God of Tremors

God of Tremors

Aftershock Comics 2021

Written by Peter Milligan

Illustrated by Piotr Kowalski

Coloured by Brad Simpson

Lettered by Simon Bowland

A 19th Century gothic horror of exorcism, demonic worship and epilepsy.

When Aubrey has his first seizure, he’s pulled out of school and hidden away in the family’s remote country estate. His father — a high-ranking English priest — tries to chase the “devil” out of Aubrey — but maybe the devil lurks in the grotesque pagan effigy that dwells on the grounds. And maybe the devil will turn out to be Aubrey’s only ally…

This is a great book and to be honest I am hoping that while Aubrey finds that location everything that surrounds it afterwards, regarding said location, is because of an overactive imagination. Mind you with what happens with his father it would be terribly easy to see this aspect as being accurate though anything within the purview of that location would be considered the devil’s playground and everything I see here makes complete sense. It is a very powerful and incredibly disturbing story and one that raises so many questions regarding religion, fanaticism and calls into question who should be, and what makes, a good parent.

I’m really enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development we see through the sequence of events unfolding as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceedingly well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter. This really does a magnificent job in bringing these characters to life, sometimes infuriatingly so and other times in ways we can relate to. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing the characters and the world they live in it’s like that train wreck you cannot look away from.

I am absolutely loving the way that we see this being structured and how the layers emerge, grow and strengthen. How we see the actions playing out here and how this is portrayed really manages to get under the readers’ skin which goes to show how prolific a writer that Peter is. How all this adds this magnificent depth, dimension and complexity to the story is amazing. The way everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved exceedingly well.

Piotr is an amazing illustrator. The linework is exceptional and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level of detail in the work that we see is extraordinary. The way that we see backgrounds being utilised to enhance and expand the moments as well as 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 exceptionally well rendered. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The colour work is equally as brilliant to see. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a stellar eye for how colour works.

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This is one of those amazing stories that deserves to be in this oversized magazine style format. To be able to enjoy a magnificent story such as this in such a prestigious format and once you read it this way there’s simply no other way to imagine reading it. This is an astonishingly well written story with amazing characterisation and wrapped up in these stunning interiors creating such a vividly real world. Once you visit this world you won’t be able to leave it unchanged.