Review: Sensory Distortion

Sensory Distortion is a new graphic novel from Bleeding Ink. If you like your graphic novels to be graphic, then you'll love Sensory Distortion.

Like the modern wave of horror movies, the basic story can be explained as "bad things happen to college kids." Six friends take a weekend road trip and inadvertently stumble on the "demon weed" of a nearby Indian reservation, which leads to harrowing experiences with their worst fears. Our lead character is Karen, who's trying to escape from an abusive father, thinking she's gotten as far away as she possibly can. The demon weed proves her wrong, and then the father appears and proves her wrong again.

Social Distortion can be described as a coming of age story. The "demon weed" is originally introduced as part of a rite of passage in the Indian community before a quick transition to our cast of friends who have their own drugs they take for recreation purposes, unaware that a run-in with a cop will lose them their best stuff, leading to the fateful deal for the drug neither they nor the Indian youth who provides it for them can appreciate in that moment. The youth's grandfather is furious when he realizes what's happened, and tries to set things right before it's too late, but of course it's too late already, for most of them.

Karen has no idea that her father's come back, killing her mother and turning to Karen for more. The Indian youth finds her and helps her face the fear she still feels toward her father, but then the real thing appears, and she finds herself in the unlikely position of overcoming her worst nightmare twice in the same day.

All of this seems like fairly standard material, but it's the art that's at the heart of Sensory Distortion. Blessed with some of the most dynamic coloring in any comic book I've seen, the story glides on a wave of euphoria, driving home the theme of climactic experience that is Karen's reward. She wasn't expecting anything of this, but she got it anyway.

That's Sensory Distortion in a nutshell. It's definitely worth a look. Visit Bleeding Ink's Facebook page for more information.