The Creep #4

Written by John Arcudi
Art by Jonathan Case

There aren't a lot of comics like The Creep being published today - comics that are quiet and explore inner depths, books that are anti-hipsterish, but also avoid the most basic tropes of the genres they are set within.

The Creep has been about a PI named Oxel, who suffers from some genetic disorder that has made him grow to an unnatural size, and suffer from a number of side effects.  His old college girlfriend got in touch with him to investigate why her son committed suicide; she has been unable to let go of her child, and wants to understand what happened to him.  Oxel's investigation rips the bandage off for many people though, including the mother of the boy's best friend (who killed himself months before), and for the woman's father, who used to take both boys hunting.

For much of the series, it looked like Arcudi was setting this up along the familiar, Andrew Vachss-style lines of there being some sort of molestation, but I'm pleased to see, in this issue, that this was all a red herring, or something that existed only in Oxel's mind.  The truth, as shown here in a flashback, is much stranger (and likely to stick with me) than anything I could have expected.

Arcudi is a very good character writer, and Jonathan Case is more than up for the job of portraying the subtlety he works into his scripts.  This story will read great in a trade; if you haven't been following it, give it a try.