There’s just something anxiously, forebodingly, enticing about small towns, isn’t there?
They’ve been made famous in books, comic books, television and film. Who hasn’t been fascinated with Hawkins, Indiana and binged Stranger Things? Or feverishly bit their nails, unable to turn away while watching David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks? We’ve all wanted to adventure in fictionalized Astoria as viewed in The Goonies or scrumptiously worried over the fictional towns of Derry, Castle Rock and Jerusalem’s Lot in many Stephen King stories.
You just know that if you were to peel away the thin veneer of normal life, every small town would present a fascinating, mysterious and probably deranged under-flesh. When that loose skin is pulled back, weirdness bubbles up. Horror oozes forth. And our interest is peaked.
Secrets are buried in small towns. And those secrets are never buried very deep.
This brings us to the small town of Barstow, lost somewhere in the Mojave Desert, and the release of the first issue of a new horror-mystery four-issue miniseries, appropriately called Barstow.
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Written by the filmmaking writing team of David Ian McKendry and Rebekah McKendry (Glorious, All The Creatures Were Stirring) and illustrated by fan favourite and award-winning Tyler Jenkins (Hairball, Apache Delivery Service), Barstow takes the small town idea and creates a new weird and horrific mythos around the dry desert locale – alongside a generous helping of dark comedy.
Barstow opens in the dry, caked-ground desert with a pretty horrific and mystifying car crash, and we’re soon introduced to Agent Miranda Diaz on the trail of a missing colleague – one she’s never met. Yet this lost agent name-dropped her before disappearing. Strange in itself. What’s stranger still is the town and its community. Barstow is replete with mystery, weird biker gangs, a ballet kingpin…and demonic possession!
The town’s skin has been peeled back, and what’s on display now will haunt you and make you chuckle nervously.
Peel back the cover and dig deep into the strange and delicious excitement of small-town horror. Make the run to your local comic book shop and pick up Barstow #1 today!
You can catch a sneak preview of Barstow #1 right here.
