Good O'l Reviews: The Finale of "Echoes"

Echoes #5 Review

Is there an echo in here or is it just my murderous alter-ego?

Written by Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art by Rahsan Ekedal
April 27, 2011

Leading up to this final issue, Brian discovers he might unknowingly be a killer responsible for filling a chest with dolls made from murdered children. Towards the end, a gloriously gruesome splash page summarizes the story using imagery so perfectly that it could go down as Ekedal’s masterpiece. In it, Brian’s wife is told “he’s having a psychotic episode” as if that somehow encompasses her husband’s recent horrific mental tortures.

But that’s the genius: Brian is shown writhing on the floor seemingly unharmed while in another set of panels his body is being eaten by his father, little dead girls, and that guy who was just a helpful cop only a few issues ago. The sickening detail of his slimy organs and his leg bones freshly relieved of their meat make a gruesome display, but the drawings in the background provide the real brilliance.

Immersed in the deep blacks and grays of the page are a haunting silhouette of his father’s face, the faintest impression of a doll with stitches for eyes, and the merest apparition of his pregnant wife. It’s like they are submersed in the gray matter of Brian’s brain. And that has been the question all along: is this all in his head?

The story ends in a twist that will inspire Inception-level debate, and if this indie book catches fire like Fialkov’s past works (Elk’s Run and Tumor), then the debate will set the Internet ablaze with accusations of writer cruelty against enraptured readers.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Also check out my interview with Fialkov himself!