Something Spooky: ‘Into The Unbeing’ Is Unsettling In The Best Ways

The world is falling apart, on the verge of absolute ecological collapse. But that’s not the horror in Into The Unbeing, and that’s part of why it’s just so damn scary.

 

 

A quartet of climate scientists in a remote camp in Australia think they may be on the verge of several important discoveries. In reality, they’re about to pulled into one of the most horrifying ecological discoveries in human history…

 

 

Zac Thompson has become one of comics’ leading voices in unconventional horror, and this 2024 Dark Horse series might be his crown jewel. Teaming with artistic superstar Hayden Sherman and letterer Jim Campbell, they build a horrific story that’s hard to pin down. Is it cosmic horror? Is it body horror? Is it ecological or science fiction? Is it maybe a little bit of all of them?

Strangely, the answer is yes.

 

 

Thompson and Sherman craft a world that’s prescient, while also deeply, deeply strange. Starting with a reasonable extrapolation of our own world — wildfires are so uncontrollable that they’re culling human civilization, climate change has completely changed the landscape of multiple landmasses — suddenly our four main characters are forced to investigate a massive anomaly. What they find is apparently the corpse of a dead god. And that’s just the start of their journey.

 

 

Thompson builds believable and sympathetic characters throughout. Each member of the team (including the dog) gets a spotlight issue. As we learn more about them, and become more sympathetic, we see them start to unravel. At first, it’s the landscape affecting them mentally … but then the transformations happen. Suddenly, these people aren’t people any more. And worse, they’re not the first it’s happened to.

Sherman is absolutely one of the best artists in comics today, and if their DC Comics work wasn’t enough to convince you, this series should be. Thompson’s character building is enhanced by their design work, character acting and layouts. But then they descend into the Unbeing, and Sherman cuts loose. 

 

 

The flora and fauna are wrong, but they’re still beautiful. The landscape is obviously anatomical, but it’s also deeply unnerving, perhaps because of the familiarity, not in spite of it. And their color work makes it all the better, using familiar color palettes, then shifting them slightly to continue in their unsettling wrongness.

 

 

Into The Unbeing is a rare horror story for me — one that I want to revisit again, and soon. And that might be the best part of it all.