Let’s Do The Time Warp Again — Reviewing ‘Dead Teenagers’ #1

Sometimes it seems like most of society is really stuck in the past, reliving those “glory days” on a loop. Nostalgia, especially as wielded by those in power, sure can be a killer thing.

What if, though, you were truly trapped in the past and forced to relive a horrible day repeatedly while watching your peers die in increasingly horrifying ways? If that’s the case, then you must be one of the characters from Dead Teenagers #1, the debut issue of Jude Ellison S. Doyle, Caitlin Yarsky, and Becca Carey’s new Oni Press series.

— Spoilers Follow —

I absolutely, unequivocally, definitively, tremendously loved this issue.

Truly, I could end the review right there and just let it stand that this is an amazing introductory issue. That’s not really the type of review that I do, though. I’m the guy who dives deep and gets quite verbose in extolling the virtues, failures, and missed opportunities of comic books on the regular.

While it was a long time ago now, I remember a lot of feelings about being a teenager. The sensation of being stuck in place — like little that you did or chose mattered, and like time itself was just standing still far too often. Within these handfuls of pages, Doyle captured these things perfectly, utilizing the oft-used storytelling device that is a loop of time to put those horrifying ideas into monstrous perspective.

In typical Doyle fashion, we’re given so much in so little space to really deliver on the characters within page. They are fleshed out generously, even as they are often deprived of flesh and life by a rotating roster of murderous monstrosities. Each grasps onto horror movie trope roles such as the hero, the one to die first, the one who hides, and the final girl and spins them into new bites specifically flavored for this horror story.

Oh, and that twist ending! The loop is shattered and things get sent into the unexplored adult life none of them got to live. That’s some chef-kiss-level stuff right there. It tilts expectations from the start, making the rest of the series unpredictable.

Dead teenager stories — a common name for teen slashers that gave the series it’s nifty title — tend to be bloody. Yet, they also have a lot of fun and lightness to them that works to balance out the brutality. We must know and love the characters and feel that the world is a place where such horrible individuals as the monstrous thing is very out of place.

Within the artwork, Yarsky captures this perfectly. Hers is a style that is dense and rich with detail bolstered by a soft appearance. Characters are rendered with so much heart that they are almost tangibly real upon the page. Softer lines in places give the overall appearance that more whimsical and lighter feeling I mentioned above.

Harder striking lines and inks come into play during the more action-packed and hardcore sequences. It makes things like a giant lizard, mannequins, or a zombie plague look menacing and comical at the same time.

Similarly, her color choices lend themselves to this aesthetic perfectly. Not overly bright or dark, they stand upon the line in the middle of the palette spectrum. Meanwhile, colors skews closer to vibrant explosions for some of the more bombastic, fantastical moments while wallowing in darker shadows for the more ominous and terrifying sequences.

Lettering is such an artform, one that I wish I had appreciation for sooner in life. I get to appreciate it a lot now thanks to this reviewing gig and the stride I’ve made in talking about it all. Carey is one of those practitioners who I enjoy seeing their name attached to any project, taking any words and giving them a big push of creativity and power along the way so that they pack a better punch.

Emotional energy is sprinkled along the way to affect every word that’s on the page, throwing in some color and box shifts from time to time for that visual appeal and language intensification.

Dead Teenagers #1 is now available from Oni Press.