Buried Long, Long Ago #1: The True Horror Fairy Tale

A heroic knight confronts an evil ogress in Buried Long, Long Ago #1’s opening pages. But the ogress escapes. Fortunately, this is merely a fairy tale that young Jesse is reading to her still younger sisters Ryelyn and Haddy. They are on a train, soon to be reunited with their mother and her new husband. The sisters’ mother instructs them in how to behave so as to please her new husband. But in short order, the new husband is brutally killed. Perhaps the ogress from the fairy tale has found the sisters in the real world. Horror blends with historical true crime in this retelling of the Belle Gunness murders in the early 20th century.

Buried Long, Long Ago #1’s opening fairy tale makes for an easy entrance to the series’ first issue. The fairy tale is not without tragedy. As is pointed out later, many original versions of fairy tales have less than happy endings. But this opening also provides a touch of whimsy in the way it introduces the three sisters, a sequence ultimately at odds with their mother’s introduction immediately afterward.

“Misdirection” is the word of the day when it comes to Buried Long, Long Ago #1. Thanks to the fairy tale prologue, the reader is encouraged to draw certain conclusions as soon as the sisters’ mother makes her appearance. The result is anticipatory tension. Something is inevitable. And indeed, when the worst happens, it appears to confirm everything the reader expected. But this is immediately undermined by the final pages which suggest that the story isn’t at all what the reader expected.

This same misdirection works on a larger scale when it comes to Buried Long, Long Ago #1’s genre.  The comic is suspenseful, certainly. And while the opening fairy tale suggests some kind of horror related story via the mysterious ogress, it comes across as more of a bloody earthbound thriller for much of the issue. By the end, though, this is not the case as what seemed to be a thriller morphs into a monster-centric horror story.

Thanks to Cleveland’s dialogue, and even more so Cormack’s art, the mother feels constantly out of place in Buried Long, Long Ago #1. This isn’t to say that the character is in some way inconsistent in presentation or incongruous with the issue’s style and overall atmosphere. Instead, she comes across as being at odds with the relationships that she’s in.

The visual introduction Cormack gives the mother sets the tone for everything that follows. She stands with perfect posture, filling the majority of a panel that itself takes up ¾ of the page. The steam from the train engine fills the space behind her, leaving visible only a couple top hats and, more apparent, a flock of black birds. Her long black dress is caught in the wind, and the way it blows coupled with the panel cutting off at its hemline has the effect of making her appear to float. She is looking down on the daughters who, as established in the panels before and after, are staring up at her in what almost looks like dread. She is an imposing figure, and this one visual sets her up to dominate the rest of the issue whether she’s in panel or not.

Introduced by way of Jesse reading the fairy tale to Ryelyn and Haddy, the three sisters are strong figures in their way. Cormack gives Jesse a somewhat unemotional countenance, especially relative to Ryelyn and Haddy. It’s perfect for her role of being in charge over this journey. Ryelyn is seemingly easily shocked, her eyes wide and mouth frowning in multiple panels following the fairy tale’s conclusion. Haddy is more petulant, her face twisted up in consternation and her arms more active than Ryelyn’s whose are closed in around her. Cleveland doesn’t say anything about these sisters in dialogue. Rather it’s Cormack who creates the sisters’ personalities in the early panels. This strong artwork is even more effective later when their emotional distinctiveness, and in some cases strength, is completely robbed by their mother’s overbearing presence.

Birch’s work with dialogue bubbles and caption boxes is neat and organized with standard font. His work is more creative with the fairy tale section that starts the issue. He very successfully blends the caption boxes with the overall color scheme around it while at the same time picking a color that stands out because it is only used for the caption boxes. The color combined with the slightly different font reinforce the fantasy behind the fairy tale.