THE OMEGA MEN 32 PAGE 14 BY DAN SPIEGLE

I find that this is a fitting page for the Halloween season 😊.

In panel one, we find the frightened bar owner who reprimands his unseen stalker from the previous page, indicating he knows him.

The second one sees him relax from the first panel. And yet, that back mass of inks around him and that “grrrr” onomatopoeia tells the reader that everything is not fine.

The pace of the action escalates brutally in the third panel as the unseen attacker claws open the hand that was holding the gun. I like how the three speed lines follow the falling gun into the fourth panel…

…in which we jump from a frightening atmosphere that was the previous page and the first panel to the pure panic of the bar owner, realizing what is in front of him (literally and figuratively).

Then the flight is amazing in its staging as you really get a gripping sense of a victim running out of the shadows for his life. The shadows framing his tentative escape really box him in as he tries to reach a lighted part of the town (and an armed guard). The fact that Spiegle drew him running against the reading order subtly reinforces his vain attempt at saving his life…

…towards the horrific and inevitable conclusion in panel 6 in which he is caught on by his predator. You will note that the shadows of that arch are even more present here, like they participate in swallowing the victim. My favorite part on the page is the rough shadow of the predator here, made of thick quick lines to suggest his speed and brutality.

A page that no slasher movie would disavow.