When I picked up the first issue of The Blair Witch Chronicles I was expecting to be a little out of the loop. Being one of the few people on the planet who has not seen the feature film (and I use the term loosely), I thought that I would be knee deep in Blair Witch mythology and characters to whom I had no real frame of reference. To the books credit, this was not the case. Chronicles instead chooses to approach the material as original genre stories completely independent of the movie, showcasing other, 'fictional', weird happenings that have occured in and around the surrounding area. The only real ties to the movie are in the logo and stick man on the front cover. Despite the narrative distance, I have to say that I lost interest in this book fairly early on.

I was immediately turned off by the inside front cover where Oni printed a 'real' letter to the editor from two brothers who wished to impart their tale of paranormal peril to anyone who would listen. While I didn't actually find the story all that bad to read, I also didn't find it very scary. There was a kooky Tales From The Crypt feeling to Meter's tale that would be hard pressed to scare anyone, and I found it disappointing that the story read more like an urban legend rather than the gripping account of the Kearney brothers. The scariest comic you will ever read this is not.

The artwork for the book was the only thing that did grab my attention, and carried me through to the end. The illustrations were done by Guy Davis, who some of you may recognise from his work on Sandman Mystery Theatre and the upcoming, The Marquis. Davis does a fantastic job of setting the mood and really gets across the oppressiveness of the forest, utilising the tangled and knotted trees to block out the real world. He has an obvious grasp of what works well in the black and white medium, and he uses everything at his disposal to make this book look top-notch. Unfortunately, even the beautiful linework of Davis couldn't save this one for me.

Independent approach or not, The Blair Witch Chronicles is merely a cash grab for Oni Press, desperately trying to recreate the licensing success of companies like Dark Horse Comics. Using a low-budget mockumentary to sell such marginal ghost stories, and labouring under the pretense that what you are reading really happened just seemed cheeky to me. Maybe I just don't get the allure to pretending all of this stuff is real.