The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Those good intentions mask a blindness to self — the all-too prevalent “power over principle.” With the Eisner-nominated The Atonement Bell, co-creators Jim Ousley and Tyler B. Ruff explore that road, steeped in the atmosphere of St. Louis and soaked in the influence of a ghostly coven. Ousley and Ruff aren’t the first in recent years to flirt with Satanic Panic, but it’s not a panic if it’s real.
Actually, Satan sits this one out. Grief struggles against self-righteousness, as young Jake and his mother Kayla visit her sister for the holidays. They’re mourning Jake’s father, who died unexpectedly. The details are important, but Ousley draws out the revelation for later in the story. In the wake of his father’s death, Jake has had some health issues, and once his aunt drags him to Catholic mass, he begins seeing his father’s ghost. Understandable, perhaps, but the ghost leads him to other ghosts — two boys who had been flayed alive.
For the parish has a dark secret, which Ousley and Ruff bring to life upfront. In 1822, a priest led his flock to exterminate the Demeter Coven. It didn’t quite work. Instead, the high priestess exacted a price for survival — not forgiveness. Once every hundred years, the atonement bell would ring and an innocent would be sacrificed. As further punishment, the priest would share in their immortality so he could witness the sacrifice.
You may piece together some of the plot from the first chapter, but the book offers more a few surprises. The less touristy elements of St. Louis come to life in Ruff’s art. The ghosts have an uneasy simplicity. While there’s an edge of cartoonishness to Ruff’s art, he stages action cinematically. There are a few quiet moments that are chilling.
What sets this book apart, though, is how lived in the story feels. Ousley supplies an introduction that explains some of the cultural realities that have impacted his hometown, and the comic itself takes them for granted. Just as the people in it would. It’s a solidly built window into a locale, with the occasional demonic presence. Don’t ask for whom the Atonement Bell rings; just read the book.
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