Page 45 Review by Jonathan
“They don’t say anything, there’s no chanting or praying or horror movie bollocks.
“They don’t light fucking candles.
“It’s that shit they pour into him, fuck alone knows where they get it or what they’ve done to it.
“Then they seal it in.”
“Seal...?”
“Bodily orifices. All nine.
“It’s a nightmare. It’s truly fucking horrible. But...
“There’s still nothing impossible about it. It’s a load of maniacs torturing some poor prick, but it isn’t anything more than that.
“And then... then it gets impossible.”
The conversation in question is taking place between three American soldiers, the survivors of a helicopter crash in remotest Afghanistan and a small squad of S.A.S. who’ve been operating deep behind enemy lines. The British special forces are recounting what little they’ve managed to learn about the near-unstoppable, wraith-like figures that have been marauding around the local villages killing indiscriminately. The S.A.S. have christened them the Stitched due to their horrific mutilated appearance, which it’s fair to say isn’t the tidiest bit of needle point you’re likely to see. Unless you’re one of the poor unfortunates who has had the procedure performed on them, then you’re not likely to see a great deal. Or hear, or smell, or taste, or... well... you get the picture.
There is of course nothing indiscriminate about what the Stitched are doing which is where we pick up our tale, as the military allies find themselves dragged deeper and deeper into a nightmare there’s certainly going to be no easy escape from. You may or may not be aware that this work is based on a short film Ennis wrote and which was released in 2011. That film roughly tallies up with the events of issue #1. Issues #2-#6 then pan out along the lines of what Ennis wrote as the full length screenplay, though that at present hasn’t been put into production. It is intended this will be an ongoing series though, and certainly this first arc poses considerably more questions than it reveals answers to about the Stitched, their origins, their motivations and who precisely are the evil bastards behind their creation. Fans of Ennis, particularly CROSSED, will certainly get their pound of flesh, but there is a fair bit more going on here than just out-and-out carnage. Appropriately disturbing art from Mike Wolfer, who may be familiar to people from his horror / magic collaboration GRAVEL with Warren Ellis. Surprised he’s not had his turn illustrating CROSSED actually, no doubt he will at some point.
