There are many types of sub-genres in the world of Horror, from the slasher to the monster and beyond, but it can’t be argued that maybe the most effective is the stories where the evil is never seen, instead leaving your imagination to fill in the blanks. Well, Mad Cave Studios look set to offer up a story in that vein as they present Bountiful Garden Vol. 1. Created by Justin Birch and Ivy Noelle Weir, this is the story of a group of teenagers who wake up on their spaceship to find it has stalled around a mysterious planet.

Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Writer: Ivy Noelle Weir
Artist: Kelly Williams (Art), Giorgio Spalletta (Colours), Justin Birch (Letters)
Price: £3.19 from ComiXology

Bountiful Garden tells the story of six teenagers who have been placed in stasis onboard a spaceship, charged with the responsibility to create a new home for the human race. However, upon being woken when their transport comes to a stop, this adolescent crew discovers that not only have they come out of cryostasis ten years early, but they have arrived in orbit of a mysterious planet that was nowhere near their destination. Unfortunately, as the group begins to investigate what caused them to stop and why around this planet, all of the training and study these child prodigies have gone may not be enough to prepare them for what they find.

Ivy Noelle Weir has created a superbly unsettling story within this first volume. Feeling reminiscent of sci-fi/horror stories like Event Horizon and even the beginning of Alien (while also taking the rather unnerving tone from the thriller, 10 Little Indians), Weir instils Bountiful Garden with a truly chilling concept where the villain/monster is never seen or even mentioned but yet its presence is undoubtedly felt behind bulkheads and around cavern corners.

The pacing of Bountiful Garden trundles along but never feels like a chore to go through, as it keeps me engaged constantly and Weir utilises it perfectly to provide nuggets of backstory as and when they are needed to give the characters depth enough to keep me caring about their plight. Of course, while the story delivers tremendous information about the world it arrives in and the characters taking the journey, Weir does leave questions unanswered. These include greater backstory surrounding the reason for the crew’s arrival to this strange world as well as an explanation (although character theories are provided) behind what is discovered on its surface. Nonetheless, these are minor inconveniences (unless they were deliberately omitted) to a comic title whose story otherwise hit all of the right notes.

As for the art, artist Kelly Williams more than matches Weir’s writing with a style which reminded me of Sci-Fi comics like Canopus and Sentient (which, co-incidentally, Bountiful Garden shared parts of their story concepts). Like those, Williams’ art style has a roughness to it that really gives off a vibe of chaoticness which gels with the plot. However, Williams’ work, when coupled with Giorgio Spalletta’s dark, cold colours, gives much more of a Horror vibe as the story progresses with the panel structure and layout really giving this horror movie look and helping ramp up the tension.

Bountiful Garden’s first volume is an unnerving but captivating read as Weir, WIlliams, Spalletta and Birch slowly walk you through this Haunted World. While this story certainly leaves questions by the end, its look and its execution are so tremendously achieved that its easy to forget its flaws and find yourself screaming in horror that the story might not yet be over!