Graphic Content: Empty Eyes, written by Diego Agrimbau and illustrated by Juan Manuel Tumburús

 Childhood is expected to be a time of innocence, but horror has a great way of subverting expectations. In some stories, there are “childhood things” that we are told we need to put away to become adults. These include toys and imaginary friends are ultimately holding us back from being mature and capable adults. In some horror stories, these childhood things (for example, killer dolls) prevent us from growing up by simply ending us, but some childhood things can also protect us from what awaits us in the very cruel, very real adult world. Such is the case of the graphic novel Empty Eyes, written by Diego Agrimbau and illustrated by Juan Manuel Tumburús.

The story takes place during WWI at the border between Russia and Poland. Near the border is the Nurk Orphanage, which now houses only three living children: young Otto, his older sister Ophelia, and Maurice, who has a psychological hold over the siblings, ordering them to bring back fresh meat to feed Maurice’s cannibalistic tendencies. Otto wants his sister’s protection, especially after all the other children died, but they might still be close to Otto, perhaps looking out at him through the dolls that fill the place.

It is easy to think of Guillermo Del Toro’s work as this story shows the contrast between the fantasy world and a real world ravaged by war, but Agrumbau’s story is less fantasy and more horror, as it deals with child death and cannibalism. Tumburus’s artwork even plays with this dichotomy of childlike wonder and horror in his artwork. The children are wide-eyed (when they have eyes) and cherubic and seem to reference the artwork of many popular children’s books. What this ultimately means for young Otto is that the world that exists outside his is not one of bright, safe fantasy. There is no respite, either in this world or the next, for the ravages of war and the horrors born of the human condition. Readers who are fans of Del Toro’s movies will love this particular graphic novel, as well as readers who know childhood always has a dark side.