Vertigo Crime's The Chill Review

When it launched, Vertigo promised that their Vertigo Crime imprint would be a launching ground for all different types of stories set within the general crime realm, everything from police procedural to science fiction. With the previous entries, we got a heaping teaspoon full of noir with Filthy Rich and a bit of the supernatural in Dark Entries. Well folks, I think it's safe to say that with their latest outing, The Chill, Vertigo Crime goes above and beyond the crime genre to deliver something truly twisted and just plain "out there". 

In all honesty, summarizing Jason Starr's story comes off as though I'm pitching a C-list horror film: a young woman is seducing and sacrificing men throughout New York City, using the titular "Chill" in order to freeze them solid (usually mid-coitus) and then brutally murder them. Yeah, there's more to it than that involving Irish folklore and FBI buffoonery, but without unleashing spoilers upon you, that's the gist of things. Like I said, C-list.

The miracle of The Chill is that Starr is able to get away with a plot like this and not have it seem like a complete and utter farce. I suppose that's the entire point of Vertigo Crime, to blend the hard boiled crime genre with otherwise outlandish plots to create something wholly new and different. And I can honestly say, with all of the comics I read, day in and day out, there are some things in this book that I have never seen before. Images that will scar me for life. Or, at least, for the next couple of hours. 

Starr's dialog is as natural as it can be for some of the absurd things that spill out of the character's mouths, but he does a great job of nailing the dialects of different accents, from New York to Boston and all the way to Ireland. It's a simple writing tactic that not many writers take advantage of, and it really helps distinguish both the characters and their locations. Though I honestly can't speak for how accurate Starr's dealings in Celtic lore are, he makes it convincingly authentic to the point where you don't doubt his words, regardless of how inane they might be in reality.

In terms of art, Mick Bertilorenzi's work is, quite simply, phenomenal. This is an artist to watch for sure, and his style perfectly suits anything from a crime thriller like The Chill to Booster Gold. His layouts are great; he changes things up from page to page, always serving the story first and keeping the pace barreling along while infusing his characters with the necessary body language and emotion. Though his work looks great in black, white, and gray tones, The Chill is one instance of a Vertigo Crime book that I think would really benefit from the use of color. 

The Chill isn't particularly gritty, but instead more in line with a horror movie that could potentially use a very limited color palette to its benefit in portraying both theme and atmospheric qualities. Perhaps I'm digging a little too deep here, but Bertilorenzi's work in The Chill would look even better with some flare. 

In the end, I don't think that The Chill will be seen as the epitome of what Vertigo has set out to do with Vertigo Crime, but it's certainly not a lesser tale for it. This story is a very bizarre take on a genre where stories come a dime a dozen, and something fresh is always welcome, however ludicrous it may seem.