Conveying a palpable feeling of horror in a graphic novel is not easy. You obviously don’t have the advantages of other mediums such as film where you can use music and special effects to set the mood, or in a novel where the author can use unlimited descriptive prose. That makes Sight Unseen from Image Comics all the more remarkable because a truly terrifying story is exactly what writer Robert Tinnell and artist Bo Hampton deliver in this hard cover graphic novel.
Frank Byron is a brilliant neuro-physicist and expert in bio-optics…he also happens to be blind. Frank and his research assistant Derek Cook and invented a unique pair of eyeglasses that allow Frank to see the dead, or more precisely the spirits of the dead. Frank’s work is purely experimental until his friend Crawford decides to sell the old, decrepit family estate known as “The Birches”. The trouble begins when a contractor inspecting the property disappears without a trace. We get to bear witness to the horror the contractor endures with the evil spirits that reside within the house. Hampton’s eerie, skin-crawling art sends immediate shivers down the spine.
Frank and Derek begin to investigate the home, along with Franks estranged, and ever PO’ed daughter Molly. Crawford is obviously hiding something when questioned by Frank and soon more disappearances lead them into the sordid history of Crawford’s family and of the Birches.
“Sight Unseen” is one of the few graphic horror novels that really succeeds in terrifying the reader. It does so by the deliberate pacing of the story and the gloomy art of Hampton. He manages to evoke images similar to recent Japanese horror films such as Ringu and Ju-On with a spectral villain every bit as evil and horrific as in those films.
The story is complemented by a feature on the creation of the book and comments by the creators. Sight Unseen is a book well deserving of the all the critical acclaim that it has been receiving and I give it my highest recommendation.
– Tim Janson
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
