REVIEW: ‘I Hate This Place,’ Issue #6

Having survived their run-in with Frank, Gabby and Trudy are trying to make the most out of their less-than-ideal situation on the farm. But even as things start to get sorted out, new troubles are on the horizon as Trudy’s dad is coming to claim his daughter. Needless to say, I Hate This Place #6, published by Image Comics, written by Kyle Starks, art by Artyom Topilin, colors by Lee Loughridge, and letters by Pat Brosseau, doesn’t promise a happy family reunion.

One of the most frequent lessons that the horror genre tries to impart to its audience is that the most terrifying monster is humanity. While good people like Gabby and Trudy are wonderful, the worst of us are more terrible than any monster. After all, monsters maim and kill on instinct. They are like animals but bigger and scarier. People, on the other hand, make a choice. They choose to abuse power, position, and trust in order to manipulate, control, and punish those around them into submission. I Hate This Place #6 delivers these points in all their terrifying glory as it welcomes Trudy’s dad into the story.

Starks writing crafts a truly stand-out terror in Trudy’s father, Joseph. He has so many elements of personality that I find terrifying mixed up in him. He has the fervor of a religious zealot, he expects commands to be obeyed with the iron-clad rigidity of a career military man, and has the self-assured confidence in his rightness of a man who is far too drunk on his own power. I genuinely cannot think of a more perfectly sculpted personality to serve as an antagonist for our two ladies.

Much of I Hate This Place #6‘s exploration takes the reader back in time to before Trudy met Gabby. The compound her father runs for the cult he appears to lead looks exactly like a military base. This mixture of religion and military motifs sends shivers down my spine. And while any group presented as a classic communal, locked-in-together cult is bound to be bad, Starks goes far deeper with the level of hate and intolerance that Joseph shows as he is seen to teach both his daughter and some questioning members of his congregation a harsh lesson.

While the force of Joseph’s personality is crafted into his every word, it wouldn’t land with all the power it does without the fantastic art backing it up. Topilin captures every moment of Joseph’s emotional presentation with skill. From his dominating presence to outright rage, the man owns every panel he occupies. His confidence in his self-proclaimed “divine duties” is ever present in the man. Combined with Loughridge’s colors further augmenting every panel, the intensity of I Hate This Place #6‘s emotional levels can, at times, feel almost suffocating. The final element of the book’s presentation is Brosseau’s lettering. The letterer does a grab job sculpting the book’s many sound effects, making sure that they convey the sound’s intensity while always blending in with the art for an amazing combined effect.

While I had high hopes for this issue, given how great the first arc was, I Hate This Place #6 exceeded my every expectation. It hits hard and often as it sets up the newest threat for Trudy and Gabby to overcome. How Joseph’s arrival will come to meld with the larger events around the farm is a question I can’t wait to see answered.

I Hate This Place #6 is available now wherever comics are sold.