Rat God #1
A lackluster introduction to well-written horror book
Writer: Richard Corben
Artist: Richard Corben
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rat God #1, the first issue in a five issue miniseries written and drawn by Richard Corben is a well written book brought down by a lot of unnecessary and exuberant elements.
Corben throws us into the middle of a chase in the first few pages of this Lovecraftian horror story promising elder gods and things unknown. That first part, unexplained and tense, is unfortunately, the only truly good or compelling segment in this issue.
The writing here, narrator and characters, is good nearly objectively. Aside from unnecessary racism and roughness from what seems to be the main character (Lovecraft himself had those elements it should be noted), the book touches on elements of horror and suspense as any good Lovecraft referencing book should. There’s great potential here for some lost in the woods, stalked and alone, horror but it’s brought down by two things. One of those things is the near inescapable awfulness of the main character, a racist, rude and stupid man who hopefully, will get what’s coming to him, but for now is just tiresome. The second, is the attempts at slipping chunks of stream-of-conscious like writing past the readers. Corben is an accomplished and storied writer who should know better than that.
The art will appeal to some and completely turn off others. It’s rich, complex and colorful for a horror book of this type but it’s also dated and the character’s faces or mannerisms are surprisingly un-human for such an accomplished creator. The nudeness of the heroine too, is unnecessary to say the least.
This is a promising story with poor execution. I’m interested in seeing what happens but I can’t help but think that Corben would’ve produced a better book if he had someone else he was working with on this.
Writer: Richard Corben
Artist: Richard Corben
Publisher: Dark Horse
Rat God #1, the first issue in a five issue miniseries written and drawn by Richard Corben is a well written book brought down by a lot of unnecessary and exuberant elements.
Corben throws us into the middle of a chase in the first few pages of this Lovecraftian horror story promising elder gods and things unknown. That first part, unexplained and tense, is unfortunately, the only truly good or compelling segment in this issue.
The writing here, narrator and characters, is good nearly objectively. Aside from unnecessary racism and roughness from what seems to be the main character (Lovecraft himself had those elements it should be noted), the book touches on elements of horror and suspense as any good Lovecraft referencing book should. There’s great potential here for some lost in the woods, stalked and alone, horror but it’s brought down by two things. One of those things is the near inescapable awfulness of the main character, a racist, rude and stupid man who hopefully, will get what’s coming to him, but for now is just tiresome. The second, is the attempts at slipping chunks of stream-of-conscious like writing past the readers. Corben is an accomplished and storied writer who should know better than that.
The art will appeal to some and completely turn off others. It’s rich, complex and colorful for a horror book of this type but it’s also dated and the character’s faces or mannerisms are surprisingly un-human for such an accomplished creator. The nudeness of the heroine too, is unnecessary to say the least.
This is a promising story with poor execution. I’m interested in seeing what happens but I can’t help but think that Corben would’ve produced a better book if he had someone else he was working with on this.
A Look Inside
