He’s dead. They don’t know him. They only know he’s dead. It was just going to be a break-in. Now it’s turned into manslaughter. And they’re on the run in a rural winter looking for peace that can only come in the dead of night in the cold of winter in the third issue of The Silver Coin. Writer Ed Brisson tells a story of murder, fire, and snow that is brought to the page by Michael Walsh with color assistance by Toni Marie Griffin. The third story in the anthology is called “Death Rattle.” There’s pleasantly minimalist darkness that Brisson has extended to Walsh and Griffin. They have tactfully placed minimalism on the page with respect for the radiance of fire in the midst of falling snow.

It’s December 18th, 1986. The snow is piling up outside. Vic, Bobby, and Lisa have broken into an old firefighter’s home. He had a heart attack while they were starting to tie him up. Lisa’s spooked about the whole situation. Maybe it has something to do with nerves. Maybe it has something to do with the dead. Maybe it has something to do with that goddamned coin that she’s been carrying around. They burn down the firefighter’s home, but they’re on the run from the police in the rural American winter as the snow falls in the night. Accidents happen at night amidst the falling snow...

Walsh paces the horror quite well. The sudden jolt of the dead man on the first page rests beneath the thin establishing shot of his home. From there, it’s a graceful descent into the darkness of winter. There’s nothing new in the story, but there doesn’t have to be. Walsh has found the right combination of elements for a solidly engrossing bit of horror that tells exactly as much story as it needs to deliver in order to move the panels from one cover to the other. It’s a delicate horror that cleverly plays with a few simple moments of stark horror.

Walsh and Griffin know full well that a story told in the dead of night in the dead of winter doesn’t need to be distracted by too many details. Everything’s a bit blurry in the shadow and the falling snow. The contrast between fire and snow is beautiful enough. No need to amplify it too much or throw any more detail into the panel than the story needs. This is not to say that there aren’t some cleverly-placed details that add to the atmosphere. The delicate fog of condensation as Lisa, Vic, and Bobby breathe in the cold night air. That’s a nice touch. 

A simple, well-told story manages what so many others don’t. Dialogue is kept to a minimum. There’s just enough there to carry the narrative. Everything seems in balance, but it’s not exactly the type of story that’s going to rest prominently in memory into the distant future. Like so many other moments with The Silver Coin thus far, the third issue is likely to lurk in the periphery of memory like some semi-forgotten nightmare. Unless there’s some kind of overarching theme that will come along and tie all the disparate tales of the anthology together in the coming months. 

Grade: B