Written by: Paul Tobin
Art by: Juan Ferreyra
Publisher: Dark Horse
Colder: Toss the Bones #1 embodies everything that horror should be: characters that genuinely freak you out and a story that keeps you on tenterhooks from start to finish. The nightmarish world is hell incarnate; right from the beginning, you feel horribly uneasy by not only The Hungry World but by the presence of Nimble Jack, a character that has certain shades of The Joker and Freddy Kruger, all the while being completely unique on his own. This wretched, psychotic man is clearly the antagonist, yet you can’t help but welcome him in. Jumping between Boston and The Hungry World, Nimble Jack is uniting agents of madness with the sole purpose of destroying the human-turned hero, Declan.
Colder: Toss the Bones #1 is deliciously evil. Nimble Jack is clearly the focus and by far the most interesting of characters. If you have been following the Colder trilogy, you’ll know that this is the closing part, so a lot is riding on the Eisner award-winning writer’s finale. Luckily (and unsurprisingly), Paul Tobin creates a perfect story and delivers on every level of its inception. The pacing is excellent; straight from Declan’s appearance, you sense that something is building in Boston—the real world, and with the documentation of Nimble Jack’s controlling hunger, terror is real and very, very close. The dialogue between Jack and David sets such an eerie tone, with the culmination providing a smart outcome. It shows just how horrible and oddly righteous Nimble Jack is, and it is with this juxtaposition that we are blessed—Tobin makes us like him and hate him at the same time.
Juan Ferreyra’s artwork is striking, haunting and varied in its colour and design. The Hungry World and its horrifying inhabitants are drawn so well that they embody the sick and twisted nature of Jack. As Nimble Jack flits between the two worlds, the art starts to blend together and a lot of the time the two share subtle differences that unnerves just as much as it amazes. I’m not too familiar with Juan’s work, but based on this, I’ll be hunting down every issue of every comic the guys drawn.
I’m so in love with Colder: Toss the Bones #1. It sets the bar for horror and sits next to other great writers in the genre, watching all the pretenders fall in its shadow. With an end that sets up the future of the series excellently, it is clear that the weird and wonderful world of Colder is just getting warmed up.
