Written by Ryan Ferrier and Brian Level
Art by Kate Sherron
Published by Oni Press
Silk Hills is a recent horror graphic novel by writer Brian Level and Ryan Ferrier, illustrated by Kate Sherron. It’s well written and well-paced—if a bit drawn out overall. The problem I had with it is I just didn’t care all that much for its story.
I did, however, quite like the artwork throughout. It reminds me at times of the marvelously abstract art style used in the UPA cartoons of the 1950s. Basically an almost sepia color is used solely for the first 30+ pages before more color is added and highlighted for effect.
The plot begins simply enough with a badass black woman is hired to find the missing adult son of a big businessman. We meet Beth as she arrives in Silk Hills, a Twin Peaks-like town in the mountains of Appalachia, complete with its own secrets everywhere she looks.
One of those secrets concerns moth dust, a potent hallucinogenic drug made from the scales of a rare moth that breeds in the area only once every 18 years. It’s a clever concept.
Combining the Mothman legends—or something like them—with David Lynch-style weirdness just didn’t work for me overall in the book. I did, however, appreciate the character pieces, where Beth is just hanging out or doing her digging. The dialogue is well-written, giving most characters a unique voice—not the case in every book that comes along.
In the end, it’s the art in Silk Hills that I admire most. Kate Sherron wows me every step of the way. Her storytelling is on target, her “camera angles” work to set the moods as needed, and what I presume to be her watercolor-y colors (as no separate colorist is listed) serve the narrative well.
Good dialogue, an impressive flawed heroine, and a solid use of the comics art form. Just because the story of Silk Hills itself didn’t grab me doesn’t mean it might not grab you.
Booksteve recommends.
