[Review] Lot 13 #1 – Suburbia's Never Been So Terrifying!

LOT 13 is a five part, haunted house series from DC Entertainment, which was released on Halloween this year.  Steve Niles (notable works – 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and SIMON DARK), takes charge in the writing, whereas Glenn Fabry (SLAINE and JUDGE DREDD) does the artwork. Since they both come from horror themed comic backgrounds, you can expect LOT 13 to be very gruesome.
The story starts off in Fairfax, Virginia, in the 1670’s, at a trial of a man for the murder of his whole family and his own suicide. Since this is a very religious community, suicide is looked highly down upon, and so the dead bodies of the whole family are beaten, torn apart and thrown in a ditch. The comic then moves to the future with a family of five, moving house to the same town the murders/suicide took place in. Unfortunately for them, the house they were supposed to move into isn’t ready, so the family have to look around for a place to stay. After crashing into a ghostly figure, the family stop the van and see they are next to an apartment building. Feeling tired, they book their rooms and decide to stay the night. As soon as they are settled into their rooms, the youngest child – Austin, gets a knock at his door, and standing there is the ghostly figure they recently crashed into.
What I like best about this comic is that it is actually damn creepy. The artwork is some of the best I’ve ever seen, especially when it comes to the zombies creatures – far superior to the artwork in THE WALKING DEAD. There is no lack of blood and guts too; some of the characters even have half of their heads missing and organs flying around everywhere. Not only is there physical horror, there is a strong presence of the paranormal in this comic too. One of the children – Jackie, is playing around with her new phone and looking at photos of the family on holiday. Instead of the actual photo, there is an image of the family rotting and decaying, and when she goes to turn it off, the words ‘DIE’ in blood red come across the screen.
This is by far one of my favourite comic books of the year so far and I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of series and seeing what else happens. From some pictures I’ve seen, things get an awful lot bloodier and there are so many more creatures lurking around the apartment building.

(The murder/suicide family from the 1670s)