After the explosive ending of Dark Horse Comics’ Helen of Wyndhorn #1, you’d expect the next issue to be full of fire and bombast. Instead, writer Tom King, artist Bilquis Evely, colorist Matheus Lopes, and letterer Clayton Cowles choose to make their second issue quiet and subtle. They find their stakes not in action-packed adventure, but in the complexities of their characters.
Writing
The first issue of Helen of Wyndhorn ended with Ms. Lilith Appleton and Helen face-to-face with a gargantuan monster — whose head had been recently removed by the burly Barnabas Cole, Helen’s grandfather. In issue #2, after a brief introduction via our frame story, King brings us back to a startlingly calm scene in Wyndhorn. As Lilith, Barnabas, and Helen sit around the dinner table, nothing at all seems to be amiss. Lilith admires the food as Barnabas hungrily gnaws a turkey leg. Helen is the only one who isn’t ready to move on from the horror of the night before.
“Excuse me…” Helen says. “…What the hell is happening?” What indeed, Helen! Last time we saw any of these characters, they were facing down some supernatural beast. By skipping ahead to the next day and underlining how “normal” everyone is acting, King imbues Helen of Wyndhorn #2 with an immeasurable amount of tension. He also, brilliantly, keeps this story focused on its characters. Lilith and Barnabas seem to be intent on pretending nothing at all happened that night with the monster — albeit for very different reasons. And Helen, as stubborn as ever, will not let it go. King pushes the supernatural elements of this story into the background, at least for this issue. He insists that if we are to care about these characters, and any fantastical situations they may someday find themselves in, we have to know them first. Helen of Wyndhorn #2 is beautifully normal in so many ways, and yet rife with tension and personal stakes.
Art
In one of Lilith’s narrations, she talks about noticing a familial similarity between Barnabas and Helen. “Something around the eyes,” she says. Even as a reader, you can see there’s an undeniable resemblance there. The way that Evely achieves this is outright remarkable. For one thing, when you actually focus in on the eyes of Helen and her grandfather through the rest of the story, you’ll first notice something particularly odd about Barnabas. He is often pictured with his eyes barely open at all. He looks down and away, rarely making eye contact with other characters. Barnabas may seem confident and jovial at times, but it all looks like one big act. Instead, as we see him continually avoid our gaze, it becomes more and more obvious that this is a man who is hiding plenty of pain and shame.
There’s some of that same shame in Helen. Perhaps that’s why liquor has become her closest confidante. But she also has a dreaminess about her. She stares off-panel, looking like she’s a million miles away. She only occasionally looks at characters (and us) directly in the face. When she does, it’s usually because she’s mad about something. But just like her grandfather, she’s almost always looking away. Lilith’s eyes, however, frequently look to us. She looks at the reader with a piercing and determined expression. It’s as though she’s telling us that she’s not dreaming like Helen. She’s not ashamed like Barnabas. She’s wide awake and ready to account for her actions. Through Lilith, Evely includes us in the narrative. We’re Lilith’s witness to these events. We’re the ones who are hearing her story. She wants to make sure we’re still paying attention and seeing all the ways she tried her best.
Coloring
Lopes wastes no time at all in this issue. He immediately connects us to the themes of this story, by starting with a painted looking page that depicts C.K. Cole’s character, Othan, fighting a monster (not unlike Barnabas at the end of the last issue). When you flip that page, you find an incredibly similar color scheme being used for a scene in the dining room at Wyndhorn. Lopes is underscoring that Cole’s stories came from his childhood in Wyndhorn. Cole’s books all found their sources, their root, right where Helen sits now.
Elsewhere, Lopes continues to use an eerie looking turquoise color to mark scenes that take place at night. These hues take you right back to that final scene in the previous issue, where a twisted monster lumbered through a landscape depicted in that very same hue. Surprisingly, Lopes also maintains the warm green coloration of the hills outside the house. Despite the dangers that could be lurking behind any tree, Helen still feels alive as she stretches out on the grass. As this issue closes, we see Helen and Barnabas setting out on a journey together. Lopes covers the page in a mix between his turquoise and warm green colorations. It’s a stunning way to end the issue with a giant question mark, suggesting that bright days out on the grass or cold nights fighting monsters could be what come next. Only time will tell.
Lettering
In the first few pages of this issue, Helen wants to get her grandfather’s attention. She slams her fists down on the table. “BANG,” Cowles writes the sound in big white letters. Barnabas chuckles before saying, “No. Like this,” bringing his own two fists down on the table. The resulting “CKKKRAKKK” is shown in jagged, hollow letters that take up the whole bottom half of the panel. It’s a brilliant, colorful moment where Cowles shows us undeniably who can cause the bigger disruption.
But Cowles does a lot of subtle work in this chapter as well. It seems — though it’s not always a rule when space dictates otherwise — that when a word balloon goes up from a character’s mouth, their dialogue feels deliberate, sometimes cutting. Alternatively, when the balloon drops downwards, their words feel almost to have lazily tumbled out of their mouths. Cowles uses these ideas extremely effectively in an argument between Lilith and Barnabas. Lilith constantly changes tactics, trying to get through to Barnabas through gentleness or blunt truth. Her words ping pong across her face. Barnabas often answers her in a balloon that appears above his face, then continues on dismissively in dialogue that is depicted below him. But when Lilith finally cuts through to Barnabas, his words start low. “You…” You can hear the quiet fury in his voice. When he next speaks, Cowles writes his dialogue in smaller font than the rest. “Get out…” He no longer has the energy to speak deliberately. “Just go. Please. I beg you.” All these words descend towards the bottom of the page. The fight has gone out of him and Cowles shows us exactly that.
Verdict
Helen of Wyndhorn is about many things. It’s about coping mechanisms, family dysfunction, and fantastical lands populated by mythical creatures. But most of all, this creative team assures us, it’s about its characters. Helen of Wyndhorn #2 is a stunning second chapter. This intimate, understated story is surprising and moving. You don’t want to miss it! Helen of Wyndhorn #2 is out from Dark Horse at a comic shop near you!
