Author: Chris Shehan, Daniel Kraus, Jason Wordie, Jim Campbell
First Published: September 21, 2021
Publisher: Vault Comics
Pages: 232
Genre: Horror, Supernatural
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
Her estranged mother's death brings Kat Somerville back to Comfort Notch, New Hampshire, a home town she can barely remember. As she and her daughter Sybil try to settle into a new life, Kat discovers that sometimes home is best forgotten.
WELCOME TO COMFORT NOTCH! HOME OF AMERICA'S PRETTIEST AUTUMN. YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO LEAVE.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
The Autumnal is a wild card of a graphic novel. It was an easy graphic novel to finish in a single sitting, it was genuinely creepy a few times and I was never bored at any point and I had a hard time putting it down, yet, I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would.
The Autumnal tells the story of a single mother named Kat that finds herself moving back to her hometown after receiving a surprise inheritance. I liked Kat and could relate to her struggle as a single mother down on her luck. I could relate to Kat a lot and appreciated that the difficulty of single motherhood was explored. Even better was that Kat as a character had more to her than merely being a mother which was a nice change of pace for a story about motherhood.
The same unfortunately could not be said about Kat’s daughter, Sybil, and I think that was the real crux of my issue with this graphic novel. The story might have been more effective if I cared at all about Sybil. Her character was a generic hyper child commonly seen in western media without any personality features that make her an engaging character. I only cared about Sybil because Kat cares about Sybil, which makes the emotional investment into this character a weak one. It is a damn shame too because there were a few great characters in the story, so why the same time was not invested in Sybil baffles me.
Despite that, I was absolutely in love with the setting! Autumn is my favorite season and the brilliant illustrations of the trees were wonderful to look at, the art is what attracted me to the graphic novel in the first place. Beyond that this was a pretty standard folk horror story complete with an uncomfortably pleasant small town. There was only one scene that I really didn’t care for near the end, regarding Kat’s doubts, that I felt weren’t fitting for her character and felt like it was a perfunctory inclusion for the sake of “character development.” Not much new ground is tread here but I enjoyed the ending, even got a chuckle out of it. Overall a strong effort that could have been magnificent if Sybil had been written better.
Quote
“You stupid woman! You know nothing! Nothing about protecting a child!”
Content Warnings
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