Advance Review: Serving Up An Appetite For Death In `The Silver Coin’ #11

There is an old Chinese curse that warns of what happens when your dreams come true. That terrifying thought has never been truer than for the workers at Wamburger Diner.

After business slowing to a near crawl has left the staff on each other’s last nerves, a mysterious stranger leaves a tip that includes the eponymous silver coin. After being convince the coin is a good luck charm, manager Jean wishes for a full house of hungry clients when the diner opens the next morning.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what she gets. Patrons are lined up before the diner even opens, and each party orders meal after meal. Eventually the diner runs out of food and the cook is forced to improvise. Think improvise The Walking Dead style.

Penned by the hottest horror writer in comics, James Tynion IV, this story is a bit predictable (no issue of The Silver Coin is going to have a happy ending) but still a good, compelling read. Tynion has a gift for writing relatable characters, even when they’re frying up a steak made from a human leg. We know exactly who Jean is, practically from the first panel.

Series regular artist and co-creator Michael Walsh delivers the chills again. He cleverly juxtaposes an argument in which the diner’s staff is arguing whether their patrons’ gorging is normal against extreme close ups of people shoveling food they don’t need into their mouths. When one of their stomach’s burst, you don’t need a graphic representation – you know exactly what’s about to happen. But don’t worry, Walsh doesn’t spare any gore.

The anthology takes a slight departure at the end of the story, when it revisits the original patron who left the silver coin tip. It’s possible we may see him again to cause more havoc. Hopefully without the cannibalism next time.

Silver Coin #11 will be available for purchase on June 22, 2022.