Plot
Tommy van Hutton is your typical pre-teen loner. He spends time alone reading comic books and is ignored by everyone, even his own parents. Except for one little thing: Jack, Tommy’s pet rabbit, is a Serial killer. Jack wants to make Tommy a man, and he will do whatever it takes even if it means killing a few people. Can Tommy control Jack’s homicidal rage? More importantly, is Jack behind the murders…or is it really Tommy?
Looking at the cover, it’s not obvious Tommy is a horror comic. Usually, horror comics display violent, eerie imagery. When one looks at the covers of EC’s classic Tales From the Crypt, it’s clear what nightmares wait within their pages. The abstract cover of Tommy, on the other hand, indicates nothing. This could easily be an action comic given the dynamism of the blood splatter. Fortunately, there is this image on the back for clarification:
Even so, in comics, where presentation is everything, it is best to make it obvious what kind of book you’re selling on the front cover.
The art of Tommy is some of the best work in modern horror comics. On one hand, the art is Looney Tunes-esque with exaggerated facial expressions and surreal body types. Contradicting this cartoonish side of the art is the heavy use of black ink and detailed penciling. They give the art a grittier look similar to the work of Jhonen Vasquez. The result is a cartoon world subverted by the darkness hidden beneath and populated with grotesque characters. King of all the grotesquerie is Jack the Rabbit. He has two forms: his normal, cute form when the adults are around, and his brutish humanoid form when alone with Tommy. If Bugs Bunny got wasted and went into a biker bar, he would come out looking like Jack.
