ORION Reviews THIS HAUNTED WORLD!

by Orion Tippens

This Haunted World #1

Writer: Mark Powers

Artist: Chris Lie, Rahmat Handoko

Sea Lion Books, Oct. 2011, 29 pages

A fresh new book just in time before our crazy, 2012 end of days.

This Haunted World is a digital exclusive (for now) series set in a familiar world troubled with our war, corrupted politics, and sinking economy. Yet, in a series of strangely unrelated events, certain characters experience terrible, unexplainable murders that hint towards something large, perhaps world threatening. Somehow connected are witnesses to the bizarre events around the world: an injured U.S. army corporal, a young parapsychologist, and a senator who lost his religious faith. Meanwhile, a shadowy, hooded character now walks the Earth, gathering dead spirits for something troubling, ominous.

The setup and style of storytelling are very interesting. One one hand, we have pieces of a large story building with intrigue, fascination of the dark forces at work, raising stakes  to the ensuing darker chapters ahead. On the other, we have fitting and moody artwork driving the story. Lots of dark, dull colors and tones are constant, moody, mysterious. The characters appear unique, interesting yet not quite familiar. The story in almost every aspect gives us enough be interested, yet not too emotionally invested, which is where the current downside of the book remains. We have much mayhem going on, and with that less time with the main characters for us to feel too connected just yet. We only know one character is on some kind of mission, one survived near-death, and another is going through emotional changes. That is just enough, but lacking in balance between the personal and worldly at least for the beginning.

Overall, The Haunted World is full of intrigue and beautiful to fans of pre-apocalyptic horror fiction. For the $0.99 price, the first issue is worth looking at. Hopefully, this book is a mere warmup to something grander, better. We shall see. In the meantime, check out This Haunted World at Graphic.ly and ComiXology.

Orion Tippens loves comics, writing, and travel, and hosts his own blog at captainipad.blogspot.com.