4 out of 5

Another Thrillbent series, well-reproduced by IDW.  The usual artifacts on online-ism remain – a general stiffness to the art, statted panels, and a widescreen breeziness that makes the bang-for-your-buck ratio questionable – but these are the knocks we take if we prefer paper, and I’m immeasurably happy (well, lies, I guess it measures to 4 out of 5) to get to finish the first arc of Eighth Seal, as I started it on Thrillbent and found it quite thrilling indeed, but just could not deal with the publishing format.

I do want to make clear that not much happens here: Tynion basically does a rinse and repeat of setup for five issues, allowing artist Jeremy Rock and colorist Michael Spicer more and more funtimes drawing creepos, but it speaks to the believability of the characters and dialogue and general grabbing nature of the story that it still comes across as a worthwhile read, even if 3.99 times 5 issues can be sped through in probably 20 minutes or so.

Here’s the gist: First Lady Amelia keeps having nightmares of a horrible monster ripping out of her skin and, like, devouring the world – especially enjoying chomping up little children.  It’s exhaustion, or it’s stress, so say her doctors, but behind closed doors secret calls are made that indicate it might be something more.  Indeed, these “nightmares” seem to be invading Amelia’s life more and more…

Tynion successfully pulls this off by, basically, keeping it simple.  He doesn’t try to overplay a political hand or toss extra character subplots onto the fire; he sets his pieces out and lets ’em go, milking tension and thus our interest over where the breaking point for Amelia will be.  But we do have to acknowledge that this would not work at all without Rock.  His take on the creature is truly frightening, and although the “monster ripping through the skin” gag pretty much happens every issue, my god does it always look fantastic.  (In the way that things like that look fantastic, heh.)

It seems like ‘Seal’ might not have more life beyond these issues, whether that’s print or digital, as the concluding tag is “The end… for now.”  Which is obviously a bummer, since what we get is an amazing setup… but nothing else.  Perhaps sales will encourage IDW and/or our creatives to give us more.