A tough week, and there were many good comics to read - some beginning and some ending. The one that stuck with me this week was Nectar #1 from Vault Comics.
An island village off Salem, Massachusetts, is inundated by a strange species of butterflies that spread the Dancing Plague and have a very particular taste in nectar...human blood. New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Robinson and Italian phenom artists Annapaola Martello & Francesco Francini horrify readers with a quaint village’s descent into madness.
Writer: Jeremy Robinson
Artists: Annapaola Martello and Francesco Francini
Colorist: Steve Canon
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Cover A: Chris Shehan
I was intrigued with the idea of this story when I first heard about it, and it didn’t disappoint. The thought of a simple butterfly being both the cause of something so bad, as well as the blood-sucking, is an interesting one.
I had heard of the dancing plague before, and the linking of the horror element with a real-life, historical moment is a clever idea, and this initial issue has some excellent build to the final pages.
The horror aspect is all the more because you could imagine those silent wings and not think anything about it. One butterfly causes a cut - can you imagine what a whole swarm will do? That is what is coming to this sleepy town!
The artwork and colouring do an excellent job of building the story, with a dark, dreary town, and the butterflies' splashes of orange add a dangerous kind of beauty.
As a horror, it is going to be a fight against nature, and will there truly be a victor in the story?
Honourable mentions:
Exploit #1 from Vault Comics
And
Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees #6 from IDW Publishing
Get it from Forbidden Planet:
