Exquisite Corpses #9 // Review
There are a lot of dead people in Pinkee’s Barbecue. There are officials who are pouring gasoline throughout the place to cover the evidence of the mass murder. Things are getting out of hand. There are those who have already been elminated from the competition who are. conspiring together. To make matters worse, there are people in town who are aware of what’s going on and they’re not happe about sitting tight and serving as possible targets. They’re about to do something about it in Exquisite Corpses #9. The writing team of Tyler Boss and James Tynion IV continue their horror drama with the art team of Valentine De Landro and Micael Walsh. Colr comes to the page by Jordie Bellaire
A dumpster get thrown through s window. That allows some of the lcocals to get access, but they still need to make it through a locked door to get to anything that might actually be of value to them. Thankfully, the people in question are really resourceful. There’s a radio in storage that could be useful. Turn hte CB radio on and they’re able to contat someone, but how do they know that they can trust who they’ve gotten ahold of?
Boss and Tynion juggle all of the diffeent ends of the plot. The masterminds who are competing maintain their dramatic tension while the killers continue to move. This particular issue doesn’t. feature the killers quite as prominently as previous issues had been. The big narrative breakthrough here is giving the townspeople a bit more of a prominent role in their own survival, but there IS some evidence to suggest that it might not be a clear victory for them by the end of the series. Above all, there DOES appear to be a fairly good chance that the ending of the series might not be entirely predictable. This is good news.
The visual reality of Exquisite Corpses continues to be swimming in ink that threaten to blur-out any intricacy or nuance. Bellaire is one of the best colorists in the business, though. She does a remarkable job of granting exactly the kind of mood. The command center for the management is bathed in the reds that gives life to all of the blood that they’re responsible for spilling. Greys and orange shades bathe the page in a hushed tension. Bellaire grants the darkness a personality that grants the series just the right mood.
The focus on the victims and their struggle to survive brings some extra life to a series that mght have otherwise started to get a bit tedious. The competition format of the series DOES give it a fun energy, but it would take a lot more momentum to successfully bring to the page. A regimented approach to the competition could make it work, but Exquisite Corpses is clearly looking at trying to balance-out the competition with other, more traditional horror elements. It’ll be interestng to see how everything continues to wrap-up in the final moments of the series.
