Some say that we are in a horror renaissance. People might
blame the political climate, the culture, what’s in the air we breathe and the
water we drink, but there is no question that there are authors working in
horror that are not only pushing the boundaries of what is considered taboo but
also the boundaries of their respective mediums. Twisted Minds showcases those
who are helping horror evolve, and even mutate, with the times.
Cullen Bunn might not be a name familiar with most people,
unless you’re a fan of superhero comics like X-Men and Deadpool, which
he writes. He is also making a name for himself by writing a few horror series
that range from a coming-of-age tale in early Appalachia to a murder mystery
that takes place before recorded history.
Getting my English degree at a Kentucky university
introduced me to Appalachian literature. The protagonists in these stories
often deal with themes like isolation, loss, and, particularly in young
protagonists, the warring impulses between the connection to their home and the
desire to escape, if only for a little while. Harrow County, where I first discovered Bunn, has all of these
themes and then some. In what the book’s back cover describes as a “Southern
gothic fairy tale,” Emmy is not only a girl on the cusp of adulthood, but she
is also coming into her supernatural powers, which she uses to help the people
she grew up with as well as the supernatural creatures that live there. She
eventually becomes the land’s protector, serving both human and haint, as she
deals with threats both internal and external. The plot is familiar with those
who read Percy Jackson as Emmy strives to balance her roles in the human and
haint world. Though she is uncomfortable at times with her power, particularly
the reputation that comes with it, she soon grows into that fearsome
reputation, for better or worse. A North Carolina native, Bunn captures the essence
of the South in his characters and the art by Tyler Crook brings to mind a
picture from the Saturday Evening Post brought to life.
Like Emmy coming into her powers, one of the major conflicts
in Bunn’s work is the search for identity and one identity being gained at the
loss of another. That is particularly true in the case of Adrian Padilla, the likeable,
tortured protagonist in Regression.
Adrian believes the waking nightmares that terrify him are just nightmares. He
learns that’s not the case when, in trying to cure him, a hypnotist puts him
under for a past life regression. Not only does he learn more about these
bizarre visions, but he learns who he apparently was, and that someone was not
a nice person. Worse, something has followed him back, an ancient evil from that
past life that wants to reclaim him. If there was any argument for a story
being improved by visuals, this can be cited as an example, or it can simply
turn your stomach. Artist Danny Luckert draws plenty of insects crawling,
wriggling, and eating their way in and out of hapless people who seem none the
wiser. It is easy to see, since we literally see, what makes Adrian’s visions so terrifying. Fans of Cronenburg’s
The Fly might feel a little nostalgic
if not nauseous.
Bunn can easily write about our modern society as well as people
from a century ago, but his latest collections have him looking at a time when
humanity could not walk the earth due to the Flood. Dark Ark’s big draw to me was its premise: while Noah built an ark
to safely transport all of God’s natural creatures through the terrible storm,
the sorcerer Shrae is commissioned, definitely not by God, to transport the unnatural creatures: the manticores,
the vampires, the naga, the things that stalk humanity in the dark. The story
here is how these different groups of monsters interact, since they obviously
do not care for one another, and why Shrae, who seems to be a good man with a
family, must transport them. Admittedly, Shrae does not seem to be searching
for an identity but readers will be watching to discover who Shrae is and how
he balances the roles of loving father and powerful sorcerer in the service of
evil.
Showing a knack for character development over the long haul
sprinkled with generous helpings of action and horror, Cullen Bunn is the
gateway writer for library patrons who love superhero comics but might want
something scarier.
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