I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #4 // Review
Rennie Bethary has never really been in this sort of a position before. Her best friend won’t call her back. She’s never really had a best friend to worry about before, so she’s not really all that certain quite how to proceed. SHe’s going to find out a lot more about herself as the story progresses in I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #4. Writer Doug Wagner reaches the penultimate chapter of his blood-soaked psychological horror thriller with artst Daniel Hillyard and colorist Michelle Madsen. A slight drip of subtle horror reaches a chillingly casual torrent of blood and corpses in a delightful prelude to the end of a very fun series.
Rennie’s bathing in a bathtub of blood. There are a couple of corpses on the floor next to her. She feels good, but she’s still concerned. Still hasn’t heard from Sofie in way too long. She hasn’t been in class in days. Thankfully, Rennie’s got Sofie on her phone. No problem tracking her down. She’ll be able to straighten a few things out, but if she’s going to be able to get things fully sorted-out she’s really going to need to kill someone else entirely.
Wagner has shown a very patient pacing throughout the series. A five-part series about a serial killer could have really gotten completely out of hand quite quickly the moment that Rennie’s true nature was revealed. To his credit, he’s kept Rennie’s psychopathology relatable. She’s remained quite vulnerable throughout the entire first four issues of the series, which is a hell of an accomplishment for a writer who is also framing her as something of an invincible serial killer. The dichotomy there is dizzyingly impressive throughout. The fact that Rennie remains remarkably endearing through all of the killing without being glorified for it...I mean...that’s the mark of some kind of genius storytelling.
Hillyard works with subtlety and nuance to such a degree that’s it’s easy to overlook all the corpses. The blood would be kind of easy to overlook too, but Madsen does such a brilliant job with the colors that it all feels so strikingly vivid. The inner psyche of Rennie is never amplified to a point of ridiculous exageration. The affectlessness on her face in so many moments occasionally twists into something more sinister with out looking silly or garish. There’s a breathtakingly intricate emotional complexity being rendered for the page by Hillyard and Wagner.
The sudden increase in darkness feels about right for the fourth issue. Things ARE remarkably dark, though. There’s been a gradual descent into the shadowy part of human consciousness for a while, but the fourth issue REALLY amps-up the darkness on a whole bunch of levels. There’s a real danger in reaching a point at which ther really isn’t that much left for the fifth issue. It’s the final showdown. It’s the final moment. It’s...going to be soaked in blood. There’s really no questioning that. It’s the sort of end that could quite easily annihilate all of the careful characterization and nuanced emotional development that they’ve been developing over the course of the first four issues. Wagner and company have been doing a really good job with the first few issues, though. They just might pull it off.
