The Autumnal

August 16, 2021
Kraus (The Shape of Water) and newcomer Shehan weave a creepy horror tale from the threads of past sins in a small town where malevolent forces lurk behind a picturesque facade. Kat Somerville’s mother sent her away when she was nine years old. Twenty-five years later, Kat is called back to Comfort Notch, N.H., for her mother’s funeral and to the home she’s inherited. When Kat and her daughter Sybil accept the generosity of a man who then suddenly dies (“He choked on leaves,” reports his young son), his widow blames Kat. As her life spirals into chaos, Kat becomes fascinated by rumors around Clementine Biddle, a woman said to live in the trees, and digs into the history of Comfort Notch, including a deadly fire at a skating rink in 1996, and learns that Clementine “always gets her revenge in the end.” It turns out the comforts of Comfort Notch come at a price: the blood of children just like Sybil. Superb, fall-toned art plays on a recurring theme of leaves. The gripping, violent plot and the sharply drawn mother-daughter dynamic at its core are a complex combo that will easily satisfy genre fans. Agent: Richard Abate (for Daniel Kraus), 3 Arts.

Starred review from September 15, 2021
Kat Somerville will never win any -mother-of-the-year awards. She shows up at the principal's office black-eyed after her seven-year-old daughter, Sybil, bloodied another kid's nose; rather than any admonishments, Kat brings Sybil a Stephen King novel. The rebellious pair abandon not only the school but Chicago, headed to Comfort Notch, New Hampshire, where Kat's estranged mother recently died. Kat spent her first nine years in Comfort Notch, "Home of America's Prettiest Autumn," until her mother inexplicably threw her out 25 years ago. After an initially rough -adjustment--Kat's not the trusting type--kindness seems to be the town motto. They've been gifted a car, they inherit a house, and Sybil is happy. But Kat's not wrong: strange memorials, eerie shadows, those endless leaves . . . and then Sybil comes home with the name "Clementine" on her lips, and suddenly Kat is starting to "remember things." Corpses (past and present) are multiplying, and Kat needs answers fast as death encroaches. Bestselling Kraus makes his graphic debut with another terror-inducing narrative, brilliantly visualized by Shehan and Wordie (lettered by Jim Campbell). The full-color, saturated artwork never slows down, the unpredictable panels constantly in motion as if unable to hold the story back. The petrifying horror won't be contained--"She grows. She waits."

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