Reviewing Post Mortem’s Fever |

Fever #1
written by John Parker
illustrated by Justin Braden
published by Post Mortem Comics Studios
reviewed by Richard Caldwell

This debut issue of Fever, the first of ten chapters, is something different. A horror tale, to be certain, involving the haunting of a young and lonely boy named Tommy.
The story opens with Tommy, his mother and bratty preteen sister visiting a gravesite. Though not mentioned in the text exactly why, it could be presumed to be the father’s. While there, Tommy has the kind of sad realization most children eventually face. Later, as the weeks go by, his troubles continue to grow, with some ghostly thing moving closer and closer into his small world.
Although I love small press, and anything that flows against the status quo, I need to be mean here.
The story, while well contrived and possibly even something for all ages, runs a bit on the slow side. More troubling, is the embarrassing lettering flaws on almost every single page of the book. From misspellings and missing words and incomplete sentences to grammar and punctuation errors galore, this book really should have been passed by some manner of editor prior to publication. And schizophrenic font sizes from one page to the next screams of inconsistency. I would not be so blunt if the many mistakes were not so blasted distracting.
(But if you can get past all of that- you saint of a reader you- there really is something special here.)
The art meanwhile, is very attractive, very illustrative in approach. With a possible suggestion of British sensibility in composition and expressions that call to mind the great Rick Geary, Braden draws a stark world, full of starved characters. The family looks born for the part of the grim things to come. Though the panels could have used a bit more in the way of flourishes, he is clearly trying to do his own thing in terms of draughtsmanship. His design for the feathered thing at the end deserves to be in a film.
Despite my easy critique of the wording ailments aplenty in this book, I would still recommend the work. Although I imagine the full ten chapters could well be effectively compressed into half as many issues, all in all this is actually an easy on the eyes piece of black and white horror fiction.
Some gnawing aspect of the overall loneliness that is swallowing Tommy is painfully intriguing. Ghosts, I feel, are only a portion of where this may be headed. Follow along and see for yourself.

The issues can be found via the nicely constructed Post Mortem website, or through those cool kids at LiterateMachine.

www.postmortemcomics.com
www.literatemachine.com

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