Comic Review: Afterschool #1

Publisher: Image Comics / Skybound

Writers: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

Artists: Greg Hinkle & Giovanna Niro

Letterer: Pat Brosseau

Children and teenagers vary in roles when it comes to horror. They aren’t the most rational people so they are often unpredictable. This lends itself well to horror. Criticizing teenagers doing dumb things in horror is fun to do.  At the same time, we can remember what we were like as teenagers, so its easy to understand all of the dumb decisions we made. That connection is what makes them so compelling in horror.

In Afterschool #1, a young student struggles to find her place. She likes video games and she doesn’t feel like she is good at anything. When her parents bring home a dog, her confidence skyrockets, and she is suddenly excelling in everything. Unfortunately, her parents didn’t just bring home an ordinary dog. 

Writers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s use of a teenager and a dog makes the characters easy to connect to in this issue. Everyone who has a dog understands what you would do for that companion. They understand more what their dog does for them. When things go south for the protagonist, the rational thing to do would be scream or run. Benson and Moorhead’s characters aren’t rational, and that’s what is believable here. It’s even more believable that a teenager who has just recently found success and confidence wouldn’t want to give that up. 

The story itself utilizes tons of body horror and gore mixed with some science fiction. The gore, drawn by Greg Hinkle and colored by Giovanna Niro, is repulsive to look at. Anyone who has seen The Thing will have a good idea in the mind what to expect. Hinkle’s panels are full of detail, especially when it comes to the grotesque. Backgrounds are full of detail giving the reader plenty to look at. The panels are laid out in some creative ways, giving a better visual of what is happening on the pages. 

Giovanna Niro’s colors set the atmosphere throughout the entire book. Impressive shading in just about every panel brings Hinkle’s art to life. The dog’s coloring stands out throughout the issue, because at a glance it looks normal, but the colors have a slight glow that makes it appear off somehow. If this was intentional, it’s an impressive use of color and it enhances the story.

Pat Brosseau’s letters are mostly standard throughout this issue, with a font choice that suits the narrative. Towards the end Brosseau gets creative with the antagonist’s voice, adding personality to the spooky character. There is also a funny moment where characters are yelling in a car, with some fun lettering to make the moment special (and frantic).

This is an entertaining read throughout, but the sequential art gets a little confusing towards the end. The creative team puts a little too much on the reader when it comes to filling the gaps between panels, making this a harder comic to just read. This isn’t a problem through the rest of the story though, making this a nice horror read.

Afterschool is an anthology series, so we likely won’t see much more of these characters. Still, the creative team managed to successfully tell a compelling short story that’s excellent for fans of body horror.