Imagine Jurassic Park, but with ghosts. That’s the premise for Ghost Island, and it’s dark, surprising, and loads of fun. We reviewed issue one of Ghost Island back in June, and as much as we enjoyed issue one, issue two is even better.
The story follows a group of recruited “experts” who have been brought to Ghost Island in order to help prepare the park for future guests. Some of the group are excited at the prospect, others are skeptical, but the main character, Josh, just seems to want to speed things along. He’s a psychic who has the ability to interact with ghosts and view memories of their lives. The park recruited him so that they could learn about the inhabitants, and while it’s a useful skill, the park is built on an old asylum full of murderous and monstrous spirits…and whenever Josh communes with them, he opens himself up to possession.
Issue one did an outstanding job of setting up the park and what responsibilities each character would have, and issue two shows them beginning to explore their duties. There’s a good deal of interpersonal drama, as well as personal struggles from many of the characters. This leads to a few of them making poor decisions, which makes things so much worse for the group as a whole.
I thoroughly enjoyed both issues of Ghost Island. Joseph Oliveira does great with the pacing of the story, and all of his characters feel like real people and react to their situations accordingly. Anabela Turlione’s art does a remarkable job of enhancing the feelings of dread that the characters are experiencing, and while I’m not usually a huge fan of black and white comics, I think it works much better than color would for this story.
Issues one and two are on sale now and are available at www.afterlightcomics.com. If you’re into horror comics, don’t pass this one by.
