Comic Review: The Me You Love In The Dark #3

Image Comics

Writer: Scottie Young

Art: Jorge Corona

Colors: Jean-Francois Beaulieu

Letters: Nate Piekos (of Blambot)

The Me You Love In The Dark #3 turns every ghost story on their heads. It looks like the shadowy monster our painter friend, Ro, has fallen in love with is a supportive partner. What started as a horror story about an artist in a haunted has turned–fittingly–into a love story.

Issue #3 picks up in what looks to be a honeymoon phase of a relationship. Everything is beautiful. Ro and her unconventional partner can’t seem to keep their hands off each other. They stay up late watching movies like About Time and Love Actually. It’s all rather sweet. And, despite the description, Ro’s painting seems to be coming along as well. This isn’t to say there isn’t sadness as well. This issue deals a lot with Ro’s existential nature–why she decided to become an artist at the expense of having a family. While it is true that artists often choose not to have families, I think this narrative is an unhelpful cliche. Perpetuating the idea that to be an artist simultaneously means you cannot have close personal and familial bonds is a myth of great proportions. Similar to ghosts and monsters in haunted houses.

Despite this irksome cliché of art, this comic is beautiful. The whole thing is atmospheric in its autumnal and winter colors. The character design is defined while still impressionistic, which lets readers fill in the rest with imagination. Something very clever is happening here with this shadowy monster with sharp teeth and many eyes. Even though it’s a comic, I feel as though I’m constantly trying to see the thing, but can’t due to its intangible darkness. From time to time there is a glimpse, hands and arms, a torso, but never a face. It leaves so much to the reader, it feels like the artists of this comic trust us to help tell the story. I love that.

Similar to the beautiful art in the piece, the lettering is equally impressive. It’s rare for character speech balloons and captions to really embody a character’s essence as well as voice. However, Nate Piekos has done it here. From the very first caption/speech balloon attributed to this dark monster, you know it is otherworldly, strange, old–perhaps even timeless. The words it speaks blend in with the panel, as though they reverberate into being rather than formed by lips and mouth. Overall, this is a great and artistic love story that I look forward to every issue.