Dan West receives a hand-delivered letter from a little old man in a bowler hat summoning him to the town of Stillwater to receive an undisclosed sum from his great-grand-aunt’s estate. Having recently been fired with nothing but time on his hands and a need for cash, it’s the perfect time for a road trip! But what is Stillwater - and why has no-one heard of it…?
Stillwater #1 was the first Chip Zdarsky-scripted comic I didn’t totally hate! It’s tough to get into at first because Dan is such a shitbag of a main character: he’s fired for hitting a colleague, he fights (and loses) to a club bouncer, he fights (and loses) to a cop. So he’s overly aggressive, stupid and, given how crap a fighter he is, a glutton for punishment - not loving the guy! Doesn’t help that he talks in that douchey-chatty way that too many Zdarsky characters do.
I usually love Ramon K Perez’s art (Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand is terrific, if you’ve not read it and want to “read” a brilliant silent comic), and it’s fine here, but he’s not given anything terribly interesting to draw. It’s all ordinary stuff - normal people, small town; nothing eye-catching. The last panel of the little boy sitting on the ledge though was memorably creepy.
Still, I loved the Twilight Zone-esque quality the story develops slowly as the comic goes on. People at road stops have never heard of the town, there’s no phone signal in Stillwater, and then things get really weird. Zdarsky immediately diffuses the mystery and seems to lay most of his cards down on the table but I’m hoping there are more surprises in store later on in the story - it’d be a shame if this was all there was, particularly as what there is so far isn’t that remarkable a story for a series.
It’s not a bad start for a new title though and I was into Stillwater #1 for the most part - looking forward to where the story will go next. If you’re after a decent horror/mystery comic, this is worth a look.
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