Now that people have largely stopped trying to be “The Walking Dead”, we’re starting to see some really great and unique work in horror comics, ranging from “The New Deadwardians” at Vertigo to books like “Ragemoor” from Dark Horse. And a lot of it is coming from IDW, with minis like “Road Rage” and “Frankenstein: Alive, Alive!”, which is worth getting for Bernie Wrightson’s gorgeous art alone.
But “Night of 1000 Wolves” is something else again.
Bobby Curnow, the writer, largely works as an editor at IDW: he only seems to have written one other book, a Godzilla comic. The key thing about “Night of 1000 Wolves” is that it moves. Curnow sketches in his characters, gets the threat to the family set up, and establishes that he’s not screwing around with a brutal splash panel halfway through the book. A nice touch is that the book is set in the Middle Ages, but not in a fantasy world, per se.
Dave Wachter, on the other hand, is an experienced comic artist, and here the art’s a nice mix of tribute to Wrightson and reflection of “fairy tale” type art. It’s superbly drawn, and he manages to create atmosphere without sacrificing any realism or detail.
In short, if you’re looking for something new at the FLCS, especially in horror, this is worth picking up. It’s not trying to be anything other than thrilling and scary, and it pulls it off handily.