Graphic Content: Let Me Out by Emmit Nahil and George Williams

 

Some of you might be too young to remember the Satanic Panic, even if you are living through a rebranding of it as drag show banning and “parental choice.” Anything that seemed to deviate from traditional Christian values was branded as “Satanic.” Everything from Dungeons and Dragons to He-Man was labeled as being an instrument of the Dark Lord that would bring more wayward souls under his sway and thus destroy Western civilization. What was really going on is that it was used to stigmatize anyone the religious right saw as different, including those in the LGBTQ community. That is the horror, other than the actual demon, that is behind the story in Let Me Out, from writer Emmit Nahil and illustrator George Williams. (spoilers ahead!)

It’s 1979 and the devil is loose in the New Jersey suburbs, at least that’s what FBI agent Garrett and New Jersey Sheriff Mullen want you to believe. When a pastor’s wife is discovered brutally murdered, the two men concoct a story involving ritual sacrifice that covers up their involvement in the crime and of an overarching conspiracy. They’ve even found four scapegoats (Terri, Mitch, Lupe, and Jackson) that are considered outcasts. These four friends are soon running for their lives, but they soon get help from an unlikely source. All it might cost them is their souls.

George Williams’s illustrations don’t denote a gritty realism that most associate with horror comics, but his characters are always expressive and his depictions of violence are quite visceral. He also makes sure to illustrate the various ‘70s styles and anachronisms, like tape recorders and chain smoking in public offices, that immerses the reader in that decade. When the demon finally appears, the more cartoony art style takes away some of its sharper edges. It’s a demon but it’s actually a demon readers can root for.

That fact is also helped along by Nahil’s story which focuses on the teens caught up in this conspiracy. They come from different walks of life, whether it’s being the children of immigrants or being LGBTQ. The dialogue and interactions between this group is endearing in that they always stand up for each other and will carry them after they literally get beat down. When the demon finally makes its move, he almost becomes like a fifth member.

My only issue with the story is its ending and how abrupt it is. It seemed like there could have been more closure, but it might also be Nahil’s point. Perhaps even the devil himself is unable to completely save those LGBTQ kids who are encountering prejudice and violence in the past and in the present.

Recommended for patrons who love horror, LGBTQ stories, and the devil (or stories about the devil).

 

New Arrival: Everything the Darkness Eats by Eric LaRocca

 

Eric LaRocca is an author that diehard horror fans have recently discovered. He has written such unnerving works as Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood. LaRocca has recently spread his light-absorbing wings, creating his first novel length work called Everything the Darkness Eats, a work that threatens to put all of us under its oppressive shadow.

That shadow rises from the depths of Henley’s Edge, a small Connecticut town, with anger and bigotry boiling beneath its veneer of Americana. This is where eccentric older gentleman Heart Crowley drives around in his Rolls Royce looking for victims to help with his occult rituals. Another local from Henley’s Edge is Ghost, a young man reeling from personal loss and a little spirit that feeds off his misery. The two men meet just as police officer Malik tries to solve the town’s rash of disappearances and Crowley’s dark deeds start to come to fruition. Malik might be in over his head because what Crowley has in his basement could destroy Henley’s Edge and the universe that exists beyond it.

Those who’ve seen John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness might find a lot of things similar in Henley’s Edge, particularly the cosmic horror brewing underneath. Ghost and Heart are delightfully and expectedly weird, but the real terrors come with officer Malik and his husband bearing the brunt of the town’s simmering prejudice, first as scare tactics and then slowly but surely upping the brutality, culminating in an assault that will leave readers gasping. LaRocca’s story is a blend of otherworldly horrors and all-too-familiar ones, particularly if one watches current events. Overall, this story feels like a collaboration between Stephen King and Clive Barker if they were 30 years younger, but it still has all the bloody flourishes that marks it as straight from the brain of Eric LaRocca.