Jesus Christ. Just when you thought it was safe to be insane… then in walks Paul Tobin with characters like Nimble Jack and his “dinner” dates Declan and Reece, ruining the whole notion that crazy is fun, and making me want to talk to a mental health specialist. Or not. No, if this is Tobin’s world, it would be safer to be completely sane a boring. Insanity ain’t what it used to be, folks.

Seriously… where do people come up with this stuff? Colder is the stuff of loony-bin nightmares, tempered with a generous amount of armchair psychology and a healthy sense of humour that borders on, er, well… insane, itself.

Declan Thomas is an ex-inmate of an insane asylum that was destroyed in a fire, he has the strange ability to step inside a person’s madness—and sometimes cure it. He hopes to one day cure his own, but time is running out, as a demonic predator pursues him.

– Amazon.com

First off, I have to say that every review I’ve read about this book has been shouting volumes about the visuals of this mean little beast, and while I don’t disagree, I have to say that the story is definitely the showstopper here. Let it be said that Ferreyra certainly does have a way with the pencils and colours, but it’s the power behind the idea of a sort of mental-inter-dimentional travel, and the proposed ability of actually visiting the terrifying worlds that unstable minds create within their own noggins, and are subsequently tortured by, that held my attention.

Crazy is as crazy does?
Moving on…

I thought I was in for something completely different when I snatched the book up and took a gander at the cover. It’s nothing like what I assumed I would be in for at all.

The story itself is completely engrossing, showcasing this author’s ability to create empathy for the mad, and still hand the reader a healthy dose of sheer terror at the aforementioned Nimble Jack. Seriously, he’s one scary-ass mutha’. I haven’t come across a villain so honestly spooky in a long while, and I sincerely hope I don’t for some time to come. I mean, this dude feeds on fear, but I sincerely doubt he intends to be nearly as damned scary as he is.

While the story does take about half an issue to actually get into gear, and then another chapter or two to hit its stride, it doesn’t relent when it finally gets there. Tobin does a fantastic job of explaining Declan’s current mental state, as well as the goings-on of the currently unravelling solution (come book Issue 5) but there are definitely some issues left trussed up but uncooked in the end.

The question as to how, exactly, Declan got to the clink, as well as – if he was in a looney bin for a good reason (i.e.: if he was actually loony) – how did he go from crooked brained to straight in the 5 issue run? I may have missed something integral in the telling, but to me this felt like a big hole that needed some expert filling.

Shut up. That wasn’t meant to be dirty. Jesus… I don’t know what to do with you people sometimes.

Regardless, Colder is a stellar contribution to the genre and definitely a must have for anyone who likes their horror to be both James Wan disturbing, and psychologically terrifying as well.

Shit, if the idea of a bad guy killing you in your dreams was scary as hell to you back in the 80s, you can definitely consider this somewhat of an homage to the NOES of yore, but with a modern, goth visual aesthetic somewhat like a highly polished, more refined, bigger brother of Johnny The Homicidal Maniac.