Phantom on the scan

Phantom on the Scan #1-5

by Cullen Bunn

Twenty years ago, a comet fell to earth. Since that night, Matthew has been haunted – haunted by a spirit that gives him incredible psychic abilities. But these abilities come with a price…and payment is due.

Every time Matthew uses his gifts, he draws closer to death, and other psychics – all of whom gained their powers on the night the comet fell – are dying in the most horrible of ways. To save himself, Matthew gathers a group of psychics to solve the mystery of their powers before it’s too late.

A new dimension of horror brought to light by master storyteller Cullen Bunn (DARK ARK, UNHOLY GRAIL, BROTHERS DRACUL, PIECEMEAL) and illustrated by Mark Torres (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Judge Dredd, The Shrinking Man), the team responsible for the psychological terror thriller, Cold Spots.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Horror

133 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2021

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another addition to the Bunniverse - so called because it's seemingly endless. Besides the Cronenbergian body horror Bunn regularly inflicts on us (this time with Cronenbergian exploding heads), now we also get a Cronenbergian institute with a Cronenbergian name.

It all feels quite derivative, full of clichés, and the weirdest thing is how the book has zero tension. The characters barely have personalities and almost every scene ends with the group needing new information to progress the plot, with a character using their respective psychic powers to "look up" the info. Yes, it's psychic googling, and it quickly becomes repetitive.

The art is a grab bag of quality. Some bits look good - buildings, inanimate objects, the boy ghost - and then there are the people and their faces.. you can have a page of two characters talking to eachother, and it'll look like there are five different people.

No.

(Picked up a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly Cullen Bunn has seen Scanners as he uses the most famous moment in the movie as a plot device. Psychics are dying. Using their abilities hastens it. Time for a quest to explain what happened to them 22 years ago to give them these abilities. It's a neat story. It's a bit more of a treatment to try and get a film deal though, than a completely fleshed out story.

Torres's art is somewhat frustrating. When his pencils are clean it's really good. Other times I couldn't tell what was happening with everything looking smudged.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

More concept than story, and a very compelling one. The breakneck pacing really tells how serious the conditions the characters are in. I guess if psychic powers are going to be a plot, might as well make them secondary to how they manifest. Because between all of the correlations of events and the patterns that occur, it keeps everyone on their toes. First I thought it was a serial killer taking out people to try to keep secrets, but it turns out to be something even bigger. With visuals like this it fits perfectly into drug-like psychedelics and what people who are more or less on a timeline try to figure out everything rather than just accept the madness.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is for issue #3. Man this story is heating up nicely. These four people are now forced to use their “gifts” to try an figure out what’s going on. We get some eerie background on how these people got the way they are and are trying to find the people responsible. Can’t wait for issue 4.

[Eule Luftschloss · Rating 2 out of 5]

trigger warning
being experimented upon, gore, mental illness, terminal illness

Matthew has special abilities but feels that he has the price to pay - now.
He gathers fellow sufferers to try to get to the bottom of this.

I could not shake the feeling that this was a retelling of Heroes, only trying to be as dark and gritty as possible.

While I, personally, did not care for the illustration style I have to admit that it is very expressive.

Listen, I don't have much to say about this one. It felt like I already had read this, no event surprised me. It didn't touch me or engange my mind. I feel like I can only shrug.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

[Alex Sarll]

The story's barely begun before a psychic's head explodes, seemingly not from any Scanners-style assault but simply from being unable to shut out the inanities running through everyone else's minds. But the story that suggests, with its implicit angle on what the Internet has done to us, is a lot more interesting than what follows. There's a group of psychics whose abilities are killing them, but rather than happening in similarly poetic fashion, it mainly seems to involve a monster manifesting. It all has something to do with a company called Trellux, which to me sounds like the tripartite version of Bollux, and also a comet, because why not. Another slight Bunn horror mini, in other words, and possibly in its original incarnation as an RPG scenario the barely-there characterisation and on-rails plotting were overcome by the atmosphere at the table, but here they really aren't, despite the best efforts of Torres' moody, washed-out art.

(Edelweiss ARC)

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Y'know what? It's early 2022, so let's not go through how hot and cold Cullen Bunn can be – especially when it's the art here that is potentially the greatest sin. Because of a comet decades ago, our main character has got some psychic abilities, and realises he and others similarly empowered are now at major risk of some weird mix of Chest-Burster and John Carpenter's The Thing, er, thing. As a result, it's a standard road trip, vengeance, characters being decimated kind of story, and we've seen a heck of a lot of it before. Or we could say that if the visuals were up to anything. They're just far too smudgy, slushy and smushy for us to see any damned thing at times, with some written sound FX that border on the risible. So SPLU-GORRTH to this mish-mash of pointless MacGuffin, sinister institute, fifth-rate X-Files, derivative, sci-fi-horror hokum, with its seen-through-a-lens-of-flour "style". New year, new Bunny? Nu-uh. Two stars even feels a touch generous.

[Jaime K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books has an interesting premise of multiple people with varying paychic powers being connected by a comet from 1987. Matt, Jessica, Ben, Aston, and Jerold all meet up after freak accidents in other psychics come to light. Their powers are killing them.
But what is the secret?

Inwas intrigues, especially with the info from the Trellux Institute at the end of issue 1. But the story falls flat to me. The art is vague and not very detailed, but I can get over that with a good story. This one though is mediocre at best for me. I do love the colors.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read and reviewed each of the five comics collected here separately, so this is basically just for my own records. Two stars is the average individual rating: it's a very solid "meh" from me. The artwork is the best thing about it; it's not a style that grabs me, but it's done well. The story, on the other hand, is a mess. The characterisation is practically non-existent, and even in a short five issue run it's got too much waffle in it. I can't help but think that it might have been structured more effectively if the explanation as to what was happening came at the very beginning, with the rest of the series showing the consequences and the resistance. Instead, it was a not-very-interesting slog to the answers and a rushed conclusion that had little emotional resonance.

Two stars may be the average, but I can't help thinking it's also generous. Just not my thing, I'm afraid.

[Dean · Rating 1 out of 5]

The art and colours work for the tone of the story. The story wasn't for me. I haven't enjoyed rhe last four or more books I've read by Bunn unfortunately. I think they're a good person from all the interviews I've listened to with them.

I'm going to try some more of their Big Two work as I liked that, previously but their independent work hasn't been for me.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I love Cullen Bunn, but this was too repetitive.

Review submitted to Diamond Bookshelf for potential professional publication.

[Rob McMonigal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rare miss for me with Bunn. Didn't grab me the way his horror books usually do.

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is for issue number 3:
This was an ok issue. it mainly felt like filler to make up for the two issues not really explaining much. I liked that we saw some of the people's powers in relation to each other.