The Autumnal: An Autumn Horror Tale For All Seasons//October 291st, 2021

 Today I’m going to do something a little different from my usual TV series or movie reviews.

Today I would like to talk about a conic series.

Toward the end of last year, right around what the layman considers to be the official “Spooky Season” I randomly noticed a comic book, misplaced and standing out amongst rows of Marvel and DC, titled The Autumnal.

Based on the title and cover alone, I knew I had to purchase a copy. It was absolutely screaming my name. 

The first issue did not disappoint, in storyline or imagery. 

It’s hard not to get all the fall feels just looking at some of these pages!

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but this eight-issue series tells a fantastic horror story. It takes us on the journey of Kat Somerville, who receives a call that her long-estranged mother is dead, and decides to make the journey back to her early-childhood town of Comfort Notch, New Hampshire, a town she was sent away from by her mother many years ago. Despite the strange sight she sees when she catches a glimpse of her mother’s dead body, Kat decides to attempt to start a new life in Comfort Notch with her young daughter, Sybil. 

But when Sybil comes home from school one day singing a song about a local legend, and the townsfolk are acting just a little too strangely about the upcoming autumnal equinox, pieces of Kat’s past start slowly returning to her memory. Perhaps there was a reason she was sent away all those years ago. 

What prophecies does this strange ghost story hold, and how will it affect Kat’s and Sybil’s futures in this quaint but strange town? And was it a coincidence that Kat was called back there now?

There isn’t much else about the story I can say without getting into spoiler-y territory, but I highly recommend checking this series out. The Autumnal is published by Vault Comics and all of the issues are currently out, with a book compilation coming in September, if you’d prefer to have it all in one cohesive volume. (I actually may pick up the book as well, despite owning a copy of each single issue.)

The Autumnal isn’t necessarily a breakthrough horror tale; when it gets to its climax you’ll probably be able to say you’ve seen something like it before, but it’s told and illustrated in such a unique way that it leaves you on the edge of your seat until the next issue, and the gorgeous and haunting illustrations of the autumn season make it must-read for any horror fan craving that fall feeling, any time of year.

I would especially recommend this series for fans of stories like Silent Hill, Midsommar, and The Wicker Man. 

Stay spooky, my friends, and just be warned:

You may never look at an autumn leaf the same way again.