Comic Info
Comic Name: Something Is Killing the Children
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Writer: James Tynion IV
Artist: Werther Dell’edera
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2020
Something Is Killing the Children #2
Reprints Something Is Killing the Children #1-5 (September 2019-January 2020). James has never been one of the popular kids in Archer’s Peak, but when his friends are murdered, he becomes a murder suspect in the eyes of community. Children have been disappearing all over Archer’s Peak and James’s friends are just the most recent. With the police finding no answers and investigations stalled, it appears that the death of the children has been forgotten. Erica Slaughter has arrived in Archer’s Peak on a job…to kill the monster that is stalking the town. Teaming with James, Erica has to work fast…something is killing the children.
Written by James Tynion IV, Something Is Killing the Children—Volume 1 is a Boom! Studios horror comic book. With art by Werther Dell’edera, the series was released to positive reviews and sales. The volume collects the “The Angel of Archer’s Peak” storyline and was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best New Series in 2020.
Something Is Killing the Children is the type of comic in my wheelhouse, but I let it slide for a while. When I finally got around to reading it, two collections were already out. I read this volume and bought the second volume the next day.
The series has some interesting horror elements. Usually kids are “safe” in horror movies. If a kid gets killed, you know a horror movie isn’t hold back anything. In Something Is Killing the Children, literally kids are the ones at risk…adults can’t see the monsters hunting them. In the short five issues, kids get murders and the “hero” kid gets gut-shot. It doesn’t pull many punches.
Something Is Killing the Children #4
The odd part of the series is the main character Erica Slaughter. With this volume, you learn that she’s probably twenty-something, works for a mysterious cabal, kills monsters for a living, and talks to a stuffed octopus that appears to hear as a spirit creature…I hope more answers are coming soon in regards to her character. I feel that the series does better with the horror than the fantasy/conspiracy aspect (which kind of reminds me of something like Trollhunter).
Something Is Killing the Children—Volume 1 is a great start to an interesting and fun series with potential. I don’t know where the series is going and where I suspected the series was going to go was upended a bit by the end of the collection. A lot of the Boom! Studios collections I’ve read have been less locked into the “storyline” aspect of comics than Marvel or DC and the end of a volume doesn’t necessarily mean a story is wrapped up nice and neat with the bigger story continuing. It appears that the episodic story of volume 1 could continue on while the bigger questions may remain buried for a while. Something Is Killing the Children—Volume 1 is followed by Something Is Killing the Children—Volume 2.
Related Links:
Something Is Killing the Children—Volume 2
