Hollow is a comic created by Mick Beyers. Ichabod Crane is attempting to awaken an old god. This is a supernatural comic with strong horror and drama that stars a witch, a sinister man and a town full of women. The leading lady for this tale is Katrina, she is a witch who lives with her father while her mother roams the woods. The main man is Ichabod Crane, he is a school teacher with strange powers who is manipulating people in order to raise a god that rests nearby. The story begins with Katrina in a lake sacrificing a deer to “The God That Sleeps” in order to keep it slumbering. Afterwards she returns home where she gets into an argument with her father about the new school teacher; her father doesn’t trust him. The perspective then shifts to Ichabod Crane as he teaches his class a strange lesson. The violence here is very bloody with some gruesomeness and gore. The pacing is overall steady but it fluctuates and at times can be a bit confusing to follow. The tone is eerie and creepy with a period piece horror vibe. There are many intense moments due to danger, violence, and drama. The dialogue is delivered in a poetic, Proper English style with a decent amount of back-and-forth and narration from unspecified sources. There are no word-heavy pages. This comic is an interesting Lovecraftian retelling of Sleepy Hollow that will keep you intrigued and uncomfortable as you wait and see if this sleeping god will be woken up. There are also two bonus stories that serve as mini prequels and sequels to the main tale.

            The art here is detailed, a bit cartoonish, and in black-and-white with strong use of shadows and lighting. The scenery is tree-heavy as there are many forest scenes along with hills and a lake. Due to the shifting perspectives the location changes frequently from the homes of various denizens to the schoolhouse to the church and to different areas of the woods. Each of these different places have unique surroundings and the backgrounds do a good job of reflecting these. The expression level here is very high as the looks these characters give do as much, if not more, heavy-lifting than the words. The range of emotions are everywhere from sadness and fear to anger and happiness with sinister versions of these as well. Overall the faces have a high amount of detail and they get animated on occasion which helps the different expressions come across very strongly. There is some somewhat strong face sameness as there are a large number of blonde women and you will probably confuse them with each other. The mystical effects are shadow heavy and you might not always notice them. The violence here usually involves knives and swords. There are many rough and gruesome attacks that lead to gore and a large amount of blood. The action scenes usually come in short bursts and they tend to flow smoothly. There is a lot of nudity and sexual scenes play a major part in the story.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like the supernatural horror stories starring a cast of mostly women and featuring Lovecraftian vibes along with heavy drama and violence then this is for you. Also for fans of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, blood, gore, nudity, sexual situations.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Does any of it matter if we’re all dead anyway?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hmyc/hollow-an-adult-lovecraftian-horror-story/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 107

Violent Pages: 17, for 16% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 13, for 12% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 5

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 3

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 4

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”