Released earlier this month, the first issue of Everything takes the reader back to October 1980, to the small town of Holland, Michigan. A new mega-department store, called Everything, has just opened, and things are starting to get weird.
Writer Christopher Cantwell, known for previous Dark Horse series She Could Fly and AMC’s Catch and Fire, spends much of the issue introducing our main characters and building atmosphere. Editor Karen Berger likened the story to Stranger Things in a press release, but thus far Everything has much of a slower burn plot-wise, with only a handful of paranormal occurrences in the last few pages. However, from the very first page, the reader will feel a sense of unease, of something being slightly off.
Much of this is due to artist I.N.J. Culbard, who brings his history with graphic novel adaptations of Lovecraft to the elements of psychological horror in Everything. Lori, a character who we know to be relatively new to town, seems especially in tune with the ominous power emanating from the new department store. Is there some related experience in her past based? On the first page, we see her in a police uniform getting progressively bloodier as the lights flash blue and orange and music plays. This sequence repeats itself when she seems to have a seizure in the Everything parking lot late at night. This is only one of the strange happenings in town the first night after Everything’s grand opening.
We also meet Shirley, the store manager; Eberhard Friendly, Holland’s city manager; Rick, a stereo salesman; and Remo Mundy, teenage delinquent and recent new hire at Everything. Cantwell establishes, with minimal dialogue and scenes, the kind of people we’re following into this mysterious story. We see their weaknesses, their human-ness, right upfront. We have established expectations for how this kind of person might react to an out-of-the-ordinary or dangerous situation. In this atmosphere, we’re tensed to see how they might surprise us.
Culbard and Cantwell have certainly planted a lot in this first issue. Many readers will be coming back to see how it pays off later in the series. For those fans of drawn-out mysteries with heavy supernatural horror elements, I think Everything is worth a look.
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