Review – Tales to Admonish Vol. 1 (IF? Commix) 

Publisher: IF? Commix
Writer: Andrez Bergen
Artist: Matt Kyme
Publication Date: October 2015

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I have been looking for a book like this for a while, one which features a mashup of comic book lore, The Twilight Zone, and Tales of the Unexpected. Stories rooted in this genre are notoriously difficult to balance, often having to lead the reader down one path whilst, subtly cultivating a convincing and plausible twist along another.

I have seen many others attempt this task to varying degrees of success, but Tales to Admonish is the first to get it so right. Some of the stories contained in this anthology were truly surprising; others gave me genuine chills, which is not an easy feat given my propensity to over-analyse everything I read or watch (makes viewing films with me an absolute joy!).

One obvious drawback of mystery/plot twist type tales is the difficulty it creates when attempting to review plot aspects without spoiling the book. What I can say is that the stories contained within offer enough variety to cater for a broad spectrum of readers, and the appearance of two characters in multiple stories creates the idea of an overarching universe where events take place, which really helps sell the anthology as a whole.

The only downside to the book for me was the wildly varying art styles. But rather than the particular styles, it was more about the disconnection I experienced between stories, with some visuals tending to cause more of a distraction, as opposed to enhancing the reading experience.

On the whole, if you are looking for something mysteriously quirky, offbeat, but thoroughly entertaining, I would certainly recommend picking this up.

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The writer of this piece was: David Gladman
David Tweets from @the_gladrags

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