Kill Your Darlings #1 - Image Comics

First (issue) Impressions

Writer: Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan

Artist: Robert Quinn

Letters: John J. Hill

Eight-year-old Rose loves nothing more than to play pretend in a magical land of her own creation. To her, that world is as real as our own, from her fluffy friends to the terrible evil that lurks at the centre of it all. In one night, the line between fantasy and reality will disappear, an ancient hunger will feed again, and Rose will be pulled into a gruesome saga that began centuries before her birth.

Thoughts……

This was a great read, the story pulls you in with what seems like quite an innocent setting seen through the eyes of Rose as she imagines heroic battles and fantastic kingdoms. This contrasts with the starting pages of a young girl being burnt at the stake centuries earlier as her parents look on. We learn that Rose lives with her mother and that life is far from perfect as the struggles of raising a child on her own are plain to see in the pages of this issue. Half way through the issue things take a sinister turn and everything is turned on its head for Rose and her “imaginary” kingdom.

The writing for the issue is done well and the character of Rose is easy to relate to as we see her want attention from her struggling mother yet caring mother. The art style is crisp and clear, with great detail but not over the top realism. There is a colour contrast between pages where Rose is in her own world and where she interacts with her mum, almost all the colour drains from the page when real life seeps into the issue.

I am definitely interested in seeing where this story goes as this issue sets up what could be a very engaging story with more than a few twists and turns along the way. I would give this a 7.5 out of 10