Proctor Valley Road #4
The girls learn more about the threat of the Landlady in Proctor Valley Road #4, by writers Alex Child and Grant Morrison, artist Naomi Franquiz, colorist Tamra Bonvillain, and letterer Jim Campbell. This penultimate issue of the book sets everything up for the finale, getting things ready for the inevitable end.
This issue sees girls reacting to the events of the last issue and seeing the extent to which the Landlady is messing with them- August and Cora see visions of themselves dead, Jennie and Rylee curdle milk just by saying her name, and they all have nightmares. They meet up at a diner and discuss what to do next when they meet up with Jennie's brother Mikey, who tells them the principal is in the asylum. They go to visit and get nothing from him but meet up with two women with the Landlady's name carved on their arm and an Ouija board. They trade them Cora's Chuck Taylor's and try to find a place to use it. Rylee gives them mints… but it's not really Rylee but the Landlady possessing her. She tells them they aren't mints but cyanide capsules from her grandmother's WWII stuff. They make their way to the Haven Bakery, which is reportedly haunted, and use the Ouija board. The dead owner's spirit can't find Bobby or Bruce, and then everything bursts into flames. Cora, possessed by the Landlady, looks them in, but they are saved by Chayton, a Native American teen who takes them to his grandmother, who gives them the info they need. Afterward, the stress of the situation erupts, and the group is sundered.
Child and Morrison are creating a fascinating world in this book. This book gives readers little glimpses into past events. Perhaps involving the Landlady- the two sisters at the asylum make reference to something happening in 1962, the Haven Bakery thing can also possibly be attributed to her. Chayton's grandmother's revelations all hint at a wider world revolving around the Landlady and Proctor Valley. It could be just extra set dressing, or it could be set up for prequels, but regardless, it makes things seem a lot more interesting. It's world-building done subtly and intriguingly.
Beyond that, this is a fairly standard penultimate issue- it sets up a lot of pieces for what's coming next, expands the threat of the Landlady, showing how easily she can take control of any of the girls and manipulate them, and breaks the group apart. Nothing too revolutionary, yet it's all very well done.
Franquiz's art is more of the same. She's a great character artist, and her expressive pencils really sell the feeling of each panel. The highlight of the book's art is the scene in the bakery, with the spectral baker and the fire. There's a big panel that's a shot from above of the girls looking down at the floor where there are ghostly apparitions of themselves surrounded by large intestine that's just an excellent image and worth the price of admission alone.
Proctor Valley Road #4 is both intriguing and standard penultimate issue fare. It does all the heavy lifting it needs to and sets things up well. Morrison and Child do a great job of building a world around the story, and Franquiz's art is perfect for this story, even if it doesn't seem like it at first glance. Proctor Valley Road is the fun summer horror movie that everyone needs after the "joys" of the last years.
