Last Chance To Save: Reviewing ‘Cemetery Kids Don’t Die’ #3

Facing your fears as they manifest themselves within a potentially deadly mentally played video game sure doesn’t sound like fun. Unfortunately, that’s what Birdie and her friends are dealing with as the hunt for her brother Pik continues.

Things get even more dire in Cemetery Kids Don’t Die #3, the penultimate chapter of this miniseries from Zac Thompson, Daniel Irizarri, Gege Schall, Brittany Peer, and Andworld Design.

No punches are pulled.

Friendships are tested. Emotions are poured out. Traumatizing moments are graphically revisited.

Stories that center around a particular topic (technology, society, issues, etc.) tend to be at their best when there is more behind it. Generally, that more is very human interest relatable emotional development beats. Thompson always nails those sorts of things, giving even more weight to the themes of the story.

For this series, the video game plays an important part, but one of its chief reasons for being has to do with those character beats. To put our characters up against their fears and see them thrown to the proverbial wolves. It’s just such a relevant (with where tech is going) framing device that gives the story a unique flavor alongside similar types of stories.

Capturing the darkness but also very fantastical energies is achieved time and time again by Irizarri and Peer.

Every character moment strikes hard as Irizarri makes sure that emotions or body language are on point. Similarly, all the action moments or important moments are striking in their clearness, their framing, and their energy. A chief example is the playing out of the car crash that injured Birdie and took her and Pik’s mother from them. As the characters fight and break apart, it’s felt so much on the page.

What makes it work is that there is that more exaggerated whimsical appearance to the artwork. It keeps things slightly light while also taking them so deep and dark. Even the gory or graphic moments are not as hardcore as they could be, because of the art style.

This issue adds Schall to the mix, tackling the real-world scenes, who has a style that is very similar yet unique. Strongly captured emotions are found here as well, with a touch more smoothness. Just a hint of whimsy is sprinkled within as each panel really keeps us in tight to everything playing out. Having the two styles actually creates a cool dynamic as the real world and the game world slip further apart, becoming totally separate things, both becoming darker in their own ways.

Peer’s colors play in this balanced space as well. Plenty of very bright vivid beats that can be found to spice up the world and the characters. Alongside them are the heavier, more neutral handed colors that allow the world to have a more grounded appeal. Plenty of shadows, sometimes done with some darker dots, are spread throughout to keep the ominous feeling very prevalent. Keeping some of the palette choices different in the two worlds also helps give them differing energies.

Another way to capture the emotions clearly is through the letters, which will always land with Andworld handling that. Lots of big bold moments right alongside the lighter ones, each of them done in fonts that present the right energy. Helping set volume and tone is important since it helps the reader very much create the right voice sounds as they read through.

Cemetery Kids Don’t Die #3 is now available from Oni Press.