“Why go to the movies when you can read a horror comic?!”. This absolute belter of a quote from Caroline Cash stands out against the black background of the cover of The Night Never Ends, a new horror-comedy graphic novel from Steve Thueson and Silver Sprocket. Pictured are a group of teens, staring warily at an abandoned old house, rife with overgrown ivy and boarded-up windows. From the expressions on their faces, they seem to be debating whether to explore the rickety old building or be sensible and head home. Little do they realise that, by the light of the silvery moon, an unknown assailant is watching from afar, with a knife tightly gripped in his hand.
The Night Never Ends follows a group of friends seeking one last thrill before one of their own, Kate, hits the big 3-0. Reaching thirty, to many, indicates the beginning of proper adulthood, with *shudders* responsibilities (or at least that’s how Kate sees it): “The big three-oh! How’re you feeling?”, “Oh man, it’s crazy! Everything’s gonna be so different! Like, instead of being 29, I’ll be, 30, for instance”. As the group heads back to Kate’s hometown to celebrate and revel in the nostalgia of their misspent youth, Kate only has one thing one her mind; a séance, of course! And the eerie abandoned house on the cover just so happens to make the ideal venue. As the group try various methods of getting inside, speculation over what happened to the house’s past inhabitants is rampant. Did the dad go crazy and kill his family? Did they all burn in a fire? Or a sinister suicide pact? Could the house be haunted?
One open window later, and finally inside, Kate and her friends break out the Ouija board. Kate is a little disheartened that her friends don’t seem to enjoy activities like this as much as they did when they were teens – when did everyone get so boring and tired? Their tiff is soon interrupted by a blood-curdling scream… which turns out to be a deadly cult, casually making some human sacrifices in the basement! Our group aren’t exactly subtle, and upon investigating, they accidentally alert the cultists to their presence. Now, they’ve become the cultists’ new targets.
The chase scenes that follow are both creepy and hilarious; heads are bonked together, cars are stolen, and there’s plenty of blood-splattering gore. Thueson’s illustrations do an expert job of keeping the gore light and humorous, despite the horrific reality of throats being slit, with the use of facial expressions and the character’s reactions. I do not envy Kate having a headless body spurting blood all over her, but her gagging reaction is peak comedy.
As Thueson’s previous work up until now has been largely catered towards a middle-grade demographic, it was great to see them go all in on a graphic novel that is very obviously for adults. Horror comedy is often categorised into one of three subgenres, black comedy, parody or spoof, and The Night Never Ends hits the nail on the head for all three. There’s dark humour aplenty in the interactions between the friends, parodies of films like Halloween and Intruders, in which the assailants are masked, and plenty of spoof to poke fun at the more well-known conventions of the horror genre, like the exaggerated chase scenes, and the group’s decision to hide in a tube slide in a children’s park. Horror comedy isn’t a genre that is utilised enough in graphic novels, with only a select few, like Skottie Young’s I Hate Fairyland springing to mind, so it’s fantastic to see writers like Thueson employing the genre more in recent years.
The Night Never Ends is out this month and is a treat to enjoy for all horror-comedy lovers as we gear up for the spooky season in October.
Steve Thueson (W/A) • Silver Sprocket, $19.99
Review by Lydia Turner
