fourteen pages or so annotated by Crook showing off a bit of his creative process. We not only see some of the pages and specific panels come to life here but some of the covers as well. Along that line, there's also an alternate cover gallery included in the back pages. Great stuff - if you're not reading this series every month you're missing out big time.










      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    Working...
    X