The Cull, Vol. 1
Many people remember their teenage years fondly, even if those years are looked at through rose-colored glasses. When coming-of-age stories tackle teenagers, they will often focus on the friendships that form in those turbulent years, the ones that keep an individual grounded and feel destined to last forever. What strengthens the bond between the teenagers in The Cull Vol. 1, a science fiction/horror/coming-of-age story by Kelly Thompson and Mattia De Iulis, is a search for a missing brother across an alien landscape.
Cleo’s family life is torn apart because of her brother Jake’s disappearance. Under the cover of darkness, she and a group of her friends, under the pretense of making a short film, investigate a strange cave on the shore that leads into a whole other world, a world that seems too fantastic to be real. But they soon discover, to their horror, that there are things that follow them back, things that mean to do real harm to their world, forcing these friends to momentarily forget the problems in their own lives and embark on a quest to close the door they may have accidentally opened.
It’s easy to compare Kelly Thompson’s story to Stranger Things, due to the show’s popularity, or even The Goonies, due to these kids going on a perilous quest. But Thompson’s story, through its teen characters, touches on topics that neither intellectual properties have explored. Katie, a level-headed teen, still holds out hope that she can get back together with Cleo, despite Cleo’s own issues. There’s Lux, who appears to fit the teen princess trope, but comes from a very difficult homelife. Along with characters that go beyond their teen trope templates, the alien world the kids find themselves in has less in common with The Goonies treasure and traps and more in common with the world found in Alex Garland’s film Annihilation, a world full of monstrous horrors.
While the tone and appearance of said alien world references Annihilation in atmosphere and appearance, the creatures populating that world are things one would find in movies featuring giant monsters like Cloverfield. The alien shapes rendered by artist De Iulis are not only completely unlike anything seen in our ecosystem, but they are also given a truly monstrous scale. The humans drawn near them are usually shown running in terror from monsters who are as tall or taller than the panels on which they’re drawn. De Iulis’s monsters and mastery of light and shadow is guaranteed to pull in readers. The mundane world is bathed in shadows and shrouded in fog, while the colors and fauna of the alien world glow on the page. The characters in this comic are so gorgeously and realistically rendered that they look like they could leap off the page and interact in our world.
The Cull, Vol. 1 is a graphic novel that blends the best of both a compelling story and amazing artwork. For any science-fiction or horror fans, particularly those who love when those two genres combine, they should definitely give The Cull a read, and librarians with those older teen and adult patrons/fans of science-fiction/horror should give this book a chance to invade their graphic novel collections.
The Cull, Vol. 1
By Kelly Thompson
Art by Matta De Iulis
Image, 2024
ISBN: 9781534397873
Publisher Age Rating:Â T+
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Character Representation:Â Lesbian
