- The Reckonning #1
- Dach Comics
- Created & Written by Humberto Avila
- Illustrated by Nate Walkington
- Letters by Ray Dillon & Metal Ninja Studios
- Coming to Kickstarter, February 2025
The Reckoning is part of the Dachology Tales Series that promises gripping horror with a chalk full of supernatural beings, cryptids, and Kaiju running amuck. Among the countless and unrelenting horrors that pervade the world, hope and courage are found in the briefest of moments.
Through adversity and tribulations, Dachology Tales was born on the resilience and fortitude that comes from the four legged friend of mankind. Specifically, the mightiest of them all, the Dachshund.
Way back when I was starting to review comics for thePullbox, I was told that one of the things to look out for in indie comics were “diamonds in the rough”. All of the comics I see are put together with love and care, but not all are going to be polished and shiny. They may not all be great, but some of them have the potential to be. From the start of The Reckoning, I kinda thought this could be one of those.
We start with a crime scene, which kicks off the thread I came to think of as a kind of Seven, “What’s in the box!?” story. There’s the mysterious, slightly off-putting voice-over talking about watching the world through “crude eyes” for thousands of years. And then there’s Marisol, the penultimate high school goth trying to win the heart of her crush, and willing to cast a spell to do it. And then there’s… nope, that’d be too close to spoilers.
Humberto Avila, is the creator behind the comic, and he writes like he’s seriously got something in his brain scratching to get out. While there are some jumps in the narrative a casual reader might have to work to keep up with, layers conceal the juicy center waiting for the patient reader to peel them back. Those layers had me in a twist at the end of the issue, though, wishing there was just one more page and wondering how long till the next issue. Keeping in mind there are three distinct & interwoven storylines running throughout The Reckoning, it might be best for the casuals I mentioned before to have pen and paper handy to take notes.
Nate Walkington’s illustrative style is very effective for the tone of the story. He uses shadows to great effect on the page, spotlighting what he wants to be shown and obscuring what he wants to keep hidden. And I thought his layouts had a cool lack of rhythm, not lining up in anything so plain as a grid to offset a scene. Walkington uses off-kilter panels of different sizes, never letting them quite line up or stick to a pattern while managing to keep his pages balanced.
The lettering, here compliments of Ray Dillon and Metal Ninja Studios, is just shy of inspired. Different fonts are used to show varying levels of otherness but never lean too far as to be unreadable. Dillon doesn’t let dialogue get in the way of what’s happening in the panel, and his sound effects are fantastic! I’ve never actually heard the sound of someone being eviscerated, but I think SHLAK or SKELCH might come close.
Check out the Dach Comics website and keep an eye out for updates on the upcoming Kickstarter, or follow along here and I’ll try to keep our tens of readers updated. The Reckoning has the makings of a truly disturbed supernatural tale of twists and flips, with a slightly left-of-center narrative. This one’s definitely for mature readers… or maybe just older readers, say maybe late teens and above. The mature readers are probably reading something less… disembowely.
Final Score: 10/13
