GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: Wytches, Vol. 1

FEAR THE UNKNOWN

Scott Snyder proves his “dark” mastery of the mysterious, suspense and head-turning plot-twist in his recent concluded independent series – Wytches. He showcased his love of the macabre and non-linear story approach in American Vampire and right now, the New 52 Batman series. Generally, his entire opus is well-received by both critics and comic book readers alike. Wytches makes no exception here. Originally intended as a limited run (up to six issues), Wytches later received good reviews and commercial success that prompted Snyder and co-creator Jock to work out another story arc or second volume, as he explicitly mentioned in its afterword in Wytches #6. Therefore he wants to fulfill the PLEDGE he promised with fans and readers (in addition of having this series in cinematic developments last year. Please make that happen!). Image Comics soon unleashes the premier arc, consisting issues #1-6, with some additional features like some of Jock’s art and Snyder’s thoughts.

Wytches is based on some of Snyder’s experiences as a child up to his fatherhood, as what he shared at the end of each issue. Overall, he wanted to put a big twist on the concept of witches. Historically, these women are often associated with sorcery, witchcrafts, occults, and more horrifying, Satanism. Mostly ostracized, persecuted, feared, stereotyped and shunned by the societies at large most of our histories due to the labels and stereotypes we have with them. The only good types I read about them are found in Archie Comics (Sabrina and her strict aunties) and the Bayonetta video game series.

But in Snyder’s noir and supernatural mind, these malevolent forces are neither women nor Satanic; but hideous, living creatures in forests and feeding on human flesh! Yet, the main focus of the story is the family Root and the rural community that has a history of “pledging” with the wytches. Chapter after chapter, readers can notice the shift of focus from one family member to another, particularly the father and daughter, Sailor, relationship. The ambiguity and apathy of the villagers, especially the town’s policeman, to the family’s plight and struggle, particularly when the story geared to the fourth part, are portrayed accurately by Jock’s jarring and moody atmospheric settings. As what we encounter until the very end, it is the old-aged tradition of “give-and-take” relationship between the community and the creatures. This very concept reminds me of a story made by Budjette Tan and Kajo’s Trese where the lighting deity made a great offer to a modern community in exchange of a human sacrifice every year. Here, the term “pledge” was dominant in the last part, and everything came to make sense that the desperate literally made desperate measures in exchange of a better and quiet life.

The writer looked further the dynamism between the father and daughter, the family and the village. The tensions mounted by the patriarch to his daughter and vice-versa are almost real-like, not some soap-opera template that usually read in many stories nowadays. Anger, frustrations, dismays, aspirations, hopes and being responsible are felt in virtually every dialogue and balloon thoughts Snyder wrote, making Wytches a “dark” family tale without too much gore and mayhem that some of his works like Batman and American Vampire displayed.

Jock’s visceral, moody, jarring, atmospheric and twisted illustrations are the great ingredients for a Scott Snyder’s tale of deception, mystery and destruction. Despite the odd-angular anatomical portrayals of every character in Wytches, the facial expressions and the sequential perspectives are still not being “pledged”…err sacrificed. Just look what he did when he first collaborated with Scott in Batman: Black Mirror. Sometimes, looking the panels for the first time seemed to be confusing, but this series should be read again to grasp the connectivity of the characters and the drama and action Jock visualized that matches Snyder’s “dark” familial and supernatural storytelling. The creepiness of the creatures highlighted in the fifth and sixth chapters are actually a sort of homage to other scary out-of-this-world, fictional-Lovecraft-inspired monsters that already visualized by horror artists in the 1950s and the 1970s (even in the Philippines setting though I personally believed ours are a bit scarier in the horror “komiks” in illustrating the unknown and the realms beyond the “real” world). Nonetheless, Jock captured the essence of fear and suspense while the mystery unraveled and the answers became clearer as the story slowly progressed.

Indeed, Jock’s art is something in its esoteric best. Even though the fact that it is minimal at best, the illustrations were something for the sophisticated and the readers of the horror and suspense genres. The colors are admirable but again, the inconsistency of balancing the primary and secondary colors to give the readers the atmospheric feel of suspense, as exemplified in familial tensions and the interchanging scenes of happiness and despair in typical Snyder non-linear storytelling. At some moments, these are a bit bewildering if trying to comprehend the whole thing in one reading (again, multiple reading is necessary). And, I hope Image comics could have added some of the most interesting letters the fans and readers send in its trade paperback and/or deluxe editions, but I respect its prior mandate of showcasing the story over peripherals. But regardless, Wytches proved of both Snyder and Jock’s collaborative team-up in weaving an intriguing tale of tradition, family, the supernatural, the horror and the suspense with the great synchronization of the writer’s brand of dark visions and the artist’s illustrative creepiness.