Wytches, Volume 1 (Graphic Novel Review)

Wytches, Vol.1

Author: Scott Snyder Illustrator: Jock

Publisher: Image Comics

Genre: Graphic Novel, Sequential Art, Horror

Release Date: June 24th 2015

Page Count: 144

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781632153807

Collects Wytches issues #1-6

“It’s like a pit you fall into. It’s like suddenly , out of nowhere, you’ve fallen into this place where everything is tell you the worst is coming, and you’re doomed, and you can feel the truth of this deep in your cells. You think I wouldn’t change myself if I could? You think I wouldn’t run a fucking hot poker around in my head and change my brain normal? Because I would.”

Have I mentioned how much I love Image Comics? Honestly, I have not read one comic released by this publisher that I have disliked. They are constantly coming out with amazing content and have quickly become my favourite comics publisher. I was recently looking for some new comic series to get into and a title that kept coming up was Wytches by Scott Snyder and Illustrated by Jock. I had never read anything by either the author or the illustrator, but the synopsis was quite intriguing along with the artwork. I finally decided to pick up a copy recently at Fan Expo Canada where I was even told by the man at the booth that it was a fantastic series. That definitely got my hopes up and made me even more eager to read this story.

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Goodreads synopsis: Everything you thought you knew about witches is wrong. They are much darker, and they are much more horrifying. Wytches takes the mythology of witches to a far creepier, bone-chilling place than readers have dared venture before. When the Rooks family moves to the remote town of Litchfield, NH to escape a haunting trauma, they’re hopeful about starting over. But something evil is waiting for them in the woods just beyond town. Watching from the trees. Ancient…and hungry.

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Wytches is a dark and chilling story from beginning to end. There was no moment of happiness or, if there was, it was surrounded by a dark exterior. Wytches was a little confusing at first as it was settling in to introducing the premise of the story. That didn’t last long though. Once the story found its groove, it was fast paced and disturbing.

Wytches takes on a completely unique idea of a “witch” character. They are original in both their characteristics as well as their appearance. If I could describe the appearance of these witches in one word, it would be “terrifying.” Even they way these witches and their pledges speak is different from anything I have ever read before. Their sentences are jumbled and they use certain words in ways that those words may not typically be used in normal conversation.

For whatever reason, while reading Wytches Volume 1, I was having cases of nostalgia regarding a previous novel I have read called House of Leaves. I’m not really sure why, as these stories don’t have very much in common, but I think both of these stories made me feel the same way as I was reading them as both were generally very unsettling.

The artwork is yet another aspect of this series that is extremely creative. It is generally very dark in tone which is to be expected in a story of this nature. Rather than having a white page as a back drop behind the story panels, for the most part these pages are all black or other very dark colours. Another aspect that I found creative were the water colour splotches on a majority of the panels. I have never seen something like that done before and it was cool to see that the water colour was actually done by hand and scanned in on the computer later. I love when volumes have bonus content at the end and it was amazing to see how the artwork was created within these pages of bonus content.

I am extremely happy with my choice in picking up Wytches as my latest comics series. I am so excited to continue reading as each new volume comes out and I highly encourage you all to pick up a copy…my only suggestion being to read it with the lights on.