Wytches #1 – Review

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Scott Snyder and Jock reunite for a new horror title and it certainly delivers. Snyder is no stranger to the creepy and horrific after the highly successful American Vampire and Severed. Wytches #1 starts in 1909 in what looks like midwest America. We open with a Motherm bloody and battered, stuck in a tree, calling out for help. Within a few panels, Snyder and Jock have the already upped the creep factor. Something grabs the Mother from within the tree and we get our first encounter with a noise of which the readers are going to become very familiar. “CHHIT CHHIT CHHIT” is bloody terrifying when you see it strewn across several pages and I am curious to see how different people will interpret the sound as the series goes on.

We move forward to modern day where a Father is waiting at a bus stop with his nervous daughter who is due to start at her new High School. Sail Rook clearly has something in her past which she doesn’t want her new classmates finding out about and talks rather openly with Dad about it. The bond between them is very sweet, especially considering the horrific experiences which Sail has had to endure. We get barely three pages of Sail at school before one of the students confronts her about her past. It’s nothing vicious, just a true reflection of how most adolescents are when they want to know something gruesome and gossip-worthy. This leads us to our next flash back and pretty much the centrepiece of the book. We find out why Sail needed to move schools and why her parents are concerned about her. This section is equally sad and scary as Sail is confronted by a bully with no agenda other than inflicting maximum misery on Sail.

I don’t wish to give anymore away so all I will say is that this book sucked me straight in. Snyder’s pacing combined with Jock’s art is perfect for a story like this. I cannot wait for issue two.