Comic book review
Written by / Art by Martin Stiff
www.absencecomic.blogspot.com

Marwood Clay returns home after being horribly disfigured in WWII, but is met with a frosty reception from his village. Meanwhile, the enigmatic Dr Robert Temple constructs a peculiar house overlooking the town…

Martin Stiff’s six-issue comic book series is an ambitious and atmospheric story about guilt, secrets and weird science.

The idea of the damaged war veteran who returns home only to be met by distrust and disdain has been used in everything from 1940s noir to post-Vietnam War dramas, yet Marwood makes for a particularly intriguing protagonist. His ostracism is not only down to his horribly disfigured face, which reminds the villagers of a brutal reality they’d rather not confront, but also because of some terrible past crime he has committed. In fact, it seems that everyone except an 11-year-old named Thomas wishes he’d died during the war; expect dark secrets to be revealed in future issues.

Stiff juggles the strange, tragic story of Marwood with that of a mysterious doctor who the villagers are almost as suspicious of, and who plans to do “something extraordinary”. The twin plot threads intertwine in an intriguing low-key mystery, and at the end of these first two issues it’s genuinely difficult to see where everything is heading – always a good thing.

The complex narrative is brought to life by Stiff’s moody, realistic artwork, and the noirish black-and-white style is perfectly suited to the slow-burning fatalism of the story. James Skipp

VERDICT: 8/10
Unusual period mystery – subtle, dark and fascinating.