Mad Dog Morgan by Adam Lawson and Brian Christgau and illustrated by Dall'o is a horror graphic novel whose poetic, moody opening, "If evil could be distilled down into bricks and then stacked one atop another until they formed the shape of the house...," draws you in immediately into a story that is both a supernatural nightmare and an underdog redemption arc. These words in the graphic prologue of the novel prime the reader for an experience that will get thicker with dread with the turning of each new page, the type of experience made the more eerie by visual storytelling that leans heavily on the grotesque and the unsettling.
The story starts in a wrestling ring where a no-holds-barred Texas death match is taking place between the Syrian-sadist Sadiq and Mad Dog Morgan, the latter of whom comes from "places unknown." The billing, "places unknown," makes him an unpredictable character, the kind of character you are left wondering what might be "extra" about him because you already know him as a drunkard, a loser, and a "never-was" guy. He is doing so poorly that he is evicted from his house by the cops, after which he heads to the newest liquor store where he spends his remaining money. He then heads for Gideon's house, an empty house down the street. While there, the TV turns itself on, a moment that we very well know will not be the strangest thing to happen in that house, but merely the beginning of a string of other deeply unsettling events.
What is especially brilliant in this story is how the authors step out of the familiar "fight or flee" response and instead give the main character a third reaction: freeze. That choice makes the violent scenes surrounding him from childhood to the present deeply unsettling, leaving the reader with the question of whether he can ever rescue himself from the hold. Dall'o's art does more than just illustrate. The way he draws young Morgan with his eyes wide open makes you feel his terror. And when he shows the beatings where the father looms over the older brother? You don't need words to understand the violence. The art itself makes you wince. He is also a master at using shadows to show the danger that's always creeping closer.
Quill says: Everything about Mad Dog Morgan is designed to make you flip the pages as fast as your eyes can move. It carries this action-packed thrill, a thrill that psychological horror is largely a part of, where a washed-up indie wrestler stumbles into a house that feeds on hopelessness. It hooks you with a wild and ironic concept, then hits you with psychological twists, pulling you deep into mystery as well as speculation about what the house will throw at him next. This is one of those stories that will have you grinning all through, even as the horrors escalate, as you follow a broken man who finds himself caught in a fight that was always meant to be his main event.
For more information about Mad Dog Morgan, please visit the publisher's website at: thelabpress.com/pages/mad-dog-morgan
