THE BROODING MUSE #1, from Cherry Bomb Comics on 10/19/22, delivers four chapters of horror and suspense to prepare you for a long, dark journey into madness.
The Details
- Written by: Jack Slattery, Patrick James, Art Pencil
- Art by: Nik Poliwko, Earl Geier, Hernan Gonzalez, Cartoon Studios, Raphael De Oliveira, Patrick James, Jennifer Bentzel
- Cover art by: Nik Poliwko
- Comic Rating: Mature
- Cover price: $5.95
- Release date: October 19, 2022
Is It Good?
THE BROODING MUSE #1 has potential. We’re fans of all things horror (naturally), so anytime a small indie publisher wants to dip their bloody toe into the horror comic field, we encourage the endeavor wholeheartedly. Therefore, the writing execution is lacking in THE BROODING MUSE #1, but enough ideas are prevalent to give it a go.
The anthology tells four short stories that act as primarily first chapters for ongoing tales. Some connect, and others stand alone. As a whole, the high point of the issue is the eclectic concepts are a combination of ideas that don’t look like any standard horror story, so this issue brims with creative imagination.
Where the anthology falls short (minor in some cases, and major in others) is in the writing execution. Almost nothing is set up, so the issue presents as story concepts that didn’t have enough page space to get a complete idea across to the reader. It’s not all bad, and a quick peek at future issues shows significant improvement, but new readers may find this first issue a rough read in spots.
On the positive side, the art is great. Here, you get a mix of styles from different artists to breathe life into each story, and none of the shorts are lacking in art quality.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
As with all our anthology reviews, we’ll touch on each short briefly and what worked or didn’t.
Kayla And The Castle Keep
Kayla and her companions (a talking set of fangs and a talking raven) investigate a massacred army when Kayla remembers the first days of an apocalyptic event that set the cities ablaze and brought forth waves of monsters.
According to the preface page, Kayla’s adventure is the connective tissue that holds future issues together. That’s a good thing since this short throws a lot of information and developments at you without much setup, so you’ll feel like you’re constantly playing catch-up. The concept is highly intriguing, and you want to know more about Kayla and what she’s gone through, but as it stands, this first introduction may be more confusing than intended.
Witness At Wet Rock Dig Up
Aman is held at gunpoint as he’s forced to dig up the remains of his supernaturally murderous twin sister before he’s buried alive in her place. When the still-grieving man who lost his family readies for his ultimate revenge, he will learn that an elaborate plot was a big mistake.
The lack of setup ensures it takes a few pages to get your footing in this story centering on a brother about to pay the price for his murderous witch of a sister. Hernan Gonzalez’s art is creepy in all the right ways, and you get the gist of what’s happening eventually, but the path to clarity is a clumsy one.
Complacent Victims
A podcasting conspiracy theorist offers an explanation as to how the ordinary victims of a disaster often know about their impending doom through signs, the Moth Man, dreams, and more.
In all honesty, we have no idea what’s happening in this one-page short. There’s an idea here struggling to present itself, but the lack of space or coherence turns into a snippet of a monologue without a beginning, end, or point.
The Powered: Damnation Waltz
Several groups of skywatchers prepare themselves to witness a scheduled meteor shower certain to light up the night sky. Unfortunately, the meteors don’t look like you would expect, and their movements are anything but ordinary.
Set as the prologue in an ongoing story, this short has interesting potential. Falling meteors that appear to intentionally chase down and crash into people is a sure path to creating monsters, superheroes, or both. There isn’t enough story here to tell you which way this story is headed, but you’ll want to know more.
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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THE BROODING MUSE #1 is a promising horror magazine with interesting concepts and oodles of imagination. Better still, the art is fantastic on average. However, most of the shorts lack setup or efficient use of page space, so you’re going to have to put in some effort to extract entertainment value.
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