Elk’s Run

(Hoarse and Buggy, 2005)
™ and © 2005 Hoarse and Buggy Productions
Issues #1-3 published by Hoarse and Buggy; issue #4 and collection of #1-3 published by Speakeasy; complete series published by Villard in 2007

It’s hard to believe that there are any worthwhile tales left to tell about the strange, rural Southern town whose residents all conceal a sinister secret. Especially when many of the elements that make up the story are well-trod ideas of their own.

A boy in the town of Elk’s Ridge, W. Va., endures a Stand by Me type of horrific coming-of-age event. There’s a pervasive sense of an unknown but undeniable danger as in Deliverance. And the townsfolk who willingly harm their own evoke the same kind of disturbing, tunnel-vision mindset that Shirley Jackson captured so hauntingly in her short story “The Lottery.” Yet, Fialkov does what any good writer would: combine potentially tired ideas and tweak them into something fresh. And in this case, scary.

Artist Tuazon supports by executing Fialkov’s story competently, with neither distracting flash nor shortcomings. The art is, in fact, reminiscent of the style of such past underrated artists as Mike Zeck and David Mazzucchelli. This is good stuff, the kind usually not expected from unknown creators or publishers. It’s worth seeking out.

— Jim Johnson

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