Amor Patris #1(formerly known as The Grey Man) is a comic written by Aaron Wroblewski with art by Hernan Gonzalez. A police chief is sent to a farm where two of his officers have lost communication. This is a supernatural horror comic starring police officers that gets violent with a good dose of drama and some mystery. The main man here is the Chief, he is an older man with an ornery disposition and a lot of gumption along with a kinder side when necessary. His dispatch officer is Nicol and the missing officers are Billy and Abby. This story begins with the Chief at a gas station buying some beer when he is interrupted by Nicol telling him that Billy’s last communication has her worried about their situation. The Chief drives over to the Anderson Farm where everything is eerily quiet and he begins to investigate. The violence here is bloody and gory with a lot of gruesomeness. The pacing here is faster than average as there isn’t that much talking overall. The tone is like that of a horror movie and the intensity is heightened due to danger, drama, and violence. The dialogue is conversational with decent back-and-forth and there are no word-heavy pages. This is a debut issue that delivers on the unsettling, mysterious, and violent horror as we follow a police chief searching for his officers.

            The art here is very detailed and in black-and-white with a somewhat gritty and realistic style and heavy shading. For scenery we have some trees and bushes but most of this story takes place indoors. The main location is the farmhouse which is very large and has many rooms. They’ll visit the kitchen, bedrooms, storage rooms, and even the outdoors. The backgrounds are split between showing the surroundings and being a hazy, cloudy mix of black and white. The expression level here is high as these characters constantly react to what is going on. The main emotions here are fear, unease, terror, horror, anger, and rage. The faces are very detailed as they are almost realistic and they show the different feelings very strongly. There isn’t necessarily face sameness but due to the heavy shading you might get some of the characters mixed up. The violence here is primarily delivered via guns from hand guns to shotguns. There is a lot of blood here along with gruesome moments that lead to gore. The action scenes come in short bursts with a flow you can follow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural horror comics starring unwitting police officers and taking place on a farm with violence, drama, and some gory moments then this is for you.

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

R. Blood, gruesomeness, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Her? Who’s he talking about?”

 

Purchase Link: https://oceaniacom.com/product/amor-patris-1/

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/a-aron/the-grey-man-1-a-supernatural-horror/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 28

Violent Pages: 6, for 21% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% 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 – 4

“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 – 1

“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.”