I don’t know how creator Ed Piskor is going to keep it up with Red Room. Sure, he’s doing four issue volumes, but does he have an overall plan? I suppose I could’ve read the back matter. Because, as usual, Piskor finds an entirely new way to slice the comic, this time following the story of one Raina Dukes. In the eighties, pre-Internet, her father’s snuff video was infamous. In Piskor’s most unrealistic plot detail, the U.S. Government passed a law requiring possessors of such materials to pay restitution to the victim’s family. He tries to make it realistic as a ploy by the convicted rich and powerful to get time off their sentence.

So, Red Room takes place in a universe where the rich and powerful get convicted. Sure, Jan.

Raina’s spent her life preparing to take revenge on the woman who killed her father on camera. First, the “Crypto-Currency Keeper” tells us her story, followed by the story of the murderer, followed by the “Tales from the Crypt”-esque conclusion.

Again, as usual, it’s fantastic. In terms of done-in-ones, it’s probably the best issue. Piskor’s got great pacing for both stories, with the murderer’s origin filling in some details of how the Red Room started. The art’s phenomenal; Piskor leans into the horror comic narrator with the Keeper, but Raina also does first-person narration of her story. There are a couple surprises, though when the Keeper tells the reader not to think things are going to be too predictable, it’s a distraction from the story format.

The only time the issue slows down is for the epilogue, which ties it back into the rest of Red Room to some degree. Until then, it’s a beautifully paced revenge story, followed by a horrifying but uncomfortably close to grounded flashback origin.

I’m not worried about the comic per se; it just seems like Piskor’s doing a very focused anthology. He can only do the victim’s kid out for revenge once, right?

Then again, it’s Piskor and Red Room, so I wouldn’t bet against him being able to do it all day, every day, if he wants.

It’s so good. And, for a Red Room, surprisingly less gory than usual. It might be the most accessible issue yet.

Creator Ed Piskor once again surprises and (with qualifications) delights with Red Room. He’s on the third issue, and it’s an entirely different angle on the story, focusing on the FBI investigating the Red Room.

There are some backstory details in the issue as well, like the Red Room being around since the mid-nineties in some form or another. The FBI interrogates a serial killer who tells them about it in a very Piskor meets “Mindhunter” scene; given the grotesque nature of the comic, it’s weird to hope Piskor figures out a way to do a Windows 95 flashback to show what the heck they could’ve been doing with dial-up.

The issue introduces the first “good guy” in Red Room, hacker Levee Turks. He’s got a life sentence in federal prison until the FBI shows up pleading for help. He designed the anonymous web-hosting software used for the Red Room (not for that purpose), and they want him to crack the code. He’ll have help, too, even if they don’t realize it, because his significant other, Rita, is also a programmer. She just makes comics collecting software.

After a lengthy, mostly comedic but also beautifully drawn homecoming sequence, Rita realizes the Red Room is far worse than they thought, and they really do need to help the Feds bring it down.

There’s a big twist at the end—and it might get even twistier—but since it’s Red Room, who knows if Piskor will be back to these specific characters to unravel it. Instead, they might fade into the background for a while. Even when you know what to expect from the comic in terms of gore, Piskor can still surprise with the plotting.

Excellent characterizations and dialogue sequences (the interrogation sequence is particularly fantastic). Piskor is doing some great work here.

Okay, I didn’t realize Red Room was going to have real mythology (in the “X-Files” sense). I thought it was just going to be a series of horrifying vignettes about the world of online slasher snuff videos. This issue’s all about the doctor who prepares the victims for the videos. They get all sorts of work done, so they get mangled well onscreen. The network executives have faked the doctor’s death, and his family’s provided for while he works.

They’re even nice to him as an employee, albeit about some tough circumstances. Because, in revealing the mythological layer, creator Ed Piskor reveals at some level Red Room is just capitalism.

And there’s no end to the horrors capitalism can contextualize.

The issue hints at some of channel producers’ organizational structure; the producers, who may or may not be rich and famous; the famous part’s potentially significant. We shall see.

There’s a lot of great art. The issue tracks a victim from capture to murder, with a lengthy medical recovery period in between. The capture’s a little surprising, with Piskor going for an easy reveal right away, but makes sense once the issue focuses more on the doctor as the issue’s protagonist.

But he’s not a tight protagonist, there’s still a lot with the video stream pages, where executives talking about the business accompany the gory imagery, as well as the stream’s viewers chatting amongst themselves. Three levels of horror simultaneously.

Once again, Red Room is an unspeakably grotesque delight. It’ll be interesting to see where Piskor’s taking it going forward, since the first issue spun in bloodier circles.

Red Room is a revolting revelation. Intentionally. Both my alliteration and creator Ed Piskor’s infusing every page of the comic with something deeply disturbing. There’s a single character in the comic who isn’t in some way vile. Everyone else is in some way or another gross, including the preacher throwing shade about a thin funeral payment.

See, Red Room is about snuff live streams, the gorier the better. Piskor expressly avoids anything particularly sexual this issue, which is good because it’ll be a tough go; instead it’s living dissections with the potential for some cannibalism. The issue’s sixty-four pages and it takes a good chunk before we get any solid exposition. The opening is intentionally disquieting and confusing (I just now thought about what the environmentalists find at the beginning, knowing what I do from the end), setting up two distinct storylines. In between the storylines—and occasionally incorporated into them—are the live streams themselves, with accompanying chat from the wealthy patrons.

First is the behind-the-scenes at one of the live stream companies, “Red Room,” which is a family business, run by the one sister; appropriately named Sissy. Piskor’s got a whole delayed approach to visually introducing her, instead concentrating on establishing her as the narrator. Works great. We learn there are these live streams, we learn a little about the family (with hints at the dynamics), we learn about business competitors.

Second is a municipal worker—a county court clerk—whose wife and daughter die in a car accident before the comic even starts (he gets notified on the first or second page, but the scene starts on the first). His surviving daughter is the character who isn’t in someway vile. Even her friend is questionable, tempted by the promise of Red Room splatter-snuff videos. Initially, it doesn’t seem like there’s any reason the dad would connect to the other plot and it seems like a juxtapose.

Right up until a lawyer connection bridges the two storylines and the dad, Davis, gets entirely rolled into Sissy’s plot, leading to a somewhat unpredictable, somewhat procedural jaunt through commercialized depravity.

It’s awesome.

And almost entirely impossible to recommend. Except to horror comic fans, of course. Piskor’s always gross but always classy. It’s icky, icky stuff and also great comics.