Coffin Bound #3 // Review
Izzy Tyburn continues her poetic journey through a supernatural post-apocalypse in the third issue of Coffin Bound. Writer Dan Watters continues to weave the dazzlingly dry poeticism of horror at the end of the world as Izzy trades those last places she needs to be before she can fade-out at the end of the series. European artist Dani gracefully scratches out the decaying detail on a world hanging on to life long after it has passed into the past. The weird disjointed narrative has a rhythm and pulse about it that doesn't feel nearly as lost as one might expect.
Izzy’s on the road in her convertible. She’s driving down the highway with a dead vulture with a human body. She’s got a pair of eyes in a bottle (presumably of formaldehyde) in the back seat of her car. She’s trying to erase herself from everything in a decaying world. She tries calling her agent, but he’s too busy floating limbless. Still...it’s a nice enough conversation that has a kind of existential glow to it. Elsewhere there’s a woman who has taken enough of what she needs to do a striptease onstage right out of her own skin.
Watters’ writing this issue feels especially dreamlike. The mixture of poetic with deeply existential thoughts mix with creepy horror in a series of scenes that are barely held together by the pulsating viscera of a narrative. On one level, it’s profoundly experimental stuff. On another level, it’s a straightforward horror tale in the land of the dead. In a world that had forgotten to remember that it doesn’t exist anymore. The more profound interpersonal drama that is sutured into Watters’ script doesn’t feel too terribly coherent. Izzy is a bit lost in a story without the steady central pounding of a definite conflict. There IS the threat of the Eartheater coming to consume her, but by the third issue, that threat seems very, very distant. It’s a beautifully listless narrative with lots of moods. The pulse of the plot is almost stylishly weak.
Dani’s art has a real feeling of descent about it. There’s a descent into a kind of darkness as heavy ink forms shadows in and around everything. Action explodes briefly in a listless desert road trip punctuated by scenes of a woman who is destined to take her skin off. The horror of the story rolls around in a pleasantly torpid decay. Blood drips into shadows, Izzy drives, and there are vague pages of emotion. It’s a very unique fade-out into the next issue with haunting images slowly slicing their way through a very intriguing mood.
The horror of the story is clinging together quite well for now, but time will tell if it ultimately builds-up into a satisfying account. The pulse of this issue suggests a kind of narrative decay that might make the story increasingly disjointed. For now, it’s okay. The third issue is a delicious nightmare.
