Review by Karl Verhoven
Cullen Bunn has an admirable track record with fantasy horror comics, so it’s very much a shock to read the clichéd fantasy ramblings over the first few pages of Through the Blight, however well drawn they are by Christopher Mitten. Thankfully, they’re only pages from a novel being read by the lead character. The warning is, though, that they’re pages from a novel written by Andrew Kier, a man who’s named his daughters Sommer and Winter.
The Kier family are taking their holiday in a remote forest lodge in what’s not immediately apparent as Sweden. Whatever’s been planned is lost as on the first night Sommer and Winter’s parents are abducted by trolls. Fortunately, the girls may be young and in a strange country, but they’re resourceful and learn of the Autumn Kingdom. “It withers”, they’re told, “a sacrifice is needed. Blood”. That’s not much consolation when your parents have been abducted.
By now Christopher Mitten’s art ought to need no further recommendation. He’s imaginative, inordinately talented and has a real work ethic when it comes to rendering detail. Environments here are full, backgrounds lush and locations resembling places where people live with the consequent clutter and decoration. Every page stuns, and Mitten comes up with one hell of a design for the mystic sword the sisters acquire. It looks like something Hellboy would use. The art is so good that having the book’s cover predominantly text-based is completely misguided.
Bunn ensures an immediate connection with Sommer and Winter’s plight, and gives them access to useful weapons. However, it turns out the opening pages weren’t just a passing fancy. Parallels are drawn between what the sisters are experiencing and the pompous prose of Kier senior’s fantasy novels about warring sisters. As The Autumn Kingdom’s focus is sisters it might well be Bunn setting up some later purpose, but in Through the Blight they’re unnecessary distraction from what’s already a compelling exploration of horrific European folklore.
As Through the Blight ends one objective has been achieved, but more terror awaits in The Wraithbound Queen. Spectacular art disguises the mundane fantasy sequences, but the main plot sinks its hooks.
