With its landmark series, The Walking Dead, and many other titles like it, Image has brought horror comics back into the spotlight. By focusing on talented visionaries with unique voices, Image has published a variety of horror comics that blend horrifying monstrosities, personal narratives, and social commentary. Image Comics is set to combine all three once again with the uniquely jazz-infused horror of Blue In Green.
Taking its title from a Miles Davis song, Blue In Green is about a jazz musician whose ambitions threaten to take on a life of their own as they once did for his predecessor. Few plot details beyond this are known about the comic at this time but the preview panels provided by Image offer a glimpse at the protagonist and his struggle. The comic’s horror seems to come more from the main character’s psychology than anything physical. Readers can expect horrifying images of the musician’s nightmares. In the preview pages, the protagonist is on the edge of a panic attack at his mother’s funeral. Visions of his mother decaying inside her coffin for the rest of eternity haunt him. Other images such as the protagonist falling out of a plane and his screaming face broken up by the panel layout offer similarly terrifying imagery.
Coming from the creative team of writer Ram V and artist Anand RK, Blue In Green is a personal project for the two creators. “The protagonist, in many ways, is me. I have used myself as reference to draw him, grew a beard, for this reason, many of my own little personal traits have made their way into him,” said RK. The duo previously worked together on the graphic novel Grafity’s Wall which was a similarly personal narrative about the burden of creativity. Ram V is a writer well known for his work across the comics industry with high profile titles like Batman.
Though the drips of information about the comic might not seem horrific, the preview pages show just how terrifying psychology can be. RK’s art manages to be both surreal and grounded at the same time. The splotches of color contrast with rigid lines to make reading the comic a disorienting and dizzying experience. Particular praise goes to the colors by John J. Pearson which convey the protagonist’s decaying mental state through the use of distant blues and sickening splashes of yellow. Ram V’s announcement of the series on Twitter was met with an outpouring of support from the comic community. Artist Christian Ward, who has a similarly dreamlike style to RK, complimented the preview pages and said they made him want to make bolder choices as an artist.
With its psychological horror, haunting artwork, and original premise Blue In Green is definitely worth paying attention to. Look for Blue In Green when it releases in October.
