The UNSUB GARDEN #0 (REVIEW)
In what I can only explain as a clear and unabashed display of at best malpractice and mismanagement this 60+ year old man is unable to be identified! And in super creepy fashion, all he wants to do is watch TV. The incompetance of the paper pushers at GILF is about be be rewarded and then some! There’s demonic chicanery afoot and this review has no plans on spoiling that for readers.
There I sat at my smaller than acceptable desk at the Indie Volt office; Bewildered. I’d NO idea what to expect when I found GENERATE COMIX‘S UNSUB Garden in my review pile, the word UNSUB conjures up faint CSI and L&O rerun clips that I had no idea I’d stored away in my head, what’s more this particular book had come down from on high with a demand that it must be reviewed post-haste.
The cover of the book itself even wanted to know, it asked in an all caps bold textured type face, What Is The Unsub Garden? (I read it like Willian Shatner).
I dunno, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this together….. I think!
Our story opens 21 years ago with formally comatose patients of GILF Memorial Hospital escaping from their beds and shuffling about under the cover of night, before you blame the staff they haven’t fared much better, in fact they’ve all been merc’ed by mysterious means! The only persons untouched by the bizarre events of the night are newborns birthed and waiting in the materity ward at GILF, they’re all seemingly uneffected by this mysterious happening. What could have possibly caused such a phenomenon? We’ll have to look back 3 weeks prior when GILF memorial is struck by lightning, this awakens patient 291, a very mysterious man whose been in a coma for over two decades!
In a slight break from the horror we’re introdued to Tarn Gannigan, who instead of enjoying her summer break in the good ol’ US of A is trodding around wet, soggy, miserable, dank, cloudy Oxford England. Tarn is pretty smart, deciphering a cyptic puzzle which has delivered her to a mysterious location, the physical location of the UNSUB GARDEN.
G Walker Teon’s, the writer and artist in this release from GENERATE COMIX and does a great job page to page, with a clear understanding of how to set the moody and ominous tone from panel to panel. If there’s one place the book suffered was in the pacing, this is a very detailed world with lots of essential history that does service the story BUT that can be a bit off-putting for some readers who might wonder if they’ve missed an issue or plot point. Overall, issue 0 can be compared to a episodic television show, as a pilot it does entice you to tune back in for the next installment to have some of these pressing questions answered; Long term? I want to spend more time with Tarn Ganningan and the Unsub Garden gang, unraveling mysteries like why are sickly, bedridden folks loitering on the hospital campus? How is patient 291 connected? Who tore off and unalived the hospital staff? Why’d they leave the babies? What is the Unsub Garden and can they answer these questions!?
As of this writing, Izzy Szymanski did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the company, team or product reviewed in this article. The opinions expressed in this review are those of the writer, subject to the Indievolt.com Publishing Guidelines.
