British writer Ram V has been getting around a lot lately. This month alone, he has no fewer than 7 issues coming out from four different publishers. So he’s a busy guy. The month in Ram opens with the seventh issue of The Silver Coin. Image Comics’ anthology series continues as the cursed coin makes its way to Las Vegas for another dive into horror brought to the page by artist Michael Walsh. Ram V does a respectable job of bringing a novel horror mood to the page, but much like much of the rest of the series, the appeal present in the story lies in a simple tale told well with occasionally stylish art. 

They have a name for Lou Prado. They call him Lose Lou. It’s a pretty weak epithet, but it has a heavy meaning in Lou’s chosen home. Life isn’t easy for a loser in Las Vegas. Luckily enough, his luck seems to have turned around thanks to a strange-looking lucky coin made of silver. Or maybe it’s not the coin. Maybe it’s the new casino in town. Now Lou is about to bet it all atop the Tzompanco. Lou’s going to have to be careful: in the ancient Nahuatl language in the Valley of Mexico, Tzompanco means “place of the skull rack.” Not exactly a good place for luck.

After lurking around various corners, the Silver Coin found itself in places more commonly associated with coin. The video arcade of the sixth issue gives way to the casinos of Las Vegas. There’s real potential in a story of a cursed coin in the land of poker chips and one-armed bandits. Ram V isn’t exactly going for a terribly original idea with a loser who gets luck from the cursed coin. A wealthy pro gambler getting the coin and ending with nothing? THAT might have been interesting.

The drama sharply radiates from the page under Walsh’s pen. Lou’s emotions cascade off his face as things fall apart around him in a shadowy horror. It’s pretty stuff, but it doesn’t dazzle the way horror should in a story set in a city so dominated by gaudy glamor. Ram V hands Walsh a hell of a challenge living up to the legend of Las Vegas. Part of the problem may be Walsh and Toni Marie Griffin’s colors, which fail to give the look and feel of a garish city lit up at night. It’s all just murky shadow that fails to really embrace the distinctive visual appeal of Las Vegas. 

The premise of a cursed coin is deceptively seductive. The challenge lies in finding just the right angle on stories that allow the coin to take the center of the panel. Ram V gets really, really close to finding the perfect setting for the coin in the seventh issue of the series, but he’s not quite there. The story of Lou is stylishly enjoyable in places, but like nearly every other issue in the series, it lacks the kind of framing that could have made it truly brilliant. 

Grade: C