The October Faction #2 by Steve Niles and Damien Worm

The second issue of The October Faction has a very different audience to work with than the last one did. Readers are no longer in a trick-or-treating mood, we are now busy with holiday shopping and trying to avoid family members. So, it makes sense that this issue is a little more light-hearted than the last. Light-hearted in a really weird, dark kind of way.

This issue continues the story of the Allan family in much the same style as the previous one. More of the family’s complicated background is revealed, the character depth is taken up a notch, and interestingly, more of the family home is shown as this happens, as though it is a family member as well. We see Mr. Allan with his children in this issue, and for the first time, humour overwhelms horror, as in the dialogue he scolds them for doing exactly what he used to do. The family dynamic is not as strained or hopelessly dysfunctional as it seemed to be in the first issue, where the parents and children didn’t really connect. We even get a page with all the family together, though they're not exactly big and happy in the pictures.

While the art style remains the same, with sharp lines, crooked panels, a memorable dirty photograph effect that still looks like real dirt, there are several new techniques employed in this issue and a few that are more fully explored than they were in the last. For example, as you can see in the panel on the left, the lengthy screams break out of their word balloons, something that gets repeated several times in this issue. It is not clear why these particular sounds have word balloons at all, as some other non-narrative sounds that come from the characters don't have such constraints. "Sound effects” altogether seem more frequent in this issue, or at least appear more noticeable.

This issue also shares the first scenes that don't include any members of the Allan family. These scenes are shown in cool colours, contrasting with most of the other pages which have warm (blood warm) colours or no colour at all. Given that it's used scarcely enough that it's neither obnoxious nor distracting, I would say this colour-play is pretty effective. Going back to the storyline, we get even more mystery in this issue, this time involving family-friend Lucas from Issue #1, but we definitely don’t get enough answers for the questions of the first issue. The plot that directly concerns Mrs. Allan does progress, but rather than getting any insight into her actions in Issue #1, we’re just left more haunted by the same question.

At least the question's purple this time.

Amber Dilabbio