Advance Review — A Killer Is On The Loose In ‘Dead By Daylight: The Hillbilly’ #1
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
One of the video game’s original killers comes to life — while bringing death — in this first issue of a new limited series. The artwork has a muddy throwback feel, and the story follows a familiar path, though the issue ends a bit abruptly.
Overall
8/10A comic book based on a video game franchise is nothing new. But when that franchise is the hugely successful Dead by Daylight, which boasts 60 million players worldwide, it garners more attention than most.
Video game maker Behaviour Interactive has teamed up with Titan Comics to deliver Dead by Daylight: The Hillbilly, a follow-up to the DBD graphic novel spinoff. As you might guess, the story highlights one of the game’s playable killers, the chainsaw-wielding Max Thompson Jr., otherwise known as Hillbilly. (As a bonus for gamers, this first issue includes a code for an exclusive in-game upgrade.)
Writer Derek Fridolfs knows that stories of killing machines like Hillbilly are best told through the eyes of their victims and pursuers. That’s the case here, with small town police officer Darnell Hollis. Darnell captures his chief’s attention after singlehandedly capturing a drug dealer (and shooting a dog through the head in the process).
The chief and his band of good ol’ boys take Darnell to a farm for an initiation, where he runs into a chained Hillbilly slaughtering animals in a barn. The chief’s connection to Hillbilly — including whether he even knows he exists — is one of the questions left unanswered in this first issue.
Artist Dean Kotz gives the book a gritty 1970s’ feel. His linework feels a bit soft, almost as if you’re reading the issue through a cheesecloth or some kind of filter. It’s probably appropriate given the sometimes-gory subject matter. Still, it’s not something that is seen much any more.
When Kotz finally reveals Hillbilly toward the end of the issue, the killer is more than clear. In fact, he looks better and more frightening than in the video game. Yet the issue ends in an odd way. Clearly there is more bloodshed to come.
Dead by Daylight: The Hillbilly #1 — written by Derek Fridolfs, illustrated by Dean Kotz, colored by Allison Hu, and lettered by AndWorld Design — will be available in comic book stores and on digital platforms on April 8 from Titan Comics.
