Stuff of Nightmares lives up to its name yet not in the ways one could expect, and ultimately that’s what won me over. “The Monster Makers,” part one by R.L. Stine, A.L. Kaplan, Roman Titov, and Jim Campbell sets the tone brilliantly within its first couple of pages thanks to its mysterious narrator, and Kaplan and Titov raise the tension with each pane, creating a chilling aura around an unassuming house of mystery. At the point when things actually start to reveal themselves Stine puts his foot on the gas and rides the momentum through to its ridiculous and compelling first act conclusion, and the answers those future stories hold are sufficiently compelling to keep me snared. While this type is a piece winning big or losing big with me in general, Stuff of Nightmares #1 genuinely immersed me into its unsettling and at times gruesome world, and you can consider me captivated.

Those first couple of pages can’t be sufficiently praised, as they do really wonderful work of bringing readers into the right headspace for this story, and Kaplan and Titov’s work is an exquisite compliment to classic tenants of a R.L. Stine adventure. The hints of what is to come are welcome as well, and sufficiently all it you moving regardless of whether the sights of intestines are all in all too much for your personal tastes.

Stuff of Nightmares works with established unpleasant tropes until the main confrontation, where it weaves in psychological elements and a wondrous spiral into chaos that becomes a considerably more compelling storyline. Frankie’s three creators become the focus after a rather grisly sequence, and as lead characters, their unstable relationship is far more captivating and intriguing than the story of the leads who continued them, and the promise of the chaos to come is what has me snared moving forward.

There are still so many questions left to be answered, and on the off chance that the series can continue to carry them out and expand upon the issues between the team in exciting ways, it will follow through on the promise this issue so often holds. Assuming we move back towards the more typical elements of the issue’s beginnings, that would hold the story and these characters back from what they could ultimately be.

And that leaves us Frankie, who rapidly makes a big impression despite his small stature, and the door is totally open on what his story could turn out to be as we push ahead. The heartstrings are already pulled even in his short appearances in the book’s first issue, and the character has the real potential to turn out to be the most important and meaningful part of this series.

Stuff of Nightmares pulls you in further with its remarkable mix of immense shadow and vibrant splashes of color. While the blood flows in that familiar red and the yellows and blues cast a foreboding gleam to everything, other pages assist the book with popping with swaths of gorgeous pinks, purples, greens, and oranges, and I’d very much want to see more of that in later issues, however even here it helps break up the more muffled esthetic towards the center of the issue.

Stuff of Nightmares #1 brings traditional elements of horror and R.L. Stine stories to the forefront while also finding its own one of a kind sense of style and personality. It’s a brutal place to be at times, yet it finds a healthy balance of humor and intrigue to hold you back from being overpowered by the death and misfortune tracked down along the way. I wasn’t expecting to be so captivated by Stuff of Nightmares, however I certainly was, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this particular excursion goes next.