Cut

by Mike Richardson, Todd Herman (Illustrator)

The latest addition to the Dark Horse horror line is this chilling original graphic novel from writer and publisher Mike Richardson (The Secret, Cravan). Twentysomething Meagan Walters regains consciousness and finds herself locked in an empty room of an old house. She's bleeding from the back of her head, and has no memory of where the wound came from-she'd been at a club with some friends . . . left angrily . . . was she abducted? When Meagan peers through the door's keyhole, she starts to suspect that her captor isn't quite human . . .

Todd Herman (The Fog; The Noir) fleshes out the story with his moody, EC-influenced pencils, and comics stalwarts Al Milgrom and Dave Stewart bring them to life.

Genres: Comics, Horror, Graphic Novels, Vampires, Comic Book, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 11, 2007

About the author

Mike Richardson is an American publisher, writer, and Emmy-winning producer. In 1986, he founded Dark Horse Comics, an award-winning international publishing house located in Milwaukie, Oregon. Richardson is also the founder and President of the Things From Another World retail chain and president of Dark Horse Entertainment, which has developed and produced numerous projects for film and television based on Dark Horse properties or licensed properties.
In addition, he has written numerous graphic novels and comics series, including The Secret, Living with the Dead, and Cut as well as co-authoring two non-fiction books: Comics Between the Panels and Blast Off!.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

A young woman wakes up in a locked room in a derelict house in the middle of nowhere, her arm cut, with no memory of how she got there. Who abducted her and why? Then she wakes up later and another young woman, also cut, is with her - what’s going on?!

I can see why Mike Richardson and Todd Herman’s Cut is largely unknown, even to fans of Dark Horse’s catalogue - it’s a perfectly fine vampire horror story that’s neither bad nor good, doesn’t add anything new or exciting to the genre and is very forgettable. But it’s still perfectly fine for what it is.

The womens’ backstories were fairly dull, the monster design is a dorkier version of DC’s Man-Bat (minus the air of Kirk Langstrom’s tragic backstory surrounding it) and the whole story is very surface-level - what you see is what you get. There’s no subtext, nothing thoughtful or cerebral or even new going on - it’s just a straightforward horror story.

And that’s also its strength. It’s breezy, compelling and Richardson sets up just the right amount of intrigue at each moment in the story so that I was never bored - here’s the time for this beat, now’s the time for this beat, and so on. Grounding it in a single location was a good choice - a fine example of less is more - and kudos to him for spinning the story out as long as he did with these limitations. Todd Herman’s art is similarly unremarkable but suitably serviceable like the script - think a poor man’s Ben Stenbeck.

Reading Cut reminded me of similar recent middle-of-the-road horror movie experiences: The Conjuring is a solid spooky house movie, IT 2017 is a solid creepy clown movie - and Cut is a solid mystery/vampire story. Expect nothing more than a decent horror comic that mildly entertains and Cut will deliver.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, quick horror read about a woman who wakes up in an empty locked room bleeding from her arm. Mike Richardson and Todd Herman, particularly, establish a great sense of panic and horror from Meagan, the girl trapped alone in this room in the middle of nowhere. Herman's art is fantastic. It really invokes the mood.

[Diz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman gets kidnapped by a supernatural creature and must figure out how to escape. It's a pretty dark book. The art adds to the sense of doom that builds in this story. The story itself felt a bit light though.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent story. Richardson's story starts as an escape room type plot and quickly moves into horror. It was a quick, good horror read.

[Kathryn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slowly, I have built up a nice stack of graphic novels. Lately, I've been grabbing one from the top, at random. If I had flipped through this before beginning, I probably would not have begun in the first place.

I seem to be gravitating towards horror gns more than ever and this is a prime example of the mediocrity currently available. I'm finding that most have little if any character devlopement, that the entire point rests in the blood spilt and fear felt. The big reveal of the monster or the killer is the point. I guess I like this, overall, at least in this medium. I can really only recommend this particular story if you see a used copy (mine was 99 cents) or if a friend has one to borrow.

Cut is another classic monster tale so monster fans may enjoy it but I love a good monster tale too and was unimpressed overall. Part of this is due to the the art being just so-so good, not as outstanding as I'd wished for. Still, I did like the ending very much. 2 1/2 stars.

[huzeyfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphics are good but I did not find the story particularly interesting or engaging.

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Grafikleri ve çizimleri her ne kadar güzel olsa da hikaye güzel değildir hem de içine saran bir tarzı yoktu. Sanırım bu tarzda okuduğum ilk grafik roman diyebilirim.

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a fight with her boyfriend, a young woman is kidnapped off the side of the road. Upon awakening, she finds herself trapped in an empty room, with no way to escape. Will she be able to find her way to safety -and find out why her captor has take her in the first place?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This was decent enough for a quick ‘Halloween’ read (not that I don’t love horror at any time of year ), but not one that I think I’d go out of my way to re-read. It’s a straightforward story - girl is kidnapped, has to escape. The kidnapped is more of a monster that she imagined he would be - his actions inhuman. Things get worse when another girl is taken, and the first girl now has to try to rescue them both.
But since it’s so straightforward, and not particularly complicated, the surface story is really all there is. There are no revelations to make you go back and re-read for further insights, or to find details you missed the first time. Enjoyable, but pretty forgettable in the long run. It’s worth reading, but probably not going to make any ‘all-time bests’ lists.
The art is a little more impressive than the story. I mostly liked it - the character art is very ‘comic-y’, if that makes any sense, but the art also reminds me of the art from Hellboy a bit - especially the kidnapper, the scenery around them, etc. It’s quite detailed.
The only major negatives to the art are a couple of the character expressions (the main. Character screaming comes to mind) where I can’t help but wonder what on Earth the artist was using as a reference. Rather than adding to the spooky atmosphere, or letting you imagine the characters terror, it makes it feel more comical or farcical. Human expressions don’t work like that, so it seems pretty weird, and doesn’t fit the tone of the story.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad horror comic but there's not really much to it. Vampire story featuring abducted girls imprisoned in an abandoned house. Probably would work just as well if not better as a movie. Art's not bad either. Nothing out of the ordinary but still entertaining.

[Francesca Giardiello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una lettura purtroppo dimenticabile, che non riesce a creare un mondo o una situazione tanto coinvolgenti da elevare il livello del fumetto.
Altra nota, i disegni, specialmente per quanto riguarda il comparto dei colori, non sono in grado di rendere l'atmosfera, ma invece creano ulteriore distacco.

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I stumbled over a free copy of this one, and that was about right. It's fine, but it's a fairly typical horror story. The locked-room mystery turns out to be pretty cliche, but fans of the genre might find it to be a reasonable diversion.

[Anoja · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for this to be more creepy and scary, but sadly I didn't really care for the story.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grim, atmospheric, tense, but for some reason oddly withdrawn. I never cared for or about the characters.

[Lucas Swanger · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too short for my liking. Otherwise, a decent horror tale.

[Bruce Dixon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing spectacular going on, yet still relatively satisfying.

[Alex Sarll]

I've often seen the suggestion that comics aren't the best form for actual horror – even from accomplished comics writers who've done plenty of work that's at least horror-adjacent, such as Peter Milligan. Obviously we can all think of exceptions, but this feels like a classic example of what they mean. It's so easy to picture this set-up as an effective low-budget horror film; two women, each of them mildly injured in the course of their lives (hence the title), are snatched from the street by a half-seen something and wake up imprisoned in a remote house. Yeah, it's obviously a vampire which senses open wounds like a shark, but you can see how on screen the tension would ramp up; maybe not a crossover classic, but the sort of thing which goes down well with the genre fans. On the page? There's nothing outright wrong with either the art or the writing, but it lacks impact, never really draws the reader into the predicament, ends up feeling a bit 'yes, and?'. Not least because, as Milligan says, the reader controls time in a comic, so the gaps where tension would build on screen just mean you turn the pages quicker.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a horror comic that exists. The art's serviceable, the writing really isn't anything offensive, but it's not great either. It's really the kind of thing you read about and then forget exists. Or maybe something that would serve as an in between story on an anthology show. Picked it up for free when Dark Horse put a bunch of digital stuff up during the pandemic, but I probably would've been disappointed if I'd paid full price for it.

[Kathryn Grace Loves Horror · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meagan wakes up, alone in a locked room in an old house with little idea what’s going on or who (or what) brought her to this forsaken place. Mike Richardson and Todd Herman’s Cut tells her story, from how she got there to what she must do to get out. This is a quick read and a lot of fun. Like I always say, you really can’t go wrong with Dark Horse comics, and Cut is further proof.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I appreciate the fact that this is a Horror story devoid of humor, it is simply too little story spread over too many pages for me to give this my fullest recommendation. It reads well, and the artwork is okay, but it I cruised through this entire book (112 pages) in about 20 minutes. Worth a read if your library carries it. I, unfortunately, paid for it.

[Shawn C. Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid scare

A great little horror story. Cut is concise, perfectly paced, creepy, and FUN!!! I love everything about this one, especially the creature design. Don't read ahead, and give Yourself the time to read this in one sitting.

[Ayacchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This scares me.. A girl woke up in a locked room, with boarded window, and no one's around. She hears weird sound sometime, and only when another girl was stuck with her did she knew what's happening..

[Bill Coffin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woman wakes up in a chamber of horrors and tries to get out against the monster that put her there. The end.

Mike Richardson puts forth a story that would have made a decent Tales from the Crypt episode, but no further.

[Crysisalis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, not good, not bad, just fine.
Although if a vampire bat monster is smart enough to make a trap house with barred windows and doors, maybe it should also be smart enough to remove the attic stairs to the only exit, considering it can fly.

[Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun if short story about a woman trapped in a house where there is something lurking in it.

[Roberto Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

It will not change the horror genre in the comics world. But if you can get your hands on this little graphic novel you'll have at least a fun, chilling time.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Girls are disappearing.

Good color artwork. Dark horse freebie. Unusual panel display. Young girls disappear after they get injured. Has a mystery creature.

[Juan Fuentes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una vuelta de tuerca al tema del vampirismo bastante lograda.

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty cliche horror story with no surprises. The plot is something you might see in a direct-to-video B-movie.

[Félix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cómic cortito de miedo, que cumplió su cometido para el día de Halloween.

[Viewtiful_Dante · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entretenido. Es una historia clásica de terror que va directa al grano. 120 páginas que se leen en un suspiro. No deja huella, pero tampoco pierdes el tiempo leyéndolo.

[Fwah Storm · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Cut' is the story of Meagen, a young women who has recently woken up in an old decreped room alone. Even though her memories are vague, she pieces together that she was abducted by a mysterious creature after having a fight, with her now ex-boyfriend, because she caught him having sex with someone else at a concert. Meagen soon realises that she is not alone as she finds a fellow abductee by the name of Anita.
What do these girls have in common? Well, the only visible connection is that they both have a deep cut somewhere across their body. Together the two women try to escape, and do their best to discover who, or what has abducted them and why.

'Cut' is a short graphic novel from the minds of Mike Richardson & Todd Herman. The story itself doesn't get too complicated, and is extremley easy to follow. Together with an art style that reminds me of the old horror comics, along with its very minimal and simplistic dialogue, this story is fun and very quick read.

Personally, I thought there was a lot more that the story could have accomplished, but as it stands, I think a movie adaptation would go down better than the book itself.
Now don't get me wrong, this isn't a bad book. I just can't help but feel that it moved too quickly, and stayed to very basic ideas. Obviously, this is not always a bad thing, but to be fair, this a concept that has been used a few times over, so throwing a couple of extra elements into the mix wouldn't have harmed it at all.

I have nothing against the dialogue, although, there were some parts where I felt the dialogue was put in for the sole purpose of making sure the reader spent more than five seconds looking at a panel. During those moments, I felt that I would have spent more time soaking in the art work if the dialogue wasn't there as it would have created more tension in the atmosphere of the story.

All in all, I think this book is worth a read, and if I'm honest, I have read it twice now. I think this book would be very useful for anyone who is trying to break into the comic book business as it will be able to show some things you should, and shouldn't do.