IMPASTO #1

Recap
Edgar Worrell is settling into his new employment under the enigmatic Lord Sharpe. His only concern is the man’s violent and disturbing taste in decor.
Unfortunately, his master's paintings don't like Edgar much either. Cursed with a strange affliction, Edgar must appease the art. But can he possibly go through with what they ask?
Review
There’s a trend with ‘outsider art,’ especially within the horror genre, to set a deeply human precedent for what can be terrifying in a setting where sanitation is non-existent. I’ve had a taste for it since I was a kid discovering the world of independent horror games for the first time and truly seeing what dredges of filth someone with creative skill can turn into a riveting work of art. It’s in that same vein that I discovered and was utterly chilled by S.J. Miller’s Impasto #1.
This digital, one-shot tale follows Edgar Worrell as he starts a new life as the personal servant to Lord Sharpe, a wealthy man with a taste for art that’s best described as violent and off-kilter. Soon, they make their sentience known to Edgar and begin forcing him to commit strange acts that probe the darkest recesses of his mind, dragging both him and the reader into a personal nightmare there’s no escaping from.
The rate at which this descent occurs is nigh perfect, and although there is much to say about the art in this book, I did want to spare some time to talk about Miller’s actual storytelling technique on display in this story. The nature of a page-limited comic is that it must use each and every page effectively to establish tone, depth, and story, whilst making sure it doesn’t feel like a truncated summary of a story much larger than its page count. Impasto is the kind of self-contained narrative that nails its pacing so much that every other aspect of a good story simply falls in line.
There’s a personality to—and motivations for—every character in this story, regardless of how insignificant their role in it might be, with the actual plot progression and sequencing of events playing a large role in this. Each page turn is controlled, the events we see unfold guided by breaks in the narrative to fill the story with a color that helps it go beyond a simple window into the horrors Edgar and Lord Sharpe are subjected to.
As for the actual plot, this book leaves itself up to interpretation in ways that matter, such as its messaging and character arc for Edgar, whilst placing enough concrete events in the timeline to give readers hints to explain the nature of these paintings and whether or not there’s a genuine supernatural force at play, or if this is all Edgar’s own mind playing games with him. It’s done pretty well, if not predictably, but the unnerving nature of how it all plays out will leave you with a strange hole in your gut regardless.
Now, most of the impact in storytelling for Impasto lies in its visuals. It’s not just what happens that made me queasy; it’s how it happens that does. Miller is very selective in how he visualizes the horrors afoot in this tale, and utilizes the subtlety of an action to further highlight how violating they are. Forced cannibalistic ingestion, self-mutilation, and other violent actions are committed with an almost quiet normalcy, the choice in coloring bringing that decision to life in ways that force the reader to linger on these images longer than they’d likely be comfortable with. The utter lack of surprise, therefore, makes the big page-turn reveals all the more harrowing.
Miller also breaks a fair amount of paneling conventions in this book that really help capture what the story is attempting to say about our darkest inclinations on a purely visual, overtly metaphorical level. These moments, where Edgar seems to step out from the panels themselves, are used sparingly but help establish major shifts in his mind and the book’s own internal reality with great effect.
Final Thoughts
This tale is one written with not only great skill, but a darkness so outside the normal realm of mainstream horror comics that its not hard to be enraptured by it's near sickening illustrations and a quick endearment to character you'd otherwise cut out of paper. It's available in digital only on the authors itch.io page, and is worth every chance you give it.
INDIE SPOTLIGHT – Impasto #1
- Writing - 8.5/108.5/10
- Storyline - 7/107/10
- Art - 9/109/10
- Color - 8.5/108.5/10
- Cover Art - 7.5/107.5/10