Review — ‘The Twilight Zone’ #7 Needs To Show, Not Tell

Henry the taxidermist is a hero. He and his fellow firefighters recently saved their small town from a devastating blaze, saving countless lives. And now, Henry may have found the woman of his dreams.

Of course, this being The Twilight Zone, nothing is as it seems.

The black and white anthology series delivers its seventh installment from hot writer Tony Fleecs. Titles, appropriately enough, The Taxidermist, the issue follows Henry around his shop some time after the fire. As he juggles his customers and his meddling mother, Henry meets the gorgeous Lucy.

Plain Henry is beside himself when talking to the beauty but soon screws up the courage to show her the work room of his shop. (Does anything good ever come from going to the back room???) Fleecs does a great job of defying expectations here. Is Henry stuffing humans back there? Is he a Norman Bates-type with mom talking to him from within his own mind? Is Lucy actually one of his creations?

Artist Andy Price does great work in illustrating Henry and his stuffed menagerie. His clean line work is a beauty, even when the subject matter turns ugly and surreal. In fact, his artwork is the highlight of the issue.

That largely because the ending becomes convoluted. The images — great as they are — swirl together. It takes Fleecs’ third-party narrator to explain what really happened. But this is a comic book. Show us, don’t tell us. It feels as though the creative team ran out of pages and rushed the ending, which is a shame. The story started much stronger than the ending they put up.

In such a visual medium, we want to experience for ourselves what the characters are going through and how they get there. We’ll accept a little stunted character development if it means a clear ending.

The Twilight Zone #7 — written by Tony Fleecs, penciled by Andy Price, with some inking and shading assistance from Maria Keane — is now available in comic book stories and on digital platforms from IDW.