Hollywood makes an east target: We all know that beneath its glitz and glamour there’s a cesspool of those forgotten and abused by the industry’s fame machine. Hollywood is an ugly place, a sinister turd that has been polished to perfection. So if you’re going to unleash an unholy monster that feasts on liars, fakes, and cheats in your comic book, it’s hard to imagine a better feeding ground.

Jim Zub, Djibril Morrissette-Phan, and K. Michael Russell do just that in their latest effort, Glitterbomb #1. The story is not just about some lumbering beast destroying downtown Hollywood — although we’d happily read that series, too — rather, it’s a story of survival, in a way. The comic’s lead has survived in Hollywood for quite some time, and it has clearly had an effect on her, both physically and emotionally.

What makes Glitterbomb #1 work so well is that it’s an engaging, twisted, and sad story even without the tentacled monster. The characters are real, developed perfectly, and all beautiful even though they’re starting to crack. Everyone looks a pencil line away from being exhausted, Morrissette-Phan rides the edge wonderfully, the edge between beauty and broken.

Zub writes his lead this way, too. She’s exhausted, on the edge of curling up and giving in to the darkness. Perhaps that’s why this evil finds her? We’ll have to wait and see, but when it comes to capturing the depressing nature of this characters life — even before a monster uses her as a host — Zub and Morrissette-Phan nail it. Glitterbomb #1 looks and reads great.

K. Michael Russell’s color work is superb, as well. There’s no glitter and shine to his Hollywood—it’s soaked in browns and soft blues, right up until blood covers everything. The bursts of read that come with violence are shocking and come and go quickly, which is no doubt the desired effect.

When I first heard about Glitterbomb, my mind immediately connected it with another tentacled Hollywood horror called Fatale. The good news is that this comic could not be more different Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ masterpiece. It’s hard to say where exactly Glitterbomb is headed, but this first issue does a fine job of wrapping its tentacles around us and pulling us into the dark world of glitter and blood.

Are you going to check out Glitterbomb? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Image Comics