The Culture

The second horror title I borrowed from the library is a trade from IDW that collects a mini-series from the now defunct Shooting Star Comics. It was created by two new names to me – writer (and ex-marine) Tom Waltz whose more recent credits include the Silent Hill comic also from IDW and artist Casey Maloney.

The story concerns a small US military unit of three men sent into the fictional country/region of Stinwan to confirm the evidence of racial cleansing of the Kilipanese in the region by a rebel Stinwanese colonel. The men travel to the site of the massed graves of murdered children only to find them empty. They are given new orders to track and kill the rebel colonel. As the story progresses, the US forces and the rebel colonel must face the ghosts of their past as well as the ghosts of the present who seek revenge for the atrocities committed against them.

The black and white art is decent and visceral, at times, though the result is sometimes muddied because of the lack of colour. The story is good while not being entirely original – the sins of the past do not excuse the sins of the present. The story although set in a fictional landscape has resonances with current and recent campaigns in Iraq or Afghanistan – minus the zombie children, I hope.