Grimm Tales of Terror Quarterly: H.H. Holmes

Grimm Tales of Terror Quarterly: H.H. Holmes

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Written by Jay Sandlin

Illustrated by Rodrigo Xavier & Allan Otero

Coloured by Maxflan Araujo & Vinicius Andrade

Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual

With 9 confirmed and 200 suspected souls on his hands, HH Holmes is one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. It has been over 100 years and his name is still synonymous with murder and torture. But now over a century later in the city of Chicago bodies are showing up, and the way they are being found is way too familiar to those who know the history of this city. Is there a copycat loose showing their idolization for the famed killer or is there something more sinister happening here?

What a fantastic story this is! The opening really does what it’s supposed to and grab the readers attention and imagination. Then the story gets moving and it gets interesting really quickly as the characters are introduced and things go from semi-normal, see professional, to wackadoodle in moments. Any story that can engage my mind, keep me guessing and prove that my own hypothesis is both right and wrong is deserved of my appreciation and Jay certainly does that here.

I am 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 extremely well. I have to say I am a sucker for the way we see the clues and the misdirection amid the story pointing the way but providing roadblocks along that way so that the reader really has to pay attention to what’s happening. The character development is utterly fantastic! How we see the characters act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter alongside the dialogue that we see is impeccable as it fleshes them out. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the twists & turns along the way it’s easy to get lost in this tale.

The way that this is structured and how the layers within the story emerge grow and evolve and finally tie into this whole mischegas is utterly delightful. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it all moves the story forward is beautifully rendered.

I love the interiors here! The linework is spectacular and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work that we see is incredibly well handled. This is the type of story that relies upon backgrounds to fully tell the tale so I am thrilled beyond belief to see them utilised as they are. Granted I wouldn’t mind seeing more but it’s okay. That they enhance the moments and bring us this great depth perception, sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the story is handled with aplomb. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkable eye for storytelling. The colour work is nicely rendered as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is extremely nice to see. When we see moments like that fog on the street, the lamppost, or the smoking corpse, there’s more but i’ll stop here, you see how colour can be manipulated into enhancing all kinds of moments just through how it’s laid down.

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I think this is an incredibly well told story, it’s smartly written with intelligence and wit that we see through the casual and not so casual banter and it’s wrapped up in these pages of really strong and beautifully done interior artwork. This is why Zenescope maintains its reputation when it comes to horror.