#Spooktober ‘Where Monsters Lie’ Volume 1 by Kyle Starks, Piotr Kowalski , Vladimir Popov and Joshua Reed

About the book…

Haven’t you always wondered what slasher monsters—the masked home invasion family, the mindless unkillable monster, the serial killer trapped in a doll—what they do for those couple of years in-between their murder sprees?

They’re at Wilmhurst—a gated community in the middle of nowhere where they relax—or try to—until they get the call to go out and kill again.

Connor Hayes survived his first slasher in summer camp. A handful of years later he barely escaped a psychopath who built torture puzzles for his victims. Since then he’s been training and planning for running into these creatures again. He’s a respected special agent, and now he knows where the monsters lie and he’s planning for war.

‘Where Monsters Lie’ was published by Dark Horse Comics in time for Halloween, and this edition collects issues 1-4 and has the added bonus of character origin sketches at the back .

I cannot remember who recommended it to me, but it’s absolutely brilliant, From the design of the characters to the colours used to make it sepia toned and subtle, it contrasts so beautifully with the copious amounts of blood shed.

It’s a slasher movie in comic book form, as gated community Wilmhurst guards its’ inhabitants against the outside world, whilst providing respite from the rigours of killing.

Run by the inimitable Zel, even here, there are rules to abide by-for example there cannot be two shapes in the same vicinity-and each resident has to prove themselves.

It takes the idea of family, and what community and togetherness means and both strengthens and subverts that trope by creating a troupe of monsters who bicker, fight, garden even, and lose their killing groove in relative peace.

Until internal and external worlds collide in the form of a final boy, who survived a massacre by Wilmhurst’s only allowed shape, Daniel Dawson, and the actions of a killer who feels that Wilmhurst contains him, rather than keeping him safe.

It’s a gated community, but gates can be opened, or even smashed down, right?

As the killers begging to fight back and plan to flee, there is a brilliant argument to be made for humanity’s acceptance of all its flavours-if victims are allowed to exist, then therefore aren’t killers also?

Funny as all hell, it is enjoyable , thoughtful prose, that is supported by the illustrations which make it clear who is meant to represent whom- such as Richard the killer clown, and John Wayne Gacy.

They are all a family of sorts, and given space, one even gets tired of murder and turns to horticulture which terrifies the others.

Witty, clever and most of all, fun, this sets up a series which I hope will run and run!

About the writers and artists…

Kyle Starks is the Eisner nominated creator of Sexcastle which was recently optioned to be made into a major motion picture. Whoa! He’s also written a bunch of other great stuff like Rick and Morty and Invader Zim and is generally recognized as a pretty good, laugh making, funny boy. His new book, Rock Candy Mountain, is going to be a real hoot. Yeah I said “hoot.” He hails from Southern Indiana where he is married to the most wonderful woman and lucky father of the most fantastic little girls. He is an alright dude. Supposedly.

Link-https://www.kylestarks.com/

Twitter @TheKyleStarks

Piotr Kowalski is a comic book writer and Artist from Poland. Some of his work includes Robocop, Gail, Marvel Knights: Hulk, Dark Tower and Whatif? Age of Ultron. He currently is the Artist and co-creator of the critically acclaimed series Sex with Joe Casey.

Twitter @KowalskiPiotr

Vladimir Popov is a Serbian author who has worked in the field of commercial illustration and sequential storytelling for prominent publishers in the USA.

From 2013 to the present, he participated in collective exhibitions at various comic book festivals across the Balkans region.

He is also a member of USUS- Comic Book Artists Association of Serbia since 2012.

Currently writing his thesis and dissertation on Ph. D. studies of transdisciplinary contemporary arts and media at Faculty of Media and Culture in Belgrade, Serbia.

Before stepping into the field of commercial art, illustration, and freelancing, he worked as a web designer and ISP network administrator between 2006-2009.

Twitter @VPopov_Artworks

Dark Horse Comics can be found on Twitter @DarkHorseComics ,I could not find much about letterer Josh Reed , so if anyone could help out please to acknowledge his excellent work in this volume, I would be very grateful!