Vol. 1, Wytches

Very interesting novel. I love the fluidity of the narratives between the father and daughter. Also the flashbacks are beautifully integrated into action sequences without losing any momentum. Highly recommend reading.

Damn, Scott Snyder is a creepy dude! Nah, honestly he tells an amazingly creepy story accentuated by Jock's strong artwork. The story centers on this strange version of the classic witch tale and a family dealing with this insane world. At times the story goes back in forth in reality and time which can cause confusion. I also wish the story was in black and white because the colors seem overpowering in certain panels. Overall, a very good book.

Very well written, great story and an interesting take on witches. Art work is also great. Only complaint is that, not the drawings but the coloring is sometimes this weird splash of light. The art makes the story hard to follow sometimes because it's hard to tell what is going on when the drawings are obscured by these weird dark and light splashes that seem like they are meant to give a horror movie tone.

I feel very conflicted reading this book.
I love Scott Snyder's writing and I love Jock's art. But I really really didn't get into this at all. It's an interesting concept but after 5 issues it just doesn't seem to go anywhere. I didn't get enough perspective on the characters, just little glints into their past and how they got to be where they are.

Ultimately the book says that Wytches are real, and they eat people. More closely they eat kids. And if you "pledge" or give them a kid, the can give you your health or it seemed in some cases maybe luck or financial well being? The art is interesting but I found that the colors just didn't work his work but that's Matt Hollingsworth on that one.

Definitely an interesting comic if you're into horror or Witch mythology but otherwise if you're just a fan of Snyder's Batman work there's not a lot for you here.

I am horror fan through and through. That is basically all I read and watch. This story was just meh. Like Snyder's book Severed, I felt the story was missing something. Wytches did not quench my horror thirst. Don't get me wrong I appreciate what Snyder tries to do for horror, i just thing his stories always end up a little short. Except for his Batman s***, that was good stuff!

This was a very good story. Finished it very quickly and want more.
The art is beautiful BUT it was covered with all of his splatter acrylic paint art stuff....made all of the picture just a little blurry and messy....I understand why he wanted it that way in certain places but just wish it was a little cleaner to see. But otherwise I would definitely keep reading. Can't wait until the next installments.

AMAZING story. I can't wait for more. (Hoping that there is going to be more?!!!) I love that the author writes personal essays at the end. This made the whole story ten times better reading where he got the ideas from.

As for the story itself, I was entirely creeped out of the woods behind my house while I laid in bed reading this book. Get this book and read it now! You won't be disappointed.

first and foremost, the aesthetic is awful. just awful. it's equal parts messy and flat and often times i couldn't even tell what was going on in the scene. which is a shame because i can tell they put so much work into it. it's ugly, desaturated, messy, gross, and does not in any way support the narrative. i did tell myself to take a chance on this one even though i couldn't see inside (one of two books i did this for, if memory serves), so i'm not too upset about it. however, if i had been able to see what i was buying, i would have passed, so there is some lingering feeling of a small swindle. alas.

secondly, the story was okay. i think the pacing worked, and towards the end, i really was asking myself what was going to happen. so in that, the characters were believable, which is always good (though i feel this had a great deal to do with me not being able to tell what was going on half the time). but i didn't find it all that interesting. were one to ask, i would advise one pass on this.

What a beautiful and rich book. The layers of the story make for a compelling read. The artwork is superb, visually dense and consistent with the storyline.

If you have reservations about comics, or graphic novels, this is an excellent intro piece to that world.

This was a very disturbing and creepy graphic novel, but in all the best ways. If you like dark and creepy you will enjoy this graphic novel. The illustrations perfectly matched the tone on the story and overall I enjoyed it.

After the complete miss that was 2012's "Severed," Snyder has really hit back hard with volume 1 of Wytches. I think the plot would have benefited from a more slow-burn approach, but the pace rarely felt rushed. The characters were moderately developed archetype builds, more so at least than many other contemporary comics. Aside from some predictable twists, my only other complaint is that the art in the book is covered in something the team calls "hero splatter" which is essentially a layer of watercolors overlaying each panel. I found it to be extremely distracting and in many cases it made it difficult to tell what was happening in a panel; I hope they tone this down for volume 2. Despite these shortcomings, the bottom line is that it's compelling and hard to put down. Worth following!

This story scared the living daylights out of me. Incredibly scary and well written. The art is gorgeous as well and I very much enjoyed the rough, layered images. I read this on my iPad, but am considering getting a printed version as well as sometimes I felt the navigation was a tiny bit clunky.

Not my favorite graphic novel, which is disappointing as it came highly recommended. Yes, it is horror. Violence is to be expected, but for me personally, it was triggering and it took me a long time to be able to read it.

Pledged is pledged.

Wytches: Volume 1 chills like an icy whisper of wind across the back of your neck as you walk alone through a dark forest. Atmospheric and original … author Scott Synder’s script unleashes a dark, earthy terror that is both new – yet primal – while artists Jock and Hollinsworth deliver a motion picture-like experience from the cheery to grainy grim – the splotched watercolor effect feeling like old celluloid and reminiscent of the found footage style of horror film-making.

The opening pages are disturbingly visceral – in terms of both the primeval setting and on the human relational level – and you should be completely hooked (and uneasy) by end of the first scene. And while the opening chapters of Wytches threaten to be an impossible jigsaw of the macabre, Synder wisely hammers the ghoulish and gruesome into order, developing a mature (and amazingly heartfelt) story, where all the pieces fit. This is mythos building, and Synder’s creature designs (and their black symbiosis with humanity) is reminiscent of the monster-making Bram Stroker did in Dracula complete with a Van Helsing-esque opposition. Wytches hits that same vein, introducing a new terror to the genre ... that, at the same time, also seems like it’s a horror that has actually been around for a very, very long time, lurking on the borders of the human subconscious, waiting for some intrepid soul to give it name and give it form.

Everything about this book is so good … from the warped designs of the monsters to the amazingly well-developed characters … even the trade-dress is well done, with the full-page covers of the monthly comics acting as chapter dividers. It is also, probably, one of those comic series that reads best as a collection rather than in single issues … where the mood and twisty-turny plotting is uninterrupted and delivered all at once … like a blockbuster movie. And like the best movies – while the door is certainly open for sequels -- Wytches also stands alone as a self-contained masterpiece.

I read Wytches at night, in a cabin in the woods, when the rain fell heavily. It is a book best saved for those types of nights, when the shadows of the trees play across the walls of your bedroom and you hope – you pray – that those noises you hear -- chit-chit-chit -- is just branches scraping glass.

I honestly don't know how this graphic novel/comic series eluded me until now. I picked this up at my public library, intrigued by the cover and title (especially after seeing Stephen King's blurb on the front!). This book blew me away; my expectations being highly exceeded.

This series is about the real witches in the woods. Forget what you thought you knew about Salem; this series turns the focus towards the true evil. Sailor, the main character, was bullied in school and has massive anxiety, and her family hopes to start over after a traumatic event as they move to a new town.

But this town holds dark secrets.

The artwork of the series roped me in immediately. It's colorful, vivid, unique, and, though busy, it adds so much to the story to the point where if it was any other style, it wouldn't work as well. It definitely adds to the creepiness of the book, and I'm just absolutely in love with it.

I was immediately enraptured by the storyline of this volume, and cannot wait until volume 2 is released. It definitely is horror, that Stephen King kind of horror that creeps up on you and messes with your head a bit but also shows monsters when it makes sense to show them. The combination of psychological horror and monsters is my absolute favorite kind (thanks to King for my introduction to this genre), and it definitely shows that Snyder was inspired by King, yet still crafted a story uniquely his own.

I also really enjoyed the author's notes at the end of the volume. He describes how he got into the horror genre as a kid (and how it helps his anxiety, just like how I use it to calm my own anxiety) and his personal inspirations for the book. It just made me fall for the series even more.

If you love horror, or are even just interested in getting more into horror, definitely go find this book! Those who don't care for horror may still enjoy it, but I'm biased because I love this genre so much, so it's hard to be a judge of what non-horror readers may like.

This review and others can also be found on my book blog: swimmingthroughliterature.wordpress.com.