Who doesn’t love a good anthology, especially a horror anthology? The true test of a genre that thrives on the visceral reactions of the reader or audience is the bite size scare. Silver Coin #1 (created by Michael Walsh, Ed Brisson, Jeff Lemire, Kelly Thompson, and Chip Zdarsky) kicks off with The Ticket, written by Chip Zdarsky and Michael Walsh, the series first short follows an underdog rock band in the late 1970s during the cusp of the disco takeover. The Ticket is a fun, sharp, and fine tuned example of short horror fiction.
Running Red is an aspiring hometown rock band dying on the vine as the disco movement takes over the music and club scene of the late ’70s. But when frontman and guitarist Ryan uncovers a suspiciously old coin with a single eye in his runaway mother’s things and begins to use it as a makeshift pick, the trio soon discover the coin is their ticket to fame and fortune when it imbues their music with a sinister enchantment. However, not even vague black magic can change the tides of musical fads, and the young metalhead succumbs to pride, ambition, and a dash of hellfire.
The Ticket is the perfect start to a horror anthology named after the proverbial payment for Judas’ betrayal. It’s set at the start of the Satanic Panic and the demonization of rock music, the art and color work is charmingly grungy (with a particular emphasis on spooky, haunting eyes and faces a la Gideon Falls), and at the heart of the story it’s a rock ’n’ roll themed parable about betrayal and ambition, fitting for a series with such a title. Silver Coin is prime to be this summer’s easy horror reading.
