ICYMI! Night of the Ghoul #1: Devil’s Night

With Francavilla on art and colours you already know you’re in for a treat. Arguably one of the best comic book artists of his generation, Francavilla’s gloomy and cold colour palette perfectly set the tone of the book, giving a sense of the macabre, right from the get go.

Of course Snyder has a plethora of art talent signed up to the first wave of creator owned books which for me personally is the biggest draw in as I am not Snyder’s biggest fan by any stretch of the imagination. Although of course I did enjoy a good 80% of his acclaimed and frankly historical run on the New 52’s Batman I have often found Snyder’s work to be too reliant on exposition in it’s text and leaving very little room for the art to tell the story.

Needless to say I was personally a little skeptical about the quick release of so many comics however much to my surprise I found myself enjoying Night of the Ghoul much more than I assumed I would.

Partly using an unreleased (and assumed destroyed) film reel to tell the story, Snyder has chosen a unique way of relaying the eerie and dark events of care home patient “Charles Patrick.” Francavilla’s art smoothly transitions into sepia tones as the partially ruined movie footage plays out, even incorporating burnt edges of the reel which not only looks impeccable but adds to the overall mystery.

The emotion captured in the characters expressions give just a taste of the horrors they have experienced and the dark path the books characters are about to travel down which is a testament to Francavilla’s talents as, what is arguably a very simplistic art style, proves time and time again to be most effective.

The art is perfection and this book is recommended for that alone.