Worry Doll

This was a genuinely terrifying graphic novel. Horror fans, this is not to be missed!

Unnerving and Memorable

Part way through this fascinating book I finally realized what it was that kept niggling at my mind. This book is like the graphic novel step-child of the stop motion animation of the Brothers Quay, pioneers of gothic surrealism. Check out one of their shorts on YouTube or something like that and you'll see what I mean. (Maybe it was their use of creepy porcelain doll heads on weird metal and rag bodies that drove me to these connection.)

Like the Quay's work, this book is dark, dense and claustrophobic. Each page melds two extremes to create a single disturbing image. On the one hand we have finely, almost obsessively, detailed pen and ink drawings. But against those detailed and almost photo realistic backgrounds we have the doll character figures, which are almost cartoonish blanks. Imagine a classic urban landscape painting, (say Hopper's "Nighthawks"), but then populate it with really creepy, leering stick figures. That's a suggestion of the effect you get here.

It is not a gimmick and it doesn't come across as merely an academic exercise. These are so discordant, noir and visceral that the reader is both fascinated and disturbed. I'm not sure how you can be precise and evasive at the same time, but Coyle achieves that on every page. This is just a remarkable book.

For what it's worth, the book opens with a foreward by Shaun Tan, a big deal in the world of graphic artists and the creator of several very successful books. I skimmed the intro, concluded than Tan was a pretty self-absorbed baloney artist, and moved on. About half-way through the book I decided I might benefit from Tan's thoughts. Rereading his intro closely, with the benfit of having looked at Coyle's work, I found the Tan intro to be thoughtful, coherent and constructive. So I apologize to Shaun Tan for dismissing his foreward, and encourage you to look at it at some point when reading this book. Just saying.

Anyway, if you pay any attention at all to graphic novels, or if you just want a taste of what's at the cutting edge, this strikes me as a fine choice and an excellent find.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

This visual piece of storytelling is unique in it's images, and the short pieces of writing that accompany those images. It is disjointed and leaves the reader unnerved.

This superb and disturbing horror story Is told in alternating text and wordless illustration. The text is deliberately disturbing, alluding to violence and threat. The illustrations are meticulous pen and ink drawings done with a steady and subtle hand. The style is photo realistic in the service of magic realism and horror. Lighting is harsh with high contrast. Often there are hidden images suggesting violence. The use of figure/ground adds layers of meaning to many images. All in all a most satisfying novel, albeit deliberately disturbing.