Originally published at Fangoria.com on Sept. 11th, 2011
With such mesmerizing and eerie imagery, readers should be on the lookout for CRAWL TO ME #2 (IDW Publishing) from Alan Robert, the songwriter/bassist of Life of Agony. When loving couple Ryan and Jessica move into their new home, they think that their life is going to get much better, but their rocky marriage is suddenly put into question when they find something deadly and mysterious in the basement. Living inside the walls is an evil entity who won’t stop tormenting them.
Ryan and his dog, Max, slowly walk down the creaky staircase to their dimly lit basement. As Ryan moves his shoes around, he tries to avoid stepping on a dead rat. Deep inside the cellar is a large hole in the wall. Scared of being alone in the dark, Ryan attempts to stop his dog from entering the crawlspace. He never expected the hole in the wall to vomit blood back at him. Suddenly, Ryan finds himself drowning in a pool of blood with skeletons grabbing at him. Jessica arrives in the nick of time to find her husband screaming. She struggles to remain calm and patient whenever Ryan has another one of his wild hallucinations. As she doubts Ryan’s sanity, Jessica doesn’t understand why she can’t control her body movements. Her uncontrollable hand is reaching out for the scissors. With tremendous effort, she fights back and blocks her hand from stabbing herself in the eye.
What could be the reason why Ryan and Jessica are tearing themselves apart? Is this couple driving themselves crazy because they’re unprepared for marriage? After being together for so long, are Ryan and Jessica afraid to tell each other that their relationship is finally over? Or, is something really inside the house driving them both completely insane?
As both CRAWL TO ME’s writer and illustrator, Robert crafts an interesting character study about a married couple attempting to stay together. In just a few pages, he establishes how Ryan and Jessica need each other and can’t survive without the other. Readers will be blown away by the story and artwork of this psychological thriller.
