Richard is having a rough time. He is living the life of a shut-in. He can't stand to have any human interactions because he doesn't see people as they current are. He sees how they are going to die. He thinks that is as bad as it can get, until one day it gets so much worse.

I loved this story. It is radically different from the types of graphic novels I normally read. It's dark and graphic (in a bloody kind of way).. It also has a great story with a satisfying ending and characters that I was invested in.

A little thin on plot. I liked the cover art, but was a little disappointed by the actual art. I don't think I could incorporate this in the classroom.

I liked how clean the art was and I liked the premise but it just didn’t give you enough. You sort of get backstory Richard but some of it is extraneous and those pages would have better served getting more into The Order or the dude that chases him the whole book.

The essence of dark afterlife stories resound around the aspect of how far the story needs to go within the psychosis of what is happening. The impact of what allows or prevents people from getting to the other side is always a tricky psychological progression. In “Tortured Life [Dan Watters & Neil Gibson/TPub/164pgs], the main character begins at a certain age, seeing déjà vu of how people might die. This overcomes his entire life so much so that he becomes a shut in. He knows that his girlfriend would leave him but even worse he shuts down all connection to the outside world. After a year, he realizes that he needs to venture out. This decision is ultimately his undoing. The visions become worse than ever before. A dead girl Alice comes upon him and essentially opens up the rabbit hole. The question that comes up in the reader’s mind is if he is dead already once a red skeleton figure tries to kill him. Tis “Bloodyman” as he is called leaves a vicious and extremely graphic wake of destruction. This graphic novel is a little harder than most giving it more edge but less mainstream appeal. One specific sequence in a bar and then with the killing of a cop, who happens to be Alice’s dad, reveals the existence of The Order which is not a very well detailed organization. Beyond his Reaper-like status we also don’t learn as much about the “Bloodyman” as we would like in terms of character structure. His existence as a metaphor is fairly two dimensional. The eventual reveal of our lead as a gate to the after world and his eventual sacrifice give closure but it almost seems like a way out despite being archetypally the correct one.

C
By Tim Wassberg

Tortured Life reads like a hack novelization of a gore-drenched heavy metal concept album, and it’s about as well-plotted as your average double-LP. In fact, the art wouldn’t look out-of-place on a metal band poster, especially when the skull-faced villain shows up and starts killing people.

Rich seems like a nice, normal young man. He has a good job and a beautiful girlfriend, but then one day he starts having visions of how everything and everyone around him is going to die. When the visions don’t go away, his life quickly falls apart and he is left friendless and alone. The book opens on the day he decides to commit suicide because he saw his own death in the mirror.

However, unbeknownst to Rich, his nearness to death opens a door to the underworld, letting through both a helpful ghost girl and the murderous Bloodyman – that aforementioned skull-faced killer.

The ghost girl, Alice, sticks around just long enough to point Rich at some exposition before disappearing from the story until the end. The explanation for her absence is that crossing over to the world of the living is difficult and dangerous, so she can’t keep going back and forth, but it makes her feel even more like a lazy plot device.

When the explanation for Rich’s visions arrives, it is both incredibly convoluted and completely nonsensical. The revelation doesn’t tie in thematically to his visions of death, and Rich and Alice respond to the explanation by as much as throwing up their hands and moving on. The ending is ultimately both anticlimactic and dour.

To be honest, I also really wasn’t a fan of the art style. The book’s cover is eye-catching enough that it drew me in, but the interior art just didn’t do it for me. It’s slightly similar to the cartoony style of the Chew books, but seems ill-suited to Tortured Life’s bleak tone.

However, I think I would have forgiven the art if I’d liked the story and characters more. Tortured Life was an underwhelming read, and I can’t recommend it.