Rowans Ruin #1 Review

Road To Ruin?

Rowans Ruin #1

Writer: Mike Carey

Illustrator: Mike Perkins

Colourist: Andy Troy

BOOM! Studios

Mike Carey and Mike Perkins have worked quite a lot before, starting with collaborating together at Caliber a few decades ago. Every now and then, their schedules match up and they team up again. Rowans Ruin is a four-issue series from BOOM!. The story is fairly straightforward: American Katie decides to swap with Emily, who owns an amazing house in Stratford-Upon-Avon. But there is a terrible secret attached to the house and Katie may have bitten off more than she can chew. Carey and Perkins are a great team with natural chemistry as creators. The story was apparently initially dreamt up by Perkins but you wouldn’t know as it has many of Carey’s trademarks: a strong female character, good understated horror and some snappy lines of dialogue.

Perkins is a wonderful artist too: he channels Gene Colan here with some elegant and understated scenes. Also, because Perkins is a British creator, we are spared endless generic images of an England taken straight out of the artist’s Google search. Perkins is from the area the story is set and he really does manage to lend the story a true sense of place that gives it a unique feel. The horror is here but it doesn’t dominate. Presumably, it will build up as the series moves towards its climax. BOOM! have another potential-filled series on their hands and Carey and Perkins have set the scene for what could be a great horror comic.

JOEL MEADOWS