RED ROOM #3: Let’s Make a Deal

Red Room #3 is another astonishing offering from the brilliant mind of Ed Piskor. The Red Room series has been a brutal and gory series that tells different stand-alone stories that shock the system. While the series may not be for everyone, the bloodthirsty visuals are accompanied by good stories with characters that stick with you till the last panel. Gore is good, but it’s better when there’s a purposeful story to back it up, and Red Room excels at that very task.

Levee Turks is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He’s freshly released from prison, and the FBI would like to acquire his services to help put a stop to the red rooms. Finding that the further he digs, the more he becomes frustrated and disgusted. Then the story takes a hell of a turn, keeping with the pattern of its predecessors. 

The great thing about Red Room is that it taps into the part of the human psyche that thrives on sensationalism. Don’t believe me, look at your YouTube or Google history. Whether it’s a tale of true crime or watching a doctor cut into a cyst, sensationalism takes us to a dark place that we are comfortable in, just as long as no one knows. Piskor is a masterful conductor of storytelling that taps into that dark and special place that resides in all of us and beckons it by name. Some may say that Red Room is uncomfortable or is torture porn in panels but ask yourself, is it uncomfortable because you can’t look away? Why can’t you look away? Why can’t you turn the tv to a different channel? You need it! Sensationalism feeds that rabid beast that lays dormant. Ed Piskor has found a way to feed said beast with solid characters, a solid plot, at the same time tapping into the readers’ darkest corners of their needs.