Hope everyone enjoys reading the review!
-Amazonagent
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Review - Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward #1
IDW is one of the best comic book publishers out there today. Making a name for it self with the best selling title 30 Days of Night and it's subsequent sequels IDW has established it self as the go to place for quality horror themed comics. So it seemed a natural fit that IDW would team up with video game publisher Konami and transform their best selling video game franchise Silent Hill into comic book form in 2004. While the books did well with it's initial five issue series Silent Hill: Dying Inside, and it's subsequent sequels (Among The Damned, Paint It Black, and The Grinning Man) the books still felt something was missing. Whether it be the writing that suffered by trying to play around too much with an already established and complex mythology from the games or artwork that at times felt a little less than creative with creatures taken from the games and unceremoniously dropped into the story with no rhyme or reason; fans of the beloved series were left wanting something more. Although there were rumors that IDW was done with the Silent Hill series thankfully in 2007 they decided to give it one more go around and hired writer Tom Waltz and artist Steph Stamb to bring us Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward.
As a huge fan of Silent Hill I did rather enjoy some of the previous comics that were released but I like many of the Silent Hill I fans felt more could be done with this franchise in this medium. And when learning about Sinner's Reward I was a bit skeptical about this comic. Even after seeing some of the preview images of the artwork (which were fantastic) I still withheld judgment on the book. Well after reading this first issue I can emphatically say to my fellow Silent Hill fans, this is a comic worthy of having the name "Silent Hill" on it's cover!
Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward opens up with our protagonist a mob hitman, Jack "The Pup" Stanton, trying to convince himself to end his own life. Wow! Jack then back tracks from that moment and tell of how this all began with him and his girlfriend, Jillian Conway, who are on the run from his mobster boss/her very pissed off husband. After traveling for several hours they feel fortune turns to their favor when they pull over at a rest stop for a break. Unfortunately for them they stop next to Silent Hill. From there on, as the saying goes quite often in Silent Hill, all hell breaks loose! I won't go into too many details but circumstances cause Jack to be separated from Jill and he is forced to go into Silent Hill to find her (the nursery rhyme reference is highly intentional and even referenced to in the book in a demented way
). Tom Waltz has done an excellent job so far of crafting an engaging and compelling story that feels like a crime drama or a story from a film noir. The use of the main character's internal dialog is never cheesy and helps give you insight into the protagonists back story and mindset in nice brief chunks. There is great set up for you to feel some compassion for Jackie but yet you are still aware that he has done some bad things in his lifetime and they will come back to haunt him. The artwork by Stamb solidifies the 'noir' feel with non-cartoony, realistic looking characters and settings but uses a nice "grain filter" over the panels. Even in the daytime scenes there is a sense of shadow as if the sun is covered in with a black scarf. It's quite effective and even stronger in the "darker" panels. You never get the sense that there are birds chirping or furry creatures scurrying around in Silent Hill, maybe skinned creatures are present but never furry ones. It's also nice to see Stamb has taken recognizable visual elements from the games (a neon 'Kiss' sign once seen in a certain gentleman's club) and the movie (the ominous 'Welcome To Silent Hill' sign from the movie) and used them sparingly yet effectively through out the panels. It's definitely a nice use of fan service in the comic book. Sinner's Reward definitely has a Silent Hill 2 feel to it (a darling favorite in the series for many fans) which is a good thing since the focus is more on the characters and their struggle to survive through their own personal demons and the demons that roam Silent Hill rather than try to get involved with the complex mythology of Silent Hill. I feel this is the best choice for presenting a new chapter is the Silent Hill saga.
From what I've read so far this is in my opinion the best offering in the series of Silent Hill comics from IDW. There are still 4 more issues to come and I can only hope Tom and Steph can keep the momentum going with Sinner's Reward. I am dying to see what happens to Jack and Jill when they are in the town proper. I think fans who were disappointed with the previous Silent Hill comics will read this comic with a sense of relief that the writer and artist of this book crafted it with a real sense of care and commitment to do the Silent Hill name justice.
-Tanya Hernandez (Amazonagent)
