Night of the Ghoul #1

Night of the Ghoul #1

by Scott Snyder, Will Dennis (Editor), Francesco Francavilla (Artist)

A dazzling work of horror, intercutting between the present-day narrative and the story of a lost horror film.

The writer and artist behind Batman: The Black Mirror reunite to shed light on a celluloid artifact once thought forever missing, perhaps with good reason...

Part of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive digital content only available on comiXology and Kindle. Read for free as part of your subscription to comiXology Unlimited, Kindle Unlimited or Amazon Prime. Also available for purchase via comiXology, Kindle and collected in print via Dark Horse Books.

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Adult, Fantasy

32 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 19, 2021

About the author

Scott Snyder is the Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer on DC Comics Batman, Swamp Thing, and his original series for Vertigo, American Vampire. He is also the author of the short story collection, Voodoo Heart, published by the Dial Press in 2006. The paperback version was published in the summer of 2007.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was good!
And I'm not even 100% sure what's happening yet. But it's throwing off this culty Cthulhu vibe that's wrapped up in The Ring.



So this dude and his son, who seems pretty uninterested in going along with his father on this road trip, stop at what looks like a rest home to find out if this old man lives there.



Supposedly the old man made a movie.
The dude found the only copy of it (albeit a half-destroyed copy), and has become obsessed with the story, which led him to seek this old man out to discuss it.
And then things just go completely sideways.



Honestly, I can't wait to read the next issue.
This is a ComiXology Original that's free for Amazon Prime members on Prime Reading. Check it out if you get the chance!

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book via Kindle Unlimited.

After discussing Scott Snyder on a recent podcast, I wanted to dive into some of his new work releasing on the ComiXology platform and I have not been disappointed by this in the slightest. The story starts with a film fanatic of sorts hunting down the director of "The Greatest Horror Film of All Time" or it would have been, hadn't it been destroyed in a fire. But now he's found the director, who has hidden his identity, in an old persons home on the verge of death and wants to get the answers that could change his career. The director however, is horrified that he has been found and states that the monster in the story is in no way fictional, and they will not be able to escape the night.

I loved this starter, it has a great premise, it's really interesting and it's hard to see what is coming next. The world seems like it's about to be completely shaken up and the art made me pause on multiple occasions. Thoroughly enjoyed this read.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I was looking for. Dark, gory and ghoulish. And the illustrations were gorgeous!

[Gav451 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read with Amazon reading.

This was a really good horror story. I am not reviewing the first book but the whole series.

It started a really strong with a unique premise, interesting characters, a brilliant setting and a visceral sense of menace without being too explicit at all. It then remained on right up until the last half where while still good it did not quite live up to how well it started.

I enjoyed the 2 narratives that slowly came together. I liked the art which was very evocative and scary with just the right level of horror and I thought the writing really strong.

Why only 3 stars then? While it was a good horror tale I thought it was going to be brilliant. It became less of a surprise and the ending was such a popular horror trope that it felt like it didn't belong.

I may be being too harsh because it enjoyed the read but this is a story that really shines for a while but then settles on being good. This is not a bad thing but those first episodes were so good if feels like a bit of a lost opportunity.

[A Fan of Comics · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old cliche brought back from the dead.

A man and his son are trying to find an old movie director. An old man in a strange nursing facility fits the description pretty well. Great art, great intro issue. Can’t wait for the rest.

[Deepu Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new horror mystery begins

[Petr Nakasharal Fabián · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wau! Tak tohle je ten Scott Snyder, kterýho miluju. To je návrat ve velkym stylu!
Ve spolupráci s Comixology spustil svůj imprint Best Jackett a Night of the Ghoul, který v jeho rámci vyšlo, ve mě vzbuzuje velký očekávání od všeho ostatního. Máme za sebou zatím jedno číslo a už to samo strčí do kapsy naprostou většinu komiksovýho horroru. Snyder tvoří atmosféru hustou jako puding a mixuje klasickej monster horror zlatý éry s moderním hororovým stylem vyprávění tak zatraceně dobře, až se mi tomu nechce uvěřit. Dělá to s takovou lehkostí, kterou člověk získá jenom pokud stráví stovky a tisíce hodin hltáním žánru. Z každý stránky je cejtit jak moc Scott miluje horror a je to úžasný.
Boží scénář je doprovozenej skvostnym artem a ještě lepším coloringem. Stejně jako scénář pokukuje po dobový stylizaci ale zároveň nekopíruje a je svěží.
Kurvafix tohle je dobrý jak chleba a i kdyby další issues stály za uplný nic, tak první bude pořád jedno z toho nejlepšího, co jsem v rámci žánru kdy v komiksu četl.

Uplně čistejch 5 a dejte mi už sakra další díl.

[Annalisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to judge such a short bit, but the set up has pulled me in. I enjoy a good monster story and this looks to be one of those. The film is interesting too. Just hoping it's not taking the typical horror route of you'll die because you watched something. We'll see.

[Sergeant Apone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night of the Ghoul looks like it is going to be right up my alley. A mystery starts in 1917 and now may affect a family in present day. What is it? Damned if I know. The art is cool and the story has me intrigued. Stay tuned.

[frankie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know why I keep giving Snyder books chances, it’s been ages since he’s written good horror. It’s an ok concept that reads like a movie pitch and when I pick up a comic book I’d like to read an actual comic.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75. I'd never heard of this book but I was drawn to it because of the illustrations and they did not disappoint! I'm not confident I completely understand the ending but the story was creepy and well done. I read the collection with stories 1-3 and I'd be interested in continuing the series!

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool story. I liked the idea of the destroyed movie. So far the story isn’t too scary or anything but the set up in volume one made me want more. Def gonna try to finish the series.

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great series to start in October. I love the artwork and the plotline. I'm looking forward to making my way through all the books! ❤

[Jazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting premise. I'm interested in reading more and seeing how all these storylines connect with each other. Much better than Clear.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please, settle right in everyone! But first! A warning for pregnant women and the faint of heart, you might want to leave the theatre now... Because the film you are about to see--a film by me, T.F. Merrit -- is possibly the most horrifying story ever put to celluloid! And why? Because it's all true! It happened to me, you see. And now...it will happen to you too! May I present... Night of the ghoul!

While I wait for the next issue of We Have Demons (comiXology Originals) #1 I thought I would check out some of the other Scott Snyder Comixology originals that are currently available.

This series has a lot of promise. Yet, there is a niggling familiarity to it that I currently can't put my finger on. I certainly haven't read this before and it isn't anything like the previous Snyder comics and graphic novels I've read. Maybe it'll come to me as I delve further in.

This opening issue finds a father and son travelling through the night to hospice of sorts. They are hunting for the infamous T.F. Merrit, writer and director of the infamous horror film, The Night of the Ghoul. A film that was lost to a fire shortly after it's first screening.

What they find is something much scarier and darker than either could have imagined! A solid start. 4 stars.

[Michael Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the nose Snyder!

Night of the Ghoul, is a brilliant horror twist on what is scary and where scary comes from. It blends the fiction with reality making one question internal interest and how real something can be if given enough thought. A father and a son bond will be tested in the coming issues inside the walls of keepers for the Ghoul. Don't miss this chance to read one of the best horror movies not ever made!

[Sneha Jaiswal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issue 1 of ‘Night of the Ghoul’ by Scott Snyder is so short, there’s no way you wouldn’t want to grab the next one immediately. The first comic in the series barely sets the plot up – a man called Forest Innman and his son Orson are visiting a sanatorium to track down a film director they believe made the ‘greatest horror film’ ever, only problem – it never made it to the screen.

The film director is called T.F Merrit, who is quite ghastly to look at and gets an entire page to himself during his first appearance. Readers get some glimpses of this horror film called “Night of the Ghoul”, which starts off during World War II and is about an ancient creature that grows stronger by feeding on the dead. The artwork is in dark tones, bringing a very classic horror vibe, with some stark tones of red standing out against black and yellow shades. In contrast, the World War II panels are in black-and-white, offering an interesting break and a clear demarcation between the past and the present, so readers aren’t confused.

While it’s hard to say anything about where the story is heading in the first issue, however the next issue (which is even shorter) builds up a little more story to this mysterious/ominous ‘ghoul’. There are two father-son plots running in this comic, one of Innman and his son trying to crack the mystery of an old lost horror film, the other is that of T.F Merrit and his father. The director claims his father was a victim of the ghoul and continues to narrate his tale, with dire warnings to Innman. So this exploration of father-son bond add a certain humane touch to what’s supposed to be a sinister story.

It’s the artwork that keeps things intriguing, because plot-wise, Snyder uses usual old horror tropes and there’s nothing too shocking or novel, at least not in the first two issues. Some of the more disturbing events to have happened in the past are simply narrated by T.F Merrit; it would’ve probably been more horrifying if Snyder had chosen to illustrate them instead.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Night of the Ghoul was meant to stand the test of time against other classic monster horror movies like Dracula and Frankenstein. The movie was created with love and passion, but never made it to the big screen for mysterious reasons. It’s revealed that pieces of the film were destroyed in a ghostly fire that killed everyone in the filming crew but the director T.F. Merrit, the remaining footage disappearing under unknown circumstances.

One day, a hardcore horror movie enthusiast named Forest Inman stumbles upon a forgotten canister containing the lost footage. To put the mystery behind the film to rest, Forest tracks down the original film director currently being held within an insane asylum and tries to piece together the truth behind what happened on the night of the fire.

Night of the Ghoul has a really solid first half. It feels like a genuinely creative take on the found film horror genre with a double timeline story depicting the past events behind the creation of the movie and the dark truths surrounding its bizarre destruction. The art style has a gritty 80’s horror movie aesthetic with a nice build up to the mystery behind the origins of the ghoul monster featured in the missing footage.

The second half kind of takes a big nosedive though. Most of the plot points either fall flat, contradict themselves or create giant plot hole inconsistencies that don’t make logical sense in the context of the full story. The second half is also told in a completely different style than the first half. The first half feels like a good horror story with a slow intense build up. The second half feels like the unfinished bullet points of a movie script turned into a comic book.

The writing gets sloppy and incorrect, the dialogue gets cliche and revolves around characters explaining big exposition points that they shouldn’t even be aware of. It really falls off hard in the second half with an anticlimactic ending.

Not awful overall, but definitely feels like big wasted potential for what was otherwise a fairly solid premise.

My rating: 2.3/5

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Night of the Ghoul is a long lost horror film, recently found (at least some if it) by Forest Innman, a former filmmaker who spends him time digitising old film. When Innman, and his son Orson, manage to track down the film's creator in an old hospital seemingly on his last days, Innman can't wait to find out where the remaining pieces of the film are and promptly sneaks in for an interview under the guise of being an insurance officer. Little did Innman know, that that the film's creator, T. F. Merrit would spread a dark and horrifying tale, bridging the line between fact and fiction which would end neither of them leaving the hospital alive.

Night of the Ghoul #1 is immersive; not only does Scott Snyder's multi-layered horror have depth, it reads like a traditional horror with the requisite scares and ghoulish figures lurking in the night, completed by a mystery element involving Orson and his mother (separated from Innman) which was only teased in #1.

With so many threads written into this first issue, I was surprised to find that, on first read, the story itself feels 'complete', there's no cliffhanger ending, rather the opening stanza leaves the threads in a nice place, ready to be picked up in the second installment.

In terms of the art, Franceso Francailla does a great job. There's a healthy dose of black and shades of grey in the present-day pages while the Night of the Ghoul film pages are in sepia which helps to clearly distinguish between to the timelines.

I can't wait to read #2.

[Fernando · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este cómic ha sido mi primera experiencia en leer un tebeo digital, mediante la aplicación de Kindle "ComiXology" y lo "tomé prestado" con el programa de "Kindle Unlimited" que se asemeja a un préstamo de biblioteca. Tengo que decir que es una experiencia distinta, muy inmersiva y que para unos ojos cansados con presbicia resulta muy edificante, pero tienes que leerlo en una tableta y a color.

En cuanto a la obra en sí, cierto que toma enormes referencias clásicas de la cultura popular, del cine (ese famoso "Cigarette Burns", episodio clásico de John Carpenter en la serie "Masters of Horror" sobre una película maldita y la más aterradora jamás filmada; un delirio casi surrealista). Seguiremos la estela de un director novel que, con su hijo, intentan encontrar al creador de un largometraje semejante, cuya mayor parte fue quemada en un incendio, para conseguir completar el rollo titulado "Night of the ghoul", recluido/atrapado en una suerte de sanatorio perdido que más bien se trata de una cárcel.

Así nos internaremos en una trama a dos planos, la propia película en tonos sepia basada en la experiencia del director con su padre que acaba de llegar de la guerra y la del protagonista moderno que, sin sospecharlo, ha involucrado a su hijo en una trama de cultos ancestrales y una criatura misteriosa, el ghoul, que poco tiene que ver con el concepto que ahora tenemos, y que ha sido la inspiración de todos los demás conceptos de monstruos desde el principio de los tiempos. Un ser puramente Lovecraftiano y con ecos también de otro gran film de culto de Carpenter como es "La cosa".

El rimo es muy cinematográfico, muy de cómic, repleto de escenas vertiginosas y escalofriantes, así como de reflexiones sobre la naturaleza de la humanidad, la muerte, la creación de los mitos tradicionales y las relaciones entre padres e hijos. Cierto, no algo que aspire a la elevación, no es alta literatura, pero se trata de una historia con pocos huecos, bien cerrada y un gran amor por el cine con un dibujo colorista y nítido, muy correcto, sin aspirar a grandes volteretas sino que se adscribe a lo que, desde siempre, ha funcionado bien.

Que sepa, no hay una edición física. Una pena porque me lo compraría.

[BookishDramas · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for me.
Picked this up over 6 months back but somehow it was at one end of my current reading beneath a heap of ARC's. Reading digitally has its challenges and reading dozens of books simultaneously sometimes pushes an obvious book to the background.

This is another lovely tale from Scott Snyder's quill. His works with these comixilogy originals compete with the best and truly drive boundaries.
The only problem with this volume is that the short book has left me stranded all at sea with just a vague idea about where this story is going. It's only in the last page(s) that the true horror seems to emanate from the discussion between the protagonist and the OG director of the ultimate horror movie. This promises to be another rollicking blockbuster.
With five more volumes to go, the story is set to heat up and I'm hard pressed tempering my anticipation.
Jumping right into the next one.
Recommended.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing Horror from Snyder.

A father and son visit a remote sanitarium to track down the director of a classic lost horror movie. This engaging premise combines lost footage fragments from the film and dovetails this with the conflicted father and his estranged son plot, in a gripping introduction to a very promising series.
Good artwork in a European style from Francesco Francovilla captivatess and draws in the reader. Typically strong writing from Scott Snyder.
Well worth checking out if you are a fan of EC comics ,combined with characters that you want to learn about.

[Sean Bunyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creates a vivid atmosphere

Night of the Ghoul is a wonderfully illustrated book that immediately captures the imagination. It gets 5 stars from me for its multilayered narrative. I'm a big fan of time jumps and particularly the early 20th century WWI setting. The fact that the antagonist is the ghoul, an oft-forgotten and not well-known monster, is a major plus as vampires, zombies, and the like are currently overdone. I'd recommend this book to all fans horror comics and even those who aren't.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story:

Dude goes to a hospice to talk to another dude. That other dude is a movie-making dude who made a crazy horror movie, but now is dying. First dude interviews other dude about his movie, and we find out the movie is based on a real monster and everyone is in danger, aggggghhhh!

I like movies. I like monsters. Still, this only kind of tickled my fancy. I would guess the story probably builds in interest quite a bit over the next few issues, but at least from the first issue, the characters and situation only mildly appealed to me.

[Miguel Poveda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primera entrega de una serie de cómics de terror creados por Scott Snyder (responsable de American Vampire). En este caso, la historia se centra en un viejo cineasta y una película de terror (Night of the Ghoul) que se perdió en un incendio y un tipo parece haberla recuperado. La puesta en escena es francamente buena, engancha de primeras y el lector se queda con ganas de más cuando lee "To be continued".

[Morgan reed]

Good start

Definitely a good start leading into what I can only see as being a creepy horror series.
They seemed to be setting up the plot towards the end of this volume. Reminds me of a mix of stranger things and the short stories about the movie that drives people crazy and starts committing murder.
The art is dark and gloomy which fits the setting perfectly, some of the flash backs were a bit lackluster and boring but they needed to set up some kinda backstory I guess.

[Ashlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not exactly sure what’s going on just yet, but I really like the art style and the general vibe so far. A man and his son are trying to find out if this old man in a nursing home is a famed director of a horror movie that was destroyed before it could be watched. I’m definitely intrigued to read the next volume.

[Zamanta De jesus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting premise can't wait to know more

With a classic horror movie pace, this comic makes an interesting premise of the origin of the ghoul. It has the charm of vintage horror that makes you come back for more. I enjoyed the writing, art, and story pace in this issue. Let's see how it develops.

[Krishnan Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my first horror comic.

It's difficult to rate. The atmosphere and the artwork is excellent but the story is clearly just getting started. The setup is great but if the payoff is not worth it, then the whole series goes down in your estimation.

Hopefully, the remaining issues live up to the introduction.

[The Adaptable Educator · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ghost story and cliffhanger

This sort of story brings me back to the serial stories of read in the monthly horror pulps I'd buy as a kid... I couldn't wait for the next instalment and I couldn't, no matter how much I tried, read each instalment at a slower pace... This is sure to book you in!