Survivors' Club #1

[informationgeek]

"For many, the ‘80s along with the ‘70s was a golden era for horror films. A lot of those films from then are deeply ingrained in pop culture. We all know the story of The Exorcist, A Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday The 13th and so on. They have almost become our generation’s fairytales. We draw a lot on that mythology in Survivors’ Club, but we take it in unexpected directions." - Dale Halvorsen

"Brainy, ambitious and delightfully scary, Survivors' Club is a throwback to books like The Sandman and Hellblazer that made Vertigo a legend" - Joe Kelly, Locke & Key (quote on the front cover of the issue)

Writers: Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen
Artist: Ryan Kelly
Colorist: Eva De Cruz



Oh me oh my, how does one explain the story of Survivors' Club #1? Well... follow me down the rabbit hole...

A woman by the name of Chenzira Molenko has gotten into the contact with several different people and invited them all to meet up with her at one of their homes.





She talks about living in South Africa during apartheid and spending most of her days at a small arcade. One day, she found a broken arcade machine in the back of the place...







She tells them to watch this game playthrough and see if it makes them feel something. As they watch, they all these flashbacks to an event that happened that year: a vampiress, dead body, a person burned against a wall, and a priest exorcising a demon.

This pisses one of them off...



The medic guy leaves, but the rest decide to stay and listen to her...



A page later, we check in with the medic...



He checks on this individual, who turns out to be that mysterious game designer from Geekforce.






Don't you think? Through the looking glass, now.




The comic then ends with the current Alice switching place with the one on the ground, going limp while the other comes to life to take over.



If this didn't make much sense to you... well reading the full issue won't help much either I'm afraid.

But more later...

Comments

[zapbiffpow]

I can't dig the execution (although it hurts slightly less on a re-read, swear), but I very, very dig the premise/story.

It's like one of those old stereogram images: plenty of surface interference, but there's hopefully something good underneath. I question the decision to have the meta-origin be a video game, though.

[baihu]

"Prepare to die", huh?

*rests at bonfire*
*attune pyromancy*
*lifts up Ultra Greatsword*

Time to ring the Bells of Awakening!

...

Seriously if this going to be about a video game, using the tagline 'Prepare to die' is just begging to be referred to Dark Souls. Which given the premise, might not be a coincidence.

[thezmage]

Okay, you have my attention.

[thezmage]

Just finished the first two issues. Thanks for posting this.

[informationgeek]

No problem. I may not like this series, but hey, glad someone is getting something out of it.