Red Room urban legend that has captivated the minds of people who search for crazy stuff on the Dark Web. For the uninitiated, the only way to reach the real Red Rooms is through the Dark Web using an anonymous browser, because of the insane stuff that happens in them.
The user logs in and waits. The live stream video is of theme decorated room. In the middle is a restrained person, and a costumed person who is the host. The host is usually accompanied with a pushcart piled high with tools and instruments of torture. The restrained person screams and plead for mercy. But there was none to be had in the Red Room. The user can vote for different ways to torture but people watching the stream must pay using untraceable cryptocurrency. The person with the highest payment got their torture of choice carried out.
Well as you can imagine, the organizational skill needed, plus the legal ramifications alone would need a small team to keep the operation going. Ed Piskor digs deep into it by fleshing out the characters, methods, and motivations. Even deeper the curtain is pulled back on the financials, Human Resourcing, and the Logistics.
Script & Dialogue:
Eerie. I do not want to accuse Mr. Piskor of anything; however, but the dialogue and script seems too logically realistic for an Urban Myth Legend. I can only imagine Ed sitting around the house with a Diorama of Red Rooms, and some puppets to figure this stuff out.
Art:
Ed Piskor really put his foot in the art on this one. Normally I would say there is no way one man could have done it by himself, but I watched him do it during recent a Comic Crusaders’ podcast interview. You must have an appreciation for it because he delivered Dick Tracy vintage quality at 62 pages a pop.
Final Thoughts:
Outstanding art and a Great read, especially if you are fatigued by the write and paint by numbers stuff. Interesting narrative methods in making the protagonist a grey night. Moreover he is not necessarily all good, but just not as bad as everyone else.
SCORE: 5/5
Red Room #1 will have 4 covers: Cover A Drawn by Ed Piskor; the Cover B Retailer incentive Piskor (1:5); thirdly Cover C Jim Rugg (1:12); lastly Cover D Peach Momoko (1:20).
Note to Comic Speculators:
I liked the acknowledgment in story that this stuff is not ever going to be mainstream. Though it is not 100% certain, I can think of a bunch of movies that proves that this would do well on the big screen; SAW Anthology, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the Hostel movies are just a few. As of this writing, bidding on the Cover D Peach Momoko (1:20), has reached triple on the secondary market.
Writer and Artist: Ed Piskor
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Check out our interview with Ed HERE
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