Echoes #1

Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art by Rahsan Ekedal

There's nothing better than going into a new comic with no expectations or preconceived notions, and being pleasantly surprised.  I only picked up the first issue of Echoes because I liked Fialkov's Tumor, and because it was otherwise a light week for comics.

Echoes is about a man named Brian whose father is dying in a hospital or nursing home of Alzheimers.  We quickly learn that Brian and his father had a difficult relationship, and that Brian is in therapy.  Slowly, we also learn that he must take Clozapine to avoid having hallucinations.

With his dying words, Brian's father tells him to return to their old house and to retrieve a box from the crawlspace.  He also mentions girls' bodies.  Now, Brian's not entirely sure that he heard this, and as he explores the long-abandoned and ravaged house, he begins to question his perception, since he has skipped his medication.  I don't want to give away what happens in the basement, but I do like the way Fialkov has established that we don't really know what is real and what is in Brian's mind.

This book has a nice creepy feel to it, and Fialkov wastes no time in getting to the meat of his story.  Rahsan Ekedal's art reminds me a little of Charlie Adlard's, and makes good use of the book's black and white format.  The scenes in the crawlspace are amazing and haunting.  I haven't bought a Top Cow comic since the Jonathan Hickman Pilot Season comic, but I'm going to be getting this.