Exquisite Corpses Ashcan // Review
The basic format of an elimination competition makes for a really fun sort of a narrative format. It’s almost never executed very well outside the confines of an rofessibal sports, though Writer James Tynion IV makes a valiant attempt at setting-up a competition format in a brand new horror universe with Exquisite Corpses Ashcan. Artist Michael Walsh helps to set-up the series with colorist Jordie Bellaire. It’s a fusion of Tynion’s dark Department of Truth-style historical horror with something that feels a bit like Battle Royal/ Hunger games. It’s an interesting format the should prove entertaining if Tynion and company can execute on it.
The government doesn’t really control anything. It’s the money. The money has been in charge of everything for hundreds of years. 13 families from the 13 original colonies hold secret blood sort contests to determine who is going to be in charge of d erythema g for the next half decades. This time around, it’s a sleepy, little rural community called Oak Valley. It’s the location that’s been chosen for the arena this time around. Thirteen different killers from thirteen different states are all going to descend in the area for the one competition FanDuel doesn’t know about. It’s not going to be on ESPN. This…is the game of Exquisite Corpses.
Tynion has done a tremendous amount of work setting-up a rather large cast of characters for a series that looks to find those dark cornered of the MAmerican consciousness that lurk beneath a largely civilized exterior. The cast is diverse enough to suggest that there might be a fan favorite for everyone. The challenge is to find 13 different personalities that all feel distinct. Tynion seems to have done a good job judging from the profiles that form the second half of the ashcan
Walsh draws on traditional contemporary rural U.S. imagery to establish the look and feel of Oak Valley. The rural darkness clings to the page with a strong sense of dramatic intensity. It’sa gloomy, moody sort of a feel that settles-in on the page for the ashcan Bellaire graces the page with deliciously muted colors that occasionally give way to a shock of something altogether more powerful. The story is set in October, but there’s no explosion of color from the trees. The killers are coming to a town that seems to be swimming in its own wholesome, sleepy decay.
There are brackets at the end of the issue which suggest mini elimination competitions between three killers each…with two survivors advancing rot the next round…so there are some pairings that simply aren’t going to be able to happen, but it should be an interesting series to try to nail into a larger narrative that seeks to put together a world for an even bigger horror-based comic book universe. It’s an ambitious project that could prove to be something special if Tynion and company can balance the format of the series against the larger concerns of a big horror narrative.
