Advance Review: ‘Crownsville’ #1 Explores A Frightening Man-Made Horror Story
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
Horror stories based on real-life events are frightening in their own right. But this creative team takes the history of a segregated mental hospital for Black people and ups the ante. The story is complex and the artwork will keep you up at nights.
Overall
9/10From its opening in 1911, Crownsville State Hospital near Baltimore treated Black mental patients, though it quickly expanded to aid the homeless and even young children with chronic diseases. The segregated facility was overcrowded and understaffed — and rumors of illegal and unethical medical experiments persisted until the hospital’s closing in 2004.
Now writer Rodney Barnes and artist Elia Bonetti have teamed up to tell the (hopefully) fictional ghost story of the infamous treatment center in Crownsville. Both creators are in fine form as they begin the five-part limited series.
Barnes weaves together an intricate story — aided by a double-sized first issue — of a guard’s death at the institution. Initial indications are a suicide, but the truth threatens to be far scarier. Barnes tells the tale from the perspective of three men — a new guard at the site, a newspaper reporter, and a police detective.
The three protagonists have their own baggage they carry into the hospital, making the story even more layered. The guard Todd Hicks is just trying to make ends meet and is willing to brush past the fact that his colleague died on Hicks’ first day on the job.
Reporter Paul Blair has the most interesting and intriguing background, given his mother was a nurse at the hospital. She dies of natural causes just as she was about to confess what happened to some of the children at the institution. But she visits Paul from beyond the grave to continue the story. It’s good that she plays a role here, because the lack of female storytellers here feels like a miss.
Bonetti is a great choice to illustrate the series. His style gives a sepia-toned throwback quality to the past while instilling the present with grit and shadows that portend some coming dread. Even more frightening are Bonetti’s depictions of the institutionalized children. Massive foreheads, long faces, terrifying grins, and third eyes make his work truly something out of nightmares. Bonetti’s artwork will keep you up at night.
It’s a strong start for Crownsville, with plenty more mystery to unfold. It will be interesting to see where the creative team takes the story over the next few issues.
Crownsville #1 will be available in comic book stores and on digital platforms on November 5th from Oni Press.
