Review by Ian Keogh

Dark Times A’Coming opens with an almost literary piece of writing on Cullen Bunn’s part concerning Kammi, twin sister to Harrow County protagonist Emmy Crawford, and what death and burial feels like for her. It’s a great piece of evocative horror with or without the accompanying illustrations.

Bunn then applies the accelerant as Emmy realises what her malign supernatural family are doing, and a strong start becomes fantastic horror. It hinges on Emmy not accepting what she’s meant to be and keeping her good nature despite temptation, and Bunn brilliantly fulfilling the expectations of a conflict he built up over Hedge Magic, but just not in the way anyone expected.

As much as Bunn’s words and staging supplies atmosphere it’s artist Tyler Crook who maximises the potential. From innocence to malevolence he’s the master of watercolour emotion, and as ever, he defines the rural locations so exquisitely. A constant feeling of danger emanates from the way Crook supplies the local woods, and that’s even before supernatural intrusions. For the full impact these require being depicted in greater horrific fashion than usual, which raises the rating to adult. However, don’t mistake that for gratuitous cheap shock, as neither creator has resorted to that in Harrow County, and they haven’t started now.

From the measured beginning Dark Times A’Coming is four page-turning chapters of mind-boggling escalation. It’s horrific, it’s righteous and it’s made to feel like all hell’s a coming, which in a way it is. Bunn saves the nastiest moment for right at the end. He’s set it up well, so we know the necessity, but is it the final corruption or a desperate gamble? Find out in Done Come Back. Alternatively both books are combined in hardcover as Harrow County Volume Four, or in even bulkier paperback with the two previous volumes as the second Harrow County Omnibus.