Advance Review: ‘Of The Earth’ #2 Slowly Builds Its Terror — Maybe Too Slowly
by Tom Smithyman
Overview
Finding the right mix of anticipation and exposition can be difficult, particularly for horror stories. The first issue of this limited series got it right. But now it feels a bit long in the tooth.
Overall
8/10One of the keys to good horror stories is building a sense of dread before all hell breaks loose.
Finding the right mix of apprehension versus action is a difficult task/ though. It requires a delicate balance of information and action. While Of the Earth’s premiere issue did a great job in taking readers on that scary journey, its sophomore outing leaves a little more to be desired.
The limited series’ first issue was a slow build of dread, culminating with Arleen Cooke finding her oil-drenched grandmother in the basement. This chapter is another slowly evolving story — but one that offers too few answers.
The issue, written by Andrew Ehrich and Chris Condon based on Condon’s story, is perhaps too slow moving than its own good. We get the need to build terror. Just don’t milk it. At this point, the six-issue series feels as if it would be better served in four. Still, it’s early.
Arleen and a local oil roughneck check out the goings on around Gramma’s ranch in the aptly-name town of Solitude, Texas. They find nothing at first, aside from some black sludge that may or may not be oil. Toward the end of the issue, things finally start happening, but nothing definitive.
Artist Charlie Adlard has mainly faces to focus on in this issue. They are all expressive enough, so we typically know what the characters are thinking before reading the word bubbles. Adlard gets to channel his work from The Walking Dead when drawing Gramma, who seems more undead than alive at this point.
This series doesn’t need to give the farm — err ranch — away in the next issue, but it should start to pay off more than it has to date. Otherwise, readers could start to lose patience and leave Gramma and Arleen to fight their own eventual battles.
Of the Earth #2 — written by Andrew Ehrich and Chris Condon, illustrated by Charlie Adlard, colored by Pip Martin, and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou — will be available Wednesday in comic book stores and on digital platforms from Image Comics.
