Comic Stack 07/22/2015 – Graphic Novel Review: The October Faction Volume 1 by Steve Niles (Writer), Damien Worm (Illustrator)

Genre: Horror, Supernatural

Publisher: IDW Publishing (July 21, 2015)

Author Information: Website

Tiara’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Full Disclosure: A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher. I would like to thank the author and the publishers for providing me this opportunity. All opinions expressed from here forward are my own.

If The Addam’s Family, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Locke & Key had a devil’s threesome, the result would be this book. If you don’t know what a devil’s threesome is, it might be best to Google that when you’re not around other people. You’ve been warned. I will not be responsible for traumatized children, surprised significant others, or alarmed strangers. The October Faction is a dark, horror-filled comic about the things that go bump in the night, and the family acquainted with them. We meet the Allan family who even come with their own Lurch/Alfred in the form of their female butler, Saunders. The family is headed by Frederick Allan, a former monster hunter turned college professor who teachers a course on–what else?–monsters, where their origins rest and whether they exist.

Next, we have Deloris Allan, matriarch of the household, who seems to be estranged from her husband and possibly having an affair. She only sees her husband during mealtimes at the beginning of this book, but we find out her true motives quickly. Right now, it doesn’t look like Deloris started her life as a monster hunter, but after meeting her husband, she became one. She may have had some limited contact with monsters before him, but she became something of a team with him and his true partner, a man named Lucas. Even though, she’s middle-aged now, mom is no slouch in the combat department as we learn later in the book.

Last, we have the Allan children–Geoff and Vivian. Geoff has been out of high school for about a year or a bit longer it seems, and Vivian is just graduating. All the clues point to both children being outcasts in high school, and despite their dad being a professor, neither child has a desire to go to college. Instead, they’ve been trying to convince their dad they want to become hunters, and they have the abilities to do so. Not only do they want to become hunters, as he once was, they want to be hunters with him, which naturally their father has been trying to dissuade them from that for years.

Dad explaining there is no point in waiting to kill someone who pretty much just threatened to kill you.

However, Frederick eventually accepts that you can’t run from your past forever, and sometimes, doing what you have to do to save your family is the exact opposite of what you want to do. This story grabbed me much the same way Locke & Key did when I first read it, especially with the family aspect. It’s a mesmerizing story that ,at times, does suffer a little from moving maybe a bit too fast paced and having the characters give in a bit too quickly at turns. However, it was nice not to have to spend a whole volume with the family struggling with the father or constantly arguing the merits of being monster hunters or drawing some of the “intrigue” type plot points I feared they would. This book was quick to get to its point. While this book centers largely on the Allan family. You start to learn about other families in the story, even the family of Frederick’s foe and their dynamics that are sure to come into play.

The art is amazing in this book. It fits the gruesome story, even punctuating the dark humor of the book. I took so many screenshots, And I wasn’t sure which pages to use and which not to use because Damien Worm’s art for this book is darkly beautiful, a seeming mix of the two other comics I mentioned earlier.

I love the dark and macabre, and this book doesn’t fail on either account. If you’re a fan of books like Locke & Key, you likely enjoy The October Faction. It still needs to get its timing right in some scenes, but The book was largely satisfying for me as a horror fan. Despite how dark this book is, it had funny and even touching moments interspersed throughout at just the right moments, though. I look forward to continuing this series.