BOOM! Studios presents an all-new adaptation of the classic paranormal book Hunt For The Skinwalker on the heels of the 2018 documentary production. Hunt For The Skinwalker #1 is written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Valeria Burzo, with colors by Jason Wordie and letters by Joe Sabino. In the aftermath of inexplicably strange events at the Gorman Ranch in Utah, a cult following has built up around the first-hand accounts and subsequent investigation into the phenomenon.
Hunt For The Skinwalker #1 opens in 1996, with the Gorman family moving into their 480-acre cattle ranch in the Uinta basin, where strangeness begins to plague their lives. Coming to a head in an animal attack, it becomes clear that the laws of nature and physics work a little differently on the Gorman Ranch. Bizarre lights, impossible creatures, and disappearing objects become the norm for the Gormans as the para-scientific community gear up to get involved.
Thompson does great work laying out the bones of a complicated case in Hunt For The Skinwalker #1, hitting all the informational beats with a robust and well-considered structure. From a plot perspective, the comic flows very well, with each incident being given enough room to breathe while covering a great deal of ground. The story has two distinct narrative threads, which work very well individually but make the comic a little tonally inconsistent, moving between the factual and narrative modes a little awkwardly. That said, Thompson's dialogue is great, naturalistic, and subtle, capturing the Gorman family with incisive sensitivity.
Burzo's art in Hunt For The Skinwalker #1 is striking, composed of thick, deliberate lines that have a rustic heaviness to them, complementing the homespun feel of the writing. The style is powerful, but it can sometimes feel haphazard, crushing details into vague impressions that occasionally feel a little blocky and indistinct. There is some gorgeous character design. Tom and Eleanor are especially expressive. However, Burzo skimps on the natural beauty of the setting, missing an opportunity to delve into a unique and stunning landscape. A similar theme continues into the depiction of the phenomena, which is all taken a bit too literally. By missing the ephemerality of the mysterious events and focusing on visual clarity rather than sensual intrigue and strangeness, the paranormal activities are somewhat demystified and do not feel at all scary. Some artistic license and more subtle consideration would have gone a long way here.
The colors do some good work to claw back a sense of liminality and weirdness into the visual world of Hunt For The Skinwalker #1. Wordie makes dramatic use of contrast and color theory to create different dimensions within a single world -- the subterranean blues of night cut by buttery yellow lights, the burnished red of gunfire, and the cool sepia tones of the day. The evocative beauty of the final pages is a credit to the powerful colors Wordie utilizes. Sabino's letters are great throughout Hunt For The Skinwalker #1, with a slanted cant to the dialogue that makes it feel taut and unusual. The additional narration is depicted in a much more rigid typescript, which offers a nice visual contrast.
Hunt For The Skinwalker #1 does justice to its source material and offers a straightforward retelling of the story and its mythos, but lovers of psychedelic strangeness and the more esoteric visions of paranormal tales might find the comic a little lacking. Holistically, it is still a great entry point into a complex and fascinating case that lays strong foundations for following issues.