The Rot #1 (2018) Review

Publisher: Source Point Press
Parent Company: Ox Eye Media
Writer: David C. Hayes
Artist: Sean Seal
Editor: Travis Mcintire
Letters: Joshua Werner
Release Date: May 16th, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99

A few weeks ago Ox Eye Media was having a "free comic book week" on their website where they were giving out a bunch of comics from their Source Point Press comic label, so I grabbed everything that I could. Out of all the ones I've read so far I've been very impressed with them all, but The Rot #1 has been my favorite. I immediately bought the entire first volume and I can't wait to get it in the mail.

The first issue flips back and forth between the present and the past. It opens up with what appears to be a corpse wrapped up like a mummy trying to walk to the city. He finds a cow and instinctively kills it with Swamp Thing like branches that he can make come out of his hands. That made him feel better. So he keeps killing.

He almost gets hit by a truck so when the driver gets out to yell at him, he kills that guy too. When he kills, the bodies of his victims go into advanced decomposition, and he's just been killing farm animals left and right. When the quickly decomposing bodies of the animals and that truck driver are found, the CDC blames the truck driver because he's been known to have sex with animals, and they believe that it's basically a venereal disease. The locals start calling the disease "The Rot", and the killer embraces that name, and finds his purpose in destroying bad people. But who exactly are the bad people to him?

Throughout all this happening it flashes back to The Rot's previous life. He was once a dangerous assassin with a huge body count, spending his final days in prison. No, he wasn't going to go free or be executed. He's dying from brain cancer and his days are numbered. A doctor offers him a chance to cure his cancer, and as you can expect that's how he ends up as The Rot. I'm not going to tell you how or why. You'll have to find out for yourself. I'll just say that the doctor doesn't have this man's best interest at heart.

Bits and Pieces

I loved this issue so much. The art is just amazing, the overall feeling of the book is eerie, the way that the story unfolds is brilliantly done, and there's only a few things here and there that stop it from getting a perfect score. I need that first volume to get here ASAP.

9.7/10