As always with crime stories, when the motivations are revealed and everyone is out for themselves, it should come as no surprise. This is a fantastic issue that smartly plays with its genre fusion to create a real look at Jackson’s horrific decision-making skills. Williamson hits full stride with “Ghosted” #9.

WRITTEN BY: Joshua Williamson

ART BY: Davide Gainfelice

PUBLISHER: Image Comics

PRICE: $2.99

RELEASE: April 22, 2014

Jackson Winters is a grim man who has confronted his mortality but consumed by a world of immortality. It’s the perfect place for the criminal who can’t stop playing the game, because he can’t stop running his mouth. Williamson revels in his main character here, and helps to develop his world of horrible people. Once again, Jackson seems like the best person out of a group of absolutely horrible people, but this month shows that he may not be as smart as he thinks. Instead he might only have a tiny fraction of the world figured out, when his life philosophy says otherwise.

While being surrounded in an insane haunted jungle the character motivation reveals are laid on thick. Things only get about a thousand times worse as they pile on top of Jackson. Davide Gainfelice does an impeccable job at populating the jungle with sprite like dangerous undead animals. He keeps the characters dynamic and imposing, and uses some fantastic angles to inspire dread.

The real crux of all of this is whether or not Jackson will learn his lesson here. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen one of his operations go up in flames. Yet, it’s how he reacts next that will prove all the more interesting. He’s a condemned man who has looked death in the eyes, but he’s never really acted with a higher purpose than a paycheck. Here, he thought he had a chance to make good. It’s seemingly ruined. Where do things go next?

Williamson wants to show us the true horror inside a man, inside Jackson, and all the while drag us through various hells across the world. His idea is a marvelous horror hybrid that never ceases to surprise or shock, but does take you a little further down the rabbit hole of his haunted world. Ghosts are very real, they are everywhere, and “Ghosted” wants to focus on the ghosts of our past while scaring the shit out of us with the ghosts of the present through a series of intense and dangerous scenarios.

Plus, the final page has a rundown of various books of the dead. Joshua proves he knows his stuff and remarks at the genre’s robust history. He includes the book from “Gargoyles” so you know he means business. Really though, it shows you’re in the hands of a horror enthusiast and lover.

Then, he hits you with the NAILBITER preview. A look at Williamson’s new book that will chill you to your core with it’s premise: a small town in Oregon has been home to sixteen serial killers, a man travels to the town to find out why. I’ve read the first issue, and this series is going to redefine comic book horror.