Coffin Hill Volume One: Forest of the Night

Coffin Hill Volume One: Forest of the Night

Issues #1-7

Publisher: DC Comics through Vertigo

Story: Caitlin Kittredge

Art: Inaki Miranda

Rated: M/Mature

Genre: Horror

Price: $9.99

This is the beginning of an exciting horror story told in a non-linear fashion. Past events are interspersed with the present day to draw parallels between the stories, and to offer clarification as to what exactly is going on.

The reader is introduced to the story of Eve Coffin, a broken, hero cop that goes home to see that while some things change, many more stay the same. Sins of the past, some hers and some from much farther back in the family line can never really be left behind, and she sets out to finally do something about it.

The town of Coffin Hill is permeated by evil, twisting some of the inhabitants to do horrible things. Through these issues we see several examples of this, and if this is only a sampling it's clear that things are going to get much worse. Eve does her best to help solve an ongoing investigation, using knowledge from her childhood to shed light on some of the ritualistic things happening around town. In doing so she is confronted with an evil that she appears to be responsible for. It is revealed that there are worse things lurking in the Coffin Hill woods than Eve is aware.

There's a bit of a cliffhanger near the end, leaving Eve's condition and official standing up in the air, and then we're treated to a flashback set earlier than any of the previous ones. The message there seems to be that these are events that have been years and years in the making, and the reader can expect everything to come to a boil very soon.

Conclusion: This was a great introduction to a new story and its characters. The dialogue and scenes as written by Caitlin Kittredge feel natural and the story doesn't get too wordy, finding just the right balance of detail and forward movement. The Inaki Miranda's artwork sets the mood for each scene by using light and shadows to build and relieve tension. The scenes inside the woods especially feel claustrophobic and constricting, just as I imagine those haunted woods would feel.

Rating: 7.5/10