Skeeters from Mad Cave is a love letter to creature features that fans should pick up before the FOC on November 13. Seeing alien mosquitoes turn a Virginia town inside out is one thing, but it’s the characters looking for meaning that’s really hooking. So on the chance you’re reading this after the last date, I’ll tell you why this December 6 release is worth it.
Skeeters Knows Its Audience
A small southern town has an outbreak. Sound familiar? Relax this isn’t a pandering checklist; co-writers Kevin Cuffe and Bob Frantz know where a lot of the spirit of these scenarios come from. Namely the characters who live in them and what ties the heroes together. Between the sheriff and two exterminators, there’s a sense of having no direction. Both the sheriff and an exterminator look helpless at the dullness of their lives. The other exterminator meanwhile is a classical conspiracy theorist more interested in cryptozoology than looking for a reason things are going nowhere. Because looking for wonders is better than complaining how messed up things are.
And that’s despite how a government conspiracy is what drives Skeeters. The lab where all the trouble starts is presented as so over-the-top that readers can’t take it seriously. If anything, it makes readers relate to the sheriff even more because of how trollish the cleanup crews are. Unlike the title monsters that get away from them; but the art describes them better.
Grotesque Splatter Gives Meaning
The infesting Skeeters are fascinatingly threatening. The art by Kelly Williams add multiple perspectives building up to a big reveal. First they start out small and manageable like any other mosquito before they get bigger and uglier. Much like the SFX that get so big and noticeable that the glass windows and panels can’t contain them. It builds up anticipation on how a bad situation can get worse.
Especially when Williams’ SFX works in conjunction with Chas! Pangburn’s lettering. When the wailing of a police siren meets the loud music notes of a van’s radio, it really sells how these little monsters use distractions to fester. While the sheriff and clean-up driver are going back and forth with the flow of their word balloons, the Skeeters are budding in the background until being unleashed in a wide panel interrupted by a caption. Followed by more quiet moments and distractions. By the next page it’s already too late to contain the problem.
But it’s not until even more pages later that a fully mature Skeeter rears its hideous carapace in a claustrophobic splash page over cows it emaciated. The size of the bug is both terrifying and ridiculous.
Stock Up On Skeeters Supplies
Skeeters brings the gross to engrossing. Amid all of the schlocky visuals that you can’t look away from, there are characters you wanna sit down with. Like them you’re looking for a little excitement and wonder in the middle of nowhere. You’re probably realizing that you have gotten all of that and more. So are you ready to see it through? I know I am with a solid 9.5/10 to start this series off.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.