3 out of 5

El Torres and his spooks.

If you’re a reader of Amigo Comics – like me – then you know: this Torres guy has got a jones for horror.  And maybe we can assume that if you would call yourself a “reader,” that there’s something there that’s encouraging you to read.  As the majority of Amigo’s output is touched by Torres, and the majority of it is of the bloody spooks genre to some degree, then yes: he is good at what he does.  100% of the time?  Nah, but his track record is way more positive than not, and he has this proven knack for taking the generic setups on which many’a writer stalls (even the classic ones…) and adding something to them, be it a swirl with some unexpected other setup, fascinating character depth, or just a good ol’ twist, making for engaging and surprising reads, time in, time out.

But that’s Amigo, where the crew is all in-house, and Torres can presumably work in his (assumed) home tongue of Spanish, with Spanish artists and editors and, ultimately, the pacing of his tales is determined by him.  His pre-Amigo stuff has all the hints of what was to come, but you can sense some oversight, or a bit more adherence to genre.  Veil has some of Torres’ usual (-ly unusual) bag of tricks: it doesn’t bury the lede, letting us in to the climax before the climax; it mixes Spanish, American, and Japanese horror tropes freely but smoothly; and it goes dark when it needs to, not shying away from logical next steps in the escalation.  At the same time, hinging lead psychic Christina’s experiences to a relationship – the local copper of her hometown, to which she returns to deal with her estate – feels super shallow, and like an editorial remit or “this is what audiences want” assumption on Torres’ behalf.  His role is incredibly unnecessary, over all, except – unfortunately – to give Chris a man to run to, and their sudden “love” doesn’t mix with Chris’ more flippant mindset.  The same goes for the excessive voiceover narration; the need to explain when silence or action do plenty.  And Gabriel Hernandez’s early art is very influenced by other-IDW property from the era, 30 Days Of Night, which gives the script’s character moments too much looseness, though does well for the horror.

Veil’s story and vibe do manage to mostly overcome the above, especially when we turn the corner in issue three and things start to get real, leading to some creepy imagery and twists in the final book.

Confirming my Torres appreciation, I thought of about 90 different books / movies / comics from which Veil might’ve taken notes or been influenced, by the final product successfully stands on its own, and is certainly satisfying Torres-filler while we wait for his next Amigo book…