What I’ve Been Reading: Wytches, vol. 1, by Scott Snyder and Jock

There’s a lot to like in this new Image series from Snyder (known first for his horror miniseries Severed and now for his Batman work) and Jock, who made his bones as artist for Vertigo’s revival of The Losers. The concept of the wytches is creepy, some of the details—locking people in trees, “pledging” people to wytches, etc.—are chilling, the overall execution is good. This is worth reading for horror fans.

My only real reluctance about the first volume here is that it feels really well shaped to be a TV series, but doesn’t quite have enough room to breathe as a comic. That’s partly a limitation of the comic form. Fitting everything Snyder and Jock do into 6 issues is an impressive feat and it makes for a dense, propulsive first volume. But some of the horror sequences that work fine in the comic are easy to envision as being even more effective, and even more scary, on a TV show where they can stretch out over 5-10-15 minutes, instead of 1-3 pages.

That said, it’s a good debut for the series and I’ll certainly be checking out volume 2.