Review: At Last The Light
From Blue Fox Comics
Freshly fulfilled and available now from Blue Fox Comics, At Last, The Light is available in English, Modern Scots and Traditional Scots. A great idea for this horror story.
First, the combination of this horror tale in English and two additional versions in modern Scots and traditional Scots is an excellent one. Maybe I’m biased, as my wife is Scottish, but I do think it adds something extra to this excellent story.
Edinburgh, 1849. Eliza and her father look out to Inchkeith Lighthouse, worried as its light begins to fade. Eliza takes a rowboat and journeys out to the island to investigate, unaware she is about to be thrust into a Gothic horror mystery. Using her intelligence and wits, she must face the unknown, and lay the island’s secret to rest.
Written by Simon Birks / Art by Anna Wieszczyk / Letters by Rob Jones
As gothic horror goes, it isn’t my go-to genre, but I have been building my reading of these types of titles, mainly through Blue Fox Comics, to be honest. The only other titles I have read are Dracula and Frankenstein. This is something different.
It has a small cast, with Eliza being the main part of the story and the one leading the narrative of what is happening. Using this as a point, we see her and her father viewing the local lighthouse. The light has gone out and needs to be lit to warn passing ships of the treacherous rocks.
After this, Eliza ventures to the lighthouse to investigate - we get ghosts, disease and death.
There is a lot of tension in this story, with most of this early on as Eliza tries to find the lighthouse keeper. This keeper has secrets of his own to keep, and we learn what that is in a horrible way.
This involves some interesting backstories and flashbacks. These are well played out, and the method of their telling is excellent. It is in keeping with the story and the style of the story. Eliza has the right idea in this case, and her escape following this telling is fraught and frantic.
The pacing of the story works well, with it not being too slow and plodding, and there are some faster-paced aspects to enjoy. The story's ghost part is twofold, which is shown well.
I really enjoy the art. The story has an excellent colour pallette, with shades of blue and purple working well in the tone. Flows of yellow and orange pop perfectly for the part of the story being told.
This is an excellent ghost story for the darker nights and those who enjoy gothic horror.
The additional languages in this version are perfect for the story, it reminds me of when I read Trainspotting and getting my wife to read some of it out loud for me. I can’t do the Scottish accent, so having her read it allowed me to place it in my head. This is what you can do to this.
