A Walk Through Hell : The Complete Series, by Garth Ennis, with artist Goran Sudzuka, colorist Ive Svorcina and letterer Rob Stein.

FBI Special Agents Shaw and McGregor are working routine cases, haunted by their past investigation of a child snatcher and killer. Shaw is hard edged and cynical. McGregor is more of an idealist. They make for perfect partners, and they quickly grow on us.

One day, they are informed of the disappearance of two colleagues who were on a warehouse stakeout. They entered said warehouse, and never came back. The local cops sent a SWAT team in, which came back out, terrified, less than a minute after entry. Shaw and McGregor decide to go inside and search for their fellow agents themselves. Then, they wake up dead on the floor. Or, are they ?

I have first been surprised by the art, which can seem minimalist depending on what you’ve read before. It is closer to the Franco-Belgian school of comics (but not to the point of ligne claire). Anyway, you quickly get used to it, and it serves the story well, allowing the reader to focus on important details, with a dynamic use of panels layout. The facial expressions are particularly lively, and sometimes remindful of the best directed episodes of Timm/Dini’s Batman : TAS.

The story, however, is way darker. The title isn’t misleading. If I had to attribute a style to it, I would call it X-Files noir, with a pinch of David Lynch.

It’s not told in a linear fashion. Intertwined in the warehouse search are multiple time jumps to past events, mostly focusing on the investigation I was mentioning above, but not solely. As such, it is a story you have to read with great focus. Not only on the written word, but also on the art.

Now what is it about, exactly ? It’s hard to describe in words, and even harder to do it without spoiling. It is about the nature of evil. I mentioned David Lynch earlier, because it can be as disturbing and thought provoking than some of Lynch’s works.

Serious catholics might not like what the writer is trying to tell us, as won’t readers leaning to the orange side of the political range. But, that’s Garth Ennis for you. No compromises.

If you keep an open mind, this is pure genius.

Heartful thanks to Aftershock Comics, Diamond Book Distributors, and Netgalley for the ARC provided in exchange for this unbiased review.

Title: A WALK THROUGH HELL: THE COMPLETE SERIES
Authors: Garth Ennis, Goran Sudzuka
Publisher: Diamond Book Distributors - AfterShock Comics
ISBN: 9781949028423
Edition: E-Book
Publication date: 19/05/2020


Content:
The two FBI agents, Shaw and McGregor, couldn't be more different. Shaw is 40 and still recovering from her last big investigation. McGregor is younger and is ready to fight everything that comes in his way. Both are dealing with normal, not very exhausting cases.

Suddenly, they get sucked in a case that will be the most difficult in their whole FBI careers.

Opinion:
In my opinion it is a very thrilling comic. I totally got sucked into it and couldn't stop reading it till the end. The characters were described in a way that made it impossible to not feel with them. Actually, it is one of the most interessting and exciting comics I've ever read till now. Also, the pictures were really nice and I definitely liked looking at them a lot.

Conclusion:
All in all, this is a well written and definitelly thrilling comic book, I would highly recommend for people who love comics and also thrilling and exciting stories.

After reading "Preacher" and "The Boys", this graphic novel felt... amateur.

Politically, it was annoying. The metaphors were explained in detail so much that it was a constant punch in the face. I love Garth and his graphic novels in they are intelligent and extremely deep. This one wasn't. It felt like he tried too hard.

Super disappointed in A Walk Through Hell.

120 Pages of Mood and Monologuing, Followed by Lots More of the Same

So, two F.B.I. agents walk into a warehouse, and it turns out to be a gateway to their own personal hell. They have some sins left over from their last case, and it may be time to pay up. Volume 1, which collected the first five issues of the story, started with a bang, got stuck on idle/background-fill for the majority of its run, and then ended with a cliffhanger after having made very little progress. Everyone hoped Volume 2, (the remaining final seven issues), would pick up the pace and go somewhere. Nope. More politics and monologuing and navel gazing, punctuated by graphic violence. This "Complete Series" comprises all twelve issues, so here you'll get the entire run.

Flashbacks are fine, especially when a story is being set up. But this book has multiple flashbacks, some of which are only tangentially related to the story, and the flashbacks contain so little context that it takes a long time to begin to string them together into a coherent backstory. What doesn't help is that every major character is either hiding something or in denial, so every fact has to be teased out of a reluctant speaker. I think that's supposed to be dramatic, but what it feels like is watching a lawyer depose an uncooperative witness. Flashbacks and storytelling just shouldn't be this hard.

But you keep reading because the creepy mood, (and the implicit promise of superior creepiness to come), hooks you. In the beginning this reminded me a great deal of that Sam Neill cult sci-fi movie "Event Horizon", in which a gateway to Hell opens on an abandoned space ship and some rescuers get sucked down into the void. You hope that this may ultimately head that way, (and for some readers it did and for some it didn't), but either way it's a long, very talky, politically predictable ride to get there.

The art supports the story, but doesn't add much in the way of Wow!. Flashbacks are drawn crisp and clear, so apart from some characters looking alike you at least get a clean visual sense of what's happening. The warehouse scenes are all dark and shadowy, so I was curious to see how it would be drawn once we came out of the shadows and the action ramped up. Turns out we just stayed in shadows the whole way.

The bottom line for me was that this had a lot of promise and enough successful set pieces inside the warehouse to keep reading. But it felt like it could have been a lot more.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

I just attempted to download this and got a protected acsm file that isnt a pdf. I am unable to convert to pdf and am unable to send this to my kindle device to read.
I was very excited to check it out, but I simply dont have the technology or time to attempt to do multiple file conversions and have to pay for an updated adobe software bundle to be able to read this.
Apologies.
I was looking forward to reading this - big fan of Ennis.

The X-Files walks into a warehouse and enters a supernatural version of True Detective. A Walk Through Hell is a horror, detective thriller with some disturbing imagery. A macabre version of The Twilight Zone.

Two FBI agents enter a warehouse and nine hours later they still haven't come back out. A tactical unit (SWAT) is sent in to the same warehouse to find out what happened. They immediately come back out and, without a word, lock themselves in their armoured vehicle.

Things jump back and forth between the current situation and a previous case that didn't quite come together... There's a connection but it's not really clear... It's hinted at... Almost teased out... Just enough intrigue to keep those pages turning... Because once you're sucked in you're hooked and you've got to see where this whole crazy thing is going.

The art is first rate. The plot seems intentionally muddled so that, as a reader, you're always a little off balance - much like the characters themselves. Often I found myself having to stop and reread a page or sequence. Normally I would find that very annoying but it actually works pretty well in this case by adding an extra element that draws you deeper into things.

It's long for a graphic novel (just short of 300 pages), some of the religious symbolism and portents of a dystopian future felt tedious and overplayed.

Fans of graphic horror will probably enjoy this one. There are aspects of the supernatural, end of days, and some psychological thriller stuff going on as well.

Strong language, violence, graphic images of horror, definitely a hard R-Rating. NOT suitable for more sensitive readers.

***Thanks to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, and AfterShock Comics for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I had previously read part of this series and felt frustrated that I did not know or could guess how it would all pan out.
Having read the complete series I am still confused and uncertain of the linear story within this intriguing graphic novel. The comic is a creative masterpiece and the drawing is stark and its imagary quite horrific. Perhaps a satire on modern America and its political values and general corruption. It also dwells on evil. It contrasts that of a child abuser with organisation corruption. Elevates moral judgements against subverting the law by direct action. It holds that taking of a life for whatever purpose is still 'murder' and when exercising political power the worse practises should be seen. Yet due to slight of hand, financial manipulation and a trusting, god fearing society, evil often goes unnoticed.

The story focuses on the work of two FBI agents their inability to successfully bring an investigation to a positive arrest and get the guilty verdict their crimes deserve. Meanwhile, we find a siege situation becomes a journey into self-awareness and a dreamlike state, where emotions are stretched in not just facing up to one's past (judgement) but a fear sown that one's life was based on inadequate knowledge and one's faith misplaced. Even if it is: ' In God WE Trust', how can we seriously move forward when evil is more prevalent? What if God and the Devil were one and a time of enlightment was over? Indeed, now was the time of darkness; an actual walk into Hell.

The comic has this cross over from historic events in the life of these federal agents and then this encounter with their worse nightmares which propels them into an alternative reality and not only plays with their minds but breaks their spirits.

I can see why as a series these comics were popular and instalments eagerly anticipated and read. Reading them as a whole piece, I feel confused and unsure of the beginning or the end. Not certain what was the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end. But I enjoyed the experience.
When you stand on firm ground after the worse ride imaginable in a theme park, you perhaps can't explain the g forces at work, remember the number of left or right turns or how many times you spun upside down. You may even have thrown up that hamburger you had earlier but if someone asks if you will go again, you form an orderly queue and say things like "it was amazing", "the best ride ever" and totally awesome"..

I was very excited to read through this series, as I enjoy both horror and comics/graphic novels. However, I think I've learned that I'm not a huge fan of horror comics, especially where there's a lot of body horror.

Even though I wasn't the biggest fan, I still think the series was extremely well illustrated and colored, and I think the story was intriguing. I would definitely read more from this publisher and from this writer, but I'm sad this wasn't a perfect fit for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this title in exchange for an honest review.