The Mammoth #1: Find Your Way

The Mammoth #1 opens with Olivia Boucq inside a crumbling house. It collapses. Though Olivia falls clear, the side of her head subsequently explodes. Four days later Olivia’s friends and work associates–Mason, Jess, and Kokoro–are being interviewed by the local sheriff who is investigating Olivia’s mysterious death. The group had come to Broke Tree Valley to investigate its history of geological and seismic events. Following the interview with the sheriff, Jess and Mason walk to the collapsed house where Olivia died. In the process they encounter something disturbing: a crowd of people walking through the forest–all of them dazed with vacant eyes but asking, “Can you help me find my way?”

Olivia’s death is a shocking way to open the issue. But after that The Mammoth #1 plays its cards close to the vest. It delivers the major creepy sequence roughly halfway through, but otherwise Tobin spends most of the issue building up the characters. A lot of that comes through the small wake for Olivia held by her three friends and work associates. What they say about Olivia reveals things about themselves. It’s an effective way to deliver exposition while keeping it from feeling like exposition.

The same kind of low key exposition happens during the interview when Olivia’s friends are interviewed by the police. We learn character names and the backstory of why they were working together and what they were trying to accomplish. Generally speaking, Tobin doesn’t waste any space on material that doesn’t pertain to the story. There’s nothing in The Mammoth #1 that could be easily cut away. Every scene ties into character or plot development, and almost all of the dialogue feels essential. If this is representative of how the series will unfold, readers can expect a tightly woven story featuring complex and well realized characters.

The crowd of people asking, “Can you help me find my way?” is more bizarre thriller than horror. It’s a strange turn after Olivia’s gruesome death in the opening pages. The issue ends without offering any expectation of what’s to come. Curiosity will be a definite driver for picking up the second issue.

Susini’s art is a combination of very detailed and relatively clean. Characters are fresh faced. Susini is fairly conservative when it comes to lines and shadows to emphasize expressions. But in almost every other respect Susini is replete with lines and shadows. Backgrounds in The Mammoth #1 are rich and full. A panel looking down on a forest is clear enough that individual trees could be counted. Individual pieces of wood and stone are clear in the house’s wreckage. Folds and wrinkles on the clothes of people in a crowd are evident. Set against the detailed surroundings, individual characters pop off the page.

Bowland’s color work supports Susini’s detailed work. At times Bowland goes very vivid. But many panels that are heavily detailed feature softer, even muted colors. Bowland’s work isn’t overshadowed. Rather, it is perfectly collaborative.

The standout lettering choice comes with the people in the forest asking, “Can you help me find my way?” Dialogue bubbles litter the panels, but none of them are pointed toward specific characters. Certainly this could have been a specific instruction in the script. But even if it is, Pritchett organizes them to reinforce the sense that the entire crowd is asking the question nonstop. It’s a clean look. Pritchett doesn’t overlap the dialogue bubbles. But the effect is the same.