DEAD BY DAYLIGHT #2, from Titan Comics on 7/26/23, begins the destructive downward spiral of four friends eager to escape their painful lives and boring town.
The Details
- Written by: Nadia Shammas
- Art by: Dillon Snook
- Colors by: Emilio Lecce
- Letters by: AndWorld Design’s JAME
- Cover art by: Alison Sampson (cover A)
- Comic Rating: Mature
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: July 26, 2023
Is It Good?
There’s an old saying that goes like this – Idle Hands Are The Devil’s Workshop. In DEAD BY DAYLIGHT #2, the prequel series to the video game of the same name, Nadia Shammas shows why that saying is so true and so dangerous.
When last we left, Julie, Frank, Joey, and Susie, embarked on a night of vandalism and general mayhem, shocking the sleepy town of Ormond with whispers and concern. Spurred on by the wild rush from getting away with their petty crimes, Julie and Frank grow closer as kindred spirits and hatch a plan to turn a one-off event into an urban legend.
What’s great about this comic? Shammas nails the oppressive atmosphere of malaise, primarily through Julie as the perfect teenager pressured to keep up appearances. Privately, Julie is suffocating in a boring town with boring parents and a boring school. Shammas perfectly sets the stage for a group of disaffected teens to commit unsavory acts simply for the thrill of feeling something… anything.
What’s not so great about this comic? The art’s rough. Underground, handmade, put together by a couple of college kids on the weekend rough. In fairness, Dillon Snook delivers solid panel layouts, and his sense of proportion is generally good, but the inks aren’t remotely close to clean, and the shadows look like they were hastily scribbled in with a Sharpie. You could argue the rough style gives the horror a grimy aesthetic, but there are some panels and even a few pages where the art looks like a middle school sketch, and it rips you right out of the story. When a horror story looks too clean, you lose the edge. When it’s too dirty, it’s just plain sloppy.
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What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
Check out our DEAD BY DAYLIGHT #1 review to find out how Frank and Julie found each other.
We begin with Julie waking up after a surreal dream involving her and Frank killing people during a night of romance. She heads to school with Susie to talk about how much fun they had during their night of vandalism, and Julie eggs Susie to be open for more. When the girls reach school, Frank convinces Julie to skip, but Susie stays behind to deal with a critical math test.
Later, Frank and Julie hang out at an abandoned lodge where they talk about their past hurts and the traumas that drove them. Frank and Julie meet up with Joey and Susie after school to rent gory horror movies and talk about their next adventure.
We conclude the issue with interruptions, talk of legacy, and masks.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
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DEAD BY DAYLIGHT #2 captures the dangerously disturbing atmosphere of four teens who desperately want to feel something other than boredom and helplessness, sending them hurtling down a path of destruction. Shammas’s character- and world-building are outstanding, but the art is disappointingly weak.
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