Review by Ian Keogh
Curses is a collection of short stories by the always idiosyncratic and creatively restless George Wylesol. Although there’s no mention of it, a substantial portion of Curses is what was previously issued as Ghosts, Etc in 2017, yet the newer material feeds into the themes of the old. Horror is the prevailing genre, although in the form of alienation and being disconnected from one’s environment rather than shock and violence.
Wylesol is a one of a kind creator. Reading any single page of his stories would reveal a nonsensical world drawn in a very basic style, yet as part of a longer story it’s a descending sinkhole of disturbance. Distortions and abstractions occur in art no fussier than needed, although the style varies, so on ‘Ghosts’ it’s almost reduced to pictograms with staccato bursts of typeface beneath. It concerns someone wandering endless tunnels beneath a hospital.
New story ‘Open House’ takes a similar approach of showing ordinary objects labelled in four square panels at the bottom of the page, while the text at the top concerns unsettling personal comments about the previous owner of the house being shown. It’s as if an extraordinarily indiscreet estate agent is putting off prospective buyers.
The magnum opus here is ‘The Cursed Lover’ filling the final hundred pages. It’s deliberately disorienting yet magnificent for the sheer power of Wylesol’s imagination. Who else would come up with an idea of TV promoting the construction of a massive pillar in a remote area, yet concluding with the chilling promise that only one would live to see it. Lead character Ghoul watches and hopes it’ll be him. On the way to school he’s accosted by a vampiric looking individual determined to show him what’s beneath its coat. What he sees disturbs him. Perhaps not as much as readers will be troubled by the idea of a child spending a day at school, then doing a shift at the meat processing factory. Wylesol presents a bleak and demented form of existence, and before the end the apocalypse has occurred.
Continually unsettling, Wylesol pokes at paranoia within. Just what is you’re not grasping? Why isn’t this your comforting world? Where is everyone else? He drags you on journeys you don’t really want to finish, yet complete as if hypnotised. This is combined with experimentation with the visual form of comics. His is a unique voice to be cherished.
