As I’ve said in the past since starting this site I’ve received lots of offers to review indie films, short movies and books but the thing I love most is when the offer is there to read and review a graphic novel. Even better is when horror and comics combine, that’s why when I was offered a physical copy of Doppelgänger to review I couldn’t wait!
The story is quite simple but it is immensely effective, it revolves around Tom Dailey a nice family man. A familiar but always great horror story setting is an old antiques shop those pesky places seem to teem with weird and wonderful cursed items that only lead to trouble. Against the wishes of his wife Tom decides to buy an old fashioned ornate mirror, in the real would it’d be one of those things that looks real cool but you wouldn’t have anywhere near your own house.
Thing start to slowly turn Tom and his family’s life upside down and it all starts when this mirror is placed in his office at home. He becomes more angry, snapping at his family and strangely spending more and more time alone staring into the mirror, is it vanity? Maybe he’s realised how good looking he is and he’s fallen in love with himself? If only that were true!
It just gets worse and worse and Tom get more and more violent and brutal to a point where he does some terrible things to the ones he loves the most. Leaving him all alone with nothing but the mirror and his twisted dreams his descent into madness only gets worse and worse. He suffers terrible nightmares that scare him to his core.
I can’t say too much more without giving away the story and that’s just not something I can do. This is in places a brutal tale but it’s one you’ll find yourself loving right until the very end.
The Good
- The art work is the first thing that stands out, drawn by Lukasz Marko it’s grim and dark along with Dave McCluskey’s story the two strike a real good balance and go together like cheese and toast. The characters faces are vague yet alive and the darker colours set a perfect mood for this tale.
- The story is spot on, I mean sure we’ve all heard the tale of men and women who lose the plot and slowly cave in to madness. However when reading this there’s no feeling that you’ve heard it all before but in a different setting. Add in the supernatural element combine it with horror, creepy pictures and some nasty scenes and you’ve got a page turning story.
- The dream/nightmare sequences that Tom experiences were terrific that really boosted the story for me.
- The ending, obviously I can’t say much but leaving a story like this open for the possibility of more story was a must.
The Bad
- There’s no bad to this really, I suppose like most graphic novels if the artists style doesn’t grab you then you may not enjoy it. Other than that there’s nothing else I could say that’s even remotely negative about this graphic novel.
This really is worth grabbing if you want a dark twisted brutal story to read and lets face it is there any other type of graphic novel as fun to read as that? I’d be well up for more stories from this world if they arrive in the future. You can pick it up from Dammaged Comics Etsy store so why not give them a quick visit!
Overall Rating – 8/10
Acid Horrors 