Seth A. Romo
World building is a very tricky thing. It’s subjective, and in many ways it’s like a storytelling cocktail. When done right, it can be a classic. If not, it becomes too niche that either too much or too little of that something special keeps it from being great.
My personal preference is world building that gives just the right amount of details without spoiling everything. It isn’t just the spectacle of the mystery, but the inclination of wanting to know what’s behind the curtain.
In my opinion, a prime example of world building done right is the breakout horror comic book series, Something is Killing the Children (SIKTC). On the surface, this comic book is about a bandana-donned heroine named Erica Slaughter that hunts and kills monsters visible only to children. While monster hunting isn’t exactly a new idea, what elevates this story is the nuggets of details about the Order of St. George.
What is the Order of St. George, you ask? It’s a secret organization dating back hundreds of years whose purpose is to take on enemies most people are not able to see. They covertly operate all over the world with different houses and leaders under their umbrella. As they’ve grown in power, they have created a system of bandana colors and designs that signal roles within the organization. Erica Slaughter has a black bandana with teeth, meaning she is a solo hunter tasked with tracking down and terminating said creatures. She answers to the House of Slaughter, a sub-sect of the Order of St. George, based out of Chicago. The House provides intel on monsters and uses their networks to get hunters out of trouble when necessary.
Pretty intriguing, right! What’s especially great about this fictional secret society is that it was not always part of the story.
This comic is published by BOOM! Studios and was created by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera. During its production stage, the concept was supposed to be a story about a monster hunter who goes from town to town—almost similar to that of a western where the stoic hero is a traveling force for good.
In an interview on Crast.net, Tynion IV explained how the story wasn’t meant to be very long—certainly not 35 issues that it is currently at during the posting of this article. In the interview, Tynion IV stated, “When we started working on SIKTC we had a five-issue miniseries in mind.” “We realized that the story is getting bigger and bigger,” said Tynion IV. “We found ourselves with readers asking us questions about what was happening “around” the world of Erica Slaughter. The popularity of the series made us realize that we needed to expand it and create new outlets for these stories.”
The first arc of this series takes place over five issues and the pacing and introduction of Erica Slaughter is fantastic. She arrives in Wisconsin to a small town called Archer’s Peak to hunt a monster that has been eating children. Shortly after arriving, she meets James, a young boy who has seen the monsters firsthand. Throughout her visit, she deals with local police and has to maneuver working under the radar while making a game plan to stop the monster. Local officials still don’t believe she isn’t involved in the growing number of missing children and they are met by a mysterious figure with a tattoo of a dragon on their hand who offers assistance. Later, Erica launches an attack on the monster’s hideout, but she meets resistance from a town local and has to reveal members of the House of Slaughter through a supernatural connection to convince him she is not the one making children disappear.
It’s a brief moment, but it elevates the entire series. I remember reading this and while I was in awe of the action from Werther Dell’Edera’s art and Miquel Muerto’s colors, I couldn’t help but obsess about who the characters were that Erica had revealed.
Which brings me back to my original point. The brief introduction of what will be discovered to be the leaders of the House of Slaughter is not exposition heavy. Rather, there is mystery in the protagonist and the revelation that there are higher powers involved creates this energy of excitement about a newly discovered society.
The brief glimpse of a larger world may happen in issue five, but subsequent issues would go on to explain more about the House of Slaughter, and other members of this group become more ingrained in the Archer’s Peak plot. It’s a slow build at first, but then it quickly ramps up the amount of information provided to the readers creating a rich world. By issue 15, readers are given insight into the larger history connected to Erica and the story is all the better for it.
Aside from the fact that this is a well-crafted horror comic, in my opinion it’s the world building that takes it to new heights. It has certainly gained popularity and has sold more than 2 million copies. Furthermore, within two years from its release date, it was already optioned for Netflix and had an appropriately named spinoff House of Slaughter that kicked off in October 2021.
This has positioned the series in such a great spot. The directions in which this world can be expanded upon are almost endless, and new content is making great use of this. The one-shot Book of Slaughter was released in December 2022, the Book of Butcher was released in December 2023, and House of Slaughter just wrapped up issue #20.
The Book of Slaughter was an entire issue dedicated to exploring the historical development of the Order of St. George. It’s more of a reference material than a true comic book, but the amount of lore explored now allows for historical background to be fleshed out even further. The House of Slaughter has been focused on Jace Boucher, a hunter from New Orleans, and this series has been a substantial universe-building series into the politics of the Order of St. George, the tensions and histories between houses, and bureaucracy of every group of masks. (Both are great and I highly recommend them.)
Now, there is the Book of Butcher, the latest reference guide that follows hunter-in-training, Maxine. It also spends a good amount of the issue on the range of monsters that the order has dealt with so far. (For more on this, be sure to check out our review on the series.)
There is clearly no stopping this universe, and that’s a good thing. While the world building started off slow, it gave room to develop richer lore. In my opinion, this makes reading this series even more enjoyable because rather than being thrust into an established world, the sense of exploration and discovery has made for an even better experience.
Comic books sometimes come with a lot of baggage. The expectation to know the full histories of established characters in order to appreciate the story is a large order and sometimes makes this industry a niche medium. This can sometimes feel daunting as subtle references can be missed and isolate the reader. Even seasoned readers may feel dread getting into a legacy character as there can be no shortage for where to start. Do you start with their origin? The original comics from decades ago? What about the latest run?
SIKTC has managed to introduce a new high profile comic book character, capture the attention of millions, and it has carved out its own space while creating a rich universe. Not bad for a horror comic.
While I am a huge fan of the series, I completely understand it might not be for everyone. (And that’s okay!) However, I do think it will be referenced as a new standard in world building for future comics and other stories. After all, there’s nothing like unraveling a mystery only to find out there is so much more to discovery.
