BUZZSCOPE on Elk’s Run #4

BUZZSCOPE :: Weekly Review Roundup: December 21, 2005:"ELK’S RUN #4 – BUZZSCORE: A

By Joshua Hale Fialkov, Noel Tuazon and Scott Keating * Speakeasy, $2.99

If there were any reservations about declaring an 8-issue mini-series one of the best of the year based only on its first three chapters, Elk’s Run hits the halfway point with a bang, cementing its status in my mind as THE sleeper hit of the year. After last issue’s shocking turn of events saw two state troopers killed for prying too deeply into town affairs, Fialkov switches perspectives again, showing the immediate aftermath through the eyes of the four teenagers charged with disposing the bodies as they come to grips with what’s happened and debate their escape. “Who knows what else they’ve done…?” Flashing back periodically to a hunting expedition, Fialkov continues to unfold his story of a tightly knit community coming apart at the seams, deftly fleshing out motivations and balancing even the most extreme actions within a very human context. Tuazon and Keating complement the story’s mounting tension with atmospheric visuals that will look great when some smart director brings Elk’s Run to theaters, Sin City-style, in a couple of years. Don’t let the ghost of Christmas past pay you a visit and make you regret missing out on the source material. --Guy LeCharles Gonzalez"