2 out of 5

I ignore my gut at my own peril. The first issue of Boogyman has some hiccups – a somewhat staid flashback structure; some overreach with its brutality – but some of that I can accept as part of its horror genre; some of its general hinkiness may come down to translation (not that it’s bad, but that things can have a different tone in their original language that’s hard to carry over). Artist Djet has a scratchy, weighty style that’s good for the tone, though – comic-book expressive without losing an air of ominousness – and writer Mathieu Salvia navigates around “boogymen are real and only children can see them” tropes with a blend of lore-drops and storytelling that suggests we’ll lean into some more mature territory.

Promising; intriguing; but not necessarily grabbing – I read the first issue and sat on the fence as to whether or not to continue. Ultimately, I took the plunge on the collection. However, this is a series that exposes its flaws pretty quickly thereafter, and unfortunately starts to stack upon them. On the more positive side, despite a dive into what feels like a more rushed final issue and some this-whole-book-is-just-a-somewhat-stakeless-fight-sequence issues, artist Djet’s work remains a highlight of fun designs, and I do think that Salvia’s world-building held a fair amount of opportunity, but for an ongoing: the curse of small books is you can’t sell an ongoing and tend to pitch a beginning, middle, and end, subjecting potential Big Ideas to being compressed into six issues. Obviously that can be plenty of space for some writers, but for Salvia, it results in curbing things towards pointless feeling asides and the most maudlin of takeaways that feels pretty hackneyed as it rears its head, and then fully tacked on with the way it concludes.

Boogyman’s pitch is as summed up above: monsters under the bed are real, and – for reasons – only children can see them. Elliott is one such blessed boy, and he’s being interviewed under psychiatric care post a traumatic event. Flashback to that traumatic event: what amounts to a rather brutal home invasion.

Because the monsters aren’t only real, they have their own culture and class system, and are currently in something of a war against their once-elders, with the rapacious youngsters rising up and causing troubles, like invading kid’s homes and killing mommy and daddy. It just so happens that there’s another boogyman living in Elliot’s house, though, who has taking a liking to the kid, and stands against the invading force. He struggles with his very being – and his past – as he and Elliot go on a road trip, searching for safety, over the course of several issues.

Definitely an acceptable setup, and one that builds in outlets for exploring the boogymen lore via our protector’s past, and through conversations with other “friendly” boogys we meet along the way. All fine and good, but the power imbalance that Mathieu inserts – the protector is pitched as all-powerful – never really clarifies the threat level, nor are the creatures’ power sets all that clear, making the whole gambit rely on Djet inserting energy, as opposed to it coming from the script setting up clear stakes. We also jump right to the lead Boogy being an oh-so-tragic figure in a way that’s not earned; and Elliot abusing the cute-kid card to pull off faux wisdom drops that are pulled from a Disney film; a tonal mismatch with the book’s grimmer elements and overall violence.

Thanks to several (as mentioned) page-filling fights – if you take into consideration the lack of stakes – the book is constantly spinning its wheels, relying heavily on Djet’s moody art for vibes, which also grows tiresome when paired with tragic-character-trope after tragic-character-trope. And the fact that none of this really wraps back around to the initial flashback structure (spoiler?) suggests rewrites, or that maybe this was intended to have a different story shape initially.

There is bang-for-buck with the trade, though, as we get a lot of sketches, all the variant covers, and some pinups taking up quite a few backpages.