The Eye Collector #1
It’s been a while since I’ve read anything this weird, and nothing has been quite like The Eye Collector. It’s a classic sci-fi alien encounter story, albeit one drenched in abstraction. The result is a document that feels like an astronaut’s corrupted SOS to Earth.
The horror resides in the discomfort of the story's visuals, as opposed to blood and gore. There are no slashers waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims, just a poltergeist-esque alien with an incomprehensible nature and the unlucky astronauts who’ve run afoul of this creature. In terms of style, the story is like a collage. The art feels out of sync with itself, adding to the story’s unease. As for the plot, it’s hard to tell what’s reality and what’s not. The colors are a sterile grayscale, with the occasional splash of sickly yellows and greens when the Eye Collector appears. Characters are rendered in an impressionist fashion, making them feel distant even when you’re in the cockpit with them. Unlike the astronauts, we have a clear and nauseating view of the creature and the disaster it’s likely to bring. As a reader, it feels like being the only one on the Titanic who knows about the iceberg.
The Eye Collector, assuming that is the entity’s name, doesn’t just break the fourth wall. It exists beyond it, addressing both the reader and the story’s characters with the same breath. This adds to the sense of dread throughout the story. An unknowable cosmic entity sounds Lovecraftian, but the book feels more like a David Lynch film, with a major focus on visuals and unsettling the reader.
All together, it leads to one conclusion: the mission has gone terribly wrong.
This is just the first chapter of this 12-issue series and a fantastic start to one of the most experimental comics of the year. Don’t just take my word for it: The Eye Collector has a Scott Snyder cosign. Add it to your pull list and help more weird books get made!
I've worked at Dr No's for just less than a year and I've been patronizing them for half my life. I like comics, video games, music and sometimes sports.
I’m a GSU graduate, veteran sandwich artist, and aspiring writer. Ask me about the X-Men or my anime car sometime.
I think all comics are good they're human expression, dreams put to a page through days, months and years of dedication. They're windows into other worlds, aspirations of all we can be, warnings of what we may become and everything in between. Above all I think comics can help us understand the things we often don't consider.
That's what I want these reviews to do, help folks understand maybe even appreciate something they haven't seen before, but yea lemme wrap this up I got books to file. Happy reading!
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