Ghostly Thoughts by Alex Cook

Sequential artist, Alex Cook returns with Ghostly Thoughts. A custom size, stapled comic which emerged from last October’s #Mintober, an alternative to the annual month-long drawing-prompt social media event #Inktober. The perfect bound graphic novel comprises three eerie tales told with Cook’s usual richly resonant and atmospheric visuals, and her ever effectively economical but precise use of text.

The first story ‘Necromancer’ (below) begins with a marvellous piece of single panel composition. Here we are introduced to a deeply unsettling image of a ghostly presence that has attached itself to a mortal life; all the more disturbing for the idea that the haunted individual has become so blasé to its presence. This tale of the otherworldly merging with the everyday begins with the line “It’s been 6 months… I’ve lost friends… they find it creepy”, and follows its protagonist’s quest to free bother herself and the spirit from their intertwined bond. Cook allows the reader to interpret events and the bittersweet ending either as a “straightforward” supernatural account or, alternatively, as a metaphor for something more psychological; her crisp visuals and delicate use of colour adding to the story’s quiet intensity.