Comics
Review: “Drumhellar” # 3
Riley Rossmo and Alex Link’s “Drumhellar” further embraces the weird this month. Nothing is quite what it seems in this crazy comic, but that’s a good thing. As paranormal detective Drum Hellar dives into the surreal we learn a little bit more about our titular character through incredibly detailed art. Rossmo again hits the book out of the part with tremendously trippy artwork that never ceases to be a visual treat.
WRITTEN BY: Riley Rossmo & Alex Link
ART BY: Riley Rossmo
PUBLISHER: Image
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: January 8, 2014
By now it should be no secret that “Drumhellar” is entrenched in the strange. The fantastic and rich color palette explodes off the page and creates this neon soaked trek across Middle America. Usually this type of locale is known for its capacity to induce boredom. Rossmo and Link peal away at this idea by making it the most intricate and complicated place on Earth.
Although this issue may make you question if it’s the city or Drum that brings the strangeness. Extra time is spent here developing Drum and his questionable past. We’re treated to some flashbacks that offer insight into what shaped him, and how he seemingly cannot escape trouble. Whatever the case may be, he has a capacity to understand things that are not familiar to others. He has one foot in this world, and the other somewhere else.
After taking a stroll to clear his head, Drum actually becomes fully entrenched in a surreal dreamscape. It’s here where Rossmo is allowed to cut loose and show the full depth of his art. It’s absolutely magnificent, and goes down as the highlight of the book. In terms of the narrative this sequence makes the least sense in the story but again seems to push that Drum is unlike most others.
It’s the other small details that make this book a gem. The sequence with all of the dinosaur spirits coming to life and rollicking through the fields toward town is absolutely beautiful. Especially when you have a little cowboy-dinosaur atop of a raptor gallivanting around the whole thing. It’s hard not to love this book when it contains so much incredible artwork.
Mind you, the narrative still isn’t for the faint of heart. There is direction here, but it is not forgiving. Those of you looking for answers may be reading the wrong comic. This is a series that seems more about exploration that finite understanding. Which is fantastic, because we’re treated to a deconstruction of Drum that way. What exactly draws him to the supernatural and surreal and on the flipside why does it seem to drawn to him as well.
The world of Drumhellar is rich and exploding with potential. There are not many things like it out there and the weird is allowed to have a beautiful home on these pages. I can’t help but feel a little Canadian pride too, because a book called “Drumhellar” that contains dinosaur spirits rampaging around is something I never imagined we’d get. But shhh… don’t tell anyone its Canadian.
Rating: 4/5 Skulls.
An ongoing horror anthology series from BOOM! Studios, Hello Darkness is back this summer with Issue #23, and BOOM! has provided Bloody Disgusting with an exclusive sneak peek.
The temperature rises and so does the body count, as the horror anthology series returns for another round of summer slashing in Hello Darkness #23, releasing July 22, 2026.
In “Sunday Pt. II,” Ryan North and Giada Belviso send a Bride of Christ over the deep end into madness.
Then, Rich Douek and Stevan Subic lead you down a bloody path to the old west, where a brash young gunfighter seeks a showdown with “The Man Who Outdrew Death.”
Sink into the cool, briny depths of Kelly Williams’s “Old Wounds” when a grizzled light housekeeper hears the call of the sea one final time.
And finally, serve up a preview platter of erotic thriller “Gastronomique,” as a royal spy, Lady Charlotte, embarks on a cat-and-mouse hunt for the deadly cannibal Tarrare, from Marguerite Bennett and Helena Masellis.
Beat the heat with an all-new pool of fresh nightmares and dive right into horror’s deep end!
Peek inside the bloody pages of Hello Darkness #23 below!
Horror fans rejoice in cadaverous delight, because Hello Darkness is a brand new ongoing anthology series featuring what BOOM! Studios is known for–the best in modern Horror, Fantasy, and Mystery, not to mention the darkest stories yet from a murderer’s row of world class creators. Everything from primal fears to modern political horrors will be explored, in the classic style of Creepy and Eerie and the contemporary chills of Black Mirror.
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