The Me You Love in the Dark #1

The Me You Love in the Dark #1

Image Comics 2021

Written by Skottie Young

Illustrated by Jorge Corona

Coloured by Jean-Francois Beaulieu

Lettered by Nate Piekos of Blambot

An artist named Ro retreats from the grind of the city to an old house in a small town to find solace and inspiration without realizing the muse within is not what she expected.

From the team that brought us Middlewest brings us this limited series and I’m already in love with it. So what do you do when you have artist's block? You move to the middle of nowhere, rent a supposedly haunted house and drink copious amounts of wine of course. If all this doesn’t get the creative juices flowing then nothing will. At least that’s what I think of course so what does Ro think? Not much but drinking and trying to create more art, but she’s stymied by the fact she’s having such a hard time of it. For me it’s all about the journey and less about the destination, I mean she knows where she’s going but she cannot relax and surrender control over the route she’s going to get there and this is what drives her to seek out new possibilities and to talk to a ghost she doesn’t believe exists.

I’m a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction, or how one acts by themselves, as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. This is magnificently done by the by, it really does portray them as people whom we know, are or simply relate to. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and it’s main character, captivates the reader sensationally well.

I have to say I appreciate the way that we see being structured as well as how the layers within the story emerge, grow and evolve. The layers contain the characterisation, the plot twists and so much more, they add this great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceptionally well.

The interiors here are absolutely charming. I love the linework and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detailed work we see throughout. The backgrounds that we see enhance and expand the moments beautifully, the plant life comes alive with those patterns and the house itself is truly inspired. How they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is amazingly rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show an exceptionally talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is brilliantly rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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I’m super impressed with the way that we see this being told. That after many weeks of being there and showing no sign of leaving is when Ro finally gets to meet the house's other resident, singular at least for now. I gotta admit this is handled exceptionally well and if you catch everything then kudos because it’s pretty subtle and yet overt at the same time. The story is so well written with smart characterisation and these wonderful interiors that light up the readers’ own creativity and imagination along the way.