Roseville #1 is a comic written by Jeofrey Cotton with art by Aaron Moran. An engineer’s job assignment sends him to the strange town of Roseville. This is supernatural horror comic with science fiction elements and a pervasive eeriness. The main man for this story is Alex Brenner, he is an environmental engineer with three kids and a wife. His work regularly sends him away for his family for weeks at a time. This story begins with another man, one out on a date with a woman he met off an app. At the end of their date he is invited back to her place which is a large manor in a southern style. She tells him to sit and wait and this is when things get interesting and strange. Roseville is a rough-looking town with a very eerie atmosphere. The violence here is very bloody and gory with gruesome moments. The pacing here is steady with an overall unsettling tone. The intensity here goes up and down which is common for the horror genre. The dialogue is split between being conversational back-and-forth and outside narration. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is a debut horror comic that will have you on your toes as the story is creepy and may make you uneasy.

            The art here looks like a mix of detailed sketches and lifelike drawings. The coloring here has a slight fuzziness and the range is very wide with an overall dark tone. Outside of a few shots of a thick forest there isn’t much scenery here as most moments take place in buildings or nearby. The primary location for this story is Roseville itself with the manor, a gas station, and the engineering facility, as well the areas around these places. The backgrounds always show the surroundings of the scene which adds extra weight and will keep you locked into the story. The expression level here is a bit below-average as the characters can sometimes seem stiff and lifeless. The range of emotions goes from confusion to fear with the rare smile. The faces here look very lifelike as if a photo were drawn over. This leads to some expressions coming across well and others seeming flat and wooden. The violence here features gruesome attacks with large pools of blood and gratuitous gore. The action scenes flow well and have a decent amount of panels.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural horror stories with science fiction elements starring men and featuring violence and drama then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, blood, gore.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“I still can’t believe this is really happening!”

 

Physical Link: https://keyngdomcomics.com/products/roseville-1-cover-a

Digital Link: https://keyngdomcomics.com/products/roseville-1-digital-version

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/awfulthoughtscomic/roseville-1/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 4, for 17% 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 – 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 – 2

“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.”