Jessie Robertson reviews Wytches #1…
Across the globe, century after century, men and women were burned, drowned, hanged, tortured, imprisoned, persecuted, and murdered for witchcraft. None of them were witches. They died protecting a terrible and hidden truth: witches, real witches, are out there. They are ancient, elusive, and deadly creatures that are rarely seen and even more rarely survived.
Just in time for Halloween, Image has teamed up with Batman writer extraordinaire Scott Snyder to bring us a book teemed with childhood memories of hunting for witches in the woods with his friend. When you open your book and see a dictionary definition of a witch inside the front cover, then on the next page, you see it scratched out, that will give you indication this is not the normal witch tale; there is no black cat, green pimply noses or broomstick rides.
The story revolves around a young girl named Sail and her family just moving to a new town, in fact the same town that our opening scene takes place in where a young boy, after hearing his mother’s cries of terror as she’s locked inside a tree trunk, bashes her skull in with a rock. It’s Sail’s first day of school and her dad tries to comfort her with stories of hunting down mythical creatures but it doesn’t seem to be working. Sail has a past that precedes her and it seems all the kids will know about it, if they don’t already.
We don’t have to wait long to find out exactly what the mystery behind Sail is; I won’t spoil it but it involves the act of “pledging.” The Wytches in this book are ancient creatures that live in or around trees in dark forests. If you want someone gone, all you need to do is pledge them and they will be these monsters next meal. Sail inadvertently pledges a terrible girl who was trying to make her do unspeakable things and it seems she’s been locked into some sort of curse, or agreement with these creatures.
Jock, who was worked with Snyder in some Batman books, defines the uneasiness of this book by providing sharp lines to all his characters and backgrounds that give you a that record scratching noise in your ears as you read. The dark ink could almost appear as blood on any page, the dark and thickness of it permeates through the book’s murky atmosphere. It’s really stand out and adds a ton of style to this story. These two complement each other well.
I’m definitely in for this series as we get all the information we need here and we’re left with enough strange occurrences to keep on the terrifying trail of where this story leads, plus the artwork is exceptional for this type of narrative.
Jessie Robertson
Originally published October 10, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
