Dark Horse’s Colder: The Bad Seed is absolutely insane. Which is pretty good for a book entirely about insanity. Another of Dark Horse’s ongoing horror books, Colder is climbing the ladder that several other great current horror or thriller titles have already scaled. But, Colder is a strange beast. There’s a lot to talk about with this one, so let’s get right into it. Is Colder worth your time and money? Let’s find out.

First and foremost, you can rest assured. Colder: The Bad Seed #1 is more than comfortable acting as your first read in this series. It does a great job of addressing past events and summing up the main drama of the series without feeling like a major re-tread for people who’ve already been through it. For a quick summary, our protagonist Declan has a pretty wild backstory. An amnesiac who woke from a coma to find he has ice cold skin, and an ever dwindling body temperature; not to mention his ability to cure insanity.  Declan deals with the literal demons causing insanity when he can, and trying to live life with his girlfriend when he can. This run introduces Swivle, the nightmare on the cover, and Swivle is a real disgusting spectacle.

Disgusting in all the right ways, I should add. Swivle steals fingers, wrings the bodyfluids out of victms with his bare hands, and a whole lot more disgusting stuff I don’t want to ruin for you. The art in this book is surprisingly unique; it has a real sense of atmosphere and mood. It also really kills it when it’s time for the horror, entire pages of gore rendered in absolutely chilling fashion. You can’t beat the art in this book at all; but it’s not all sunshine and severed fingers in this one.

The writing leaves me wanting, but not in any particularly tangible way. I can’t say it’s not serviceable, or even bad; but it doesn’t really strike me. Something about multiple sex scenes in one book, none only one of which proves to be memorable and interesting, leaves me a little dejected. The horror writing is wonderfully paced, and the scenes with Declan visiting people in isolation are wonderful too, but the whole issue left me more confused than excited about my feelings.

I can’t say this was a bad book, but I can’t say I loved it either. If you see this book on shelves, definitely flip through it and decide for yourself. You could do a lot worse than this book!