Siege Town is a comic created by Benjamin Ruffett with art by Andrey Portilla and colors by Christian Ramirez. Two Americans make a detour at an eerie town in Russia and find themselves in world of trouble. This is a story that veers from horror to thriller but maintains an atmosphere of terror. Our leading lads are Robert and Charles; Charles is more wary and uneasy while Robert isn’t afraid to get down and dirty. Another key character is Igor, a strange man with an aura that makes others very uncomfortable. Because this is a thriller I don’t want to spoil the plot but I will say that the whole town takes an interest in these guys and there is a language barrier that throws a monkey wrench into an already intense situation. There is a lot of action here and it gets bloody and gory. Like most horror media this is as far from sunshine and rainbows as can be. The pace here is prefect, we have a slow and steady buildup before it launches into the meat of the story. The dialogue is to the point and never gets too wordy. Some sentences are in Russian and aren’t translated so we feel the same confusion and fear our leads do. This is a very exciting and succinct horror thriller that will leave you satisfied because after all the ups and downs it wraps up the story perfectly.

            This comic has art that seems focused on drawing the life out of everything, even static objects like the buildings and roads. We see a number of stone buildings with age on them and roads made by wear-and-tear over the years. The central location for this story is an inn that looks plain but contains some oddities. This is an extremely expressive comic which is almost necessary for a comic with these themes. The faces here always get the brunt of the detail so we can see every emotion they feel come across clearly. The uneasiness, boiling anger, and overall fear of the characters are visually palpable. I’d say most of the people here have a slim build but we do get a wider range of body types. The action here is true to the horror genre with gratuitous blood, maiming, and open wounds. Most of the action here is from a distance but we do have some close up violence. This is some gore but way more blood and some additional nasty effects. The dress of the Russians seems to be accurate for the time.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like horror and thriller tales starring people who are in situations they don’t fully understand and are grasping at straws while attempting to survive this is for you.

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

R. Blood, gore, horror, death.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“We can’t stay here. I’m sorry, we can’t help you. We have to leave.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/witchinghourcomics/siege-town/description

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 77

Violent Pages: 24, for 31% 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 – 4

“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 – 4

“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.”