Bristlemouth starts off with a flash of horror before we meet our group of friends on a bit of a getaway. Among them is cancer survivor Amelia, who’s pretty much coded as our final girl here. A group of friends headed out into the Australian wilderness… what could possibly go wrong?

Hayden Fryer’s script keeps up a brisk pace without giving too much away all at once. Most of the issue is spent on road trip banter, giving us some idea of the characters. You have the straight man Benny and his partner Kayla. Then there’s the class clown Shackies whose entire personality trait so far is being an obnoxious drunk. Rounding out the group are Sanny and Amelia. Interestingly enough, Amelia is pretty much silent throughout the first issue. The vibe is very much The Cabin in the Woods as the group drives out to some idyllic isolated spot to relax. There are some creepy things happening in the background of this spot they’re headed to but not much is revealed just yet, though that looks to change soon. On a slight nitpicky side, I did catch a couple of spelling/grammatical errors in the advance review copy, so I hope these are corrected in future publications.

Fryer’s artwork is effective, and the gray wash-tones lend a somber tone to the proceedings. I particularly liked how much nuance there was in the character-work, and the backdrop work is phenomenal. I’m really digging the vibe of this book so far, and I can’t wait to see what future issues reveal.

Overall, this seems to be a solid start to a limited-run series, and if the rest of the series has this much soul in it, it’s gonna be a blast to read and experience.

Creative Team: Hayden Fryer (writer, illustrator)
Publisher: IPI Comics
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