Two American bikers are travelling across Russia in 1953. Arriving in a seemingly deserted village late at night, they find a mansion, and the sole occupant allows them to stay the night. That occupant is named Igor; he’s both eccentric and extremely creepy. Yet the two men stay, unknowingly involving themselves in what will soon become a very deadly siege.

I didn’t know what to expect from Siege Town, a graphic novel written by Benjamin Ruffett, with art by Andrey Portilla and colouring from Christian Ramirez.

It’s got a great, spooky-house-in-the-countryside setup, but then takes a huge left turn with the titular siege, and becomes something much more than it initially appears to be.

The relentless action is intense, gory and escalates brilliantly; the fact that the attacking townspeople all speak in untranslated Russian means that (unless you’re fluent in the language, of course) you’re never quite sure what’s going on, or what the reason for them besieging the house in such a determined manner is.

At least until the shocking revelations in the last act; not only are some of the developments leading up to the climax a real gut punch (never has ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time’s applied so much as it does to our two American travellers), but what we discover as the story hurtles towards its end is hugely disturbing too.

Ruffett’s script doesn’t waste a moment, with a measured build up and breathless pace once the siege truly kicks off; he’s complemented nicely by Portilla’s artwork, which very occasionally stumbles with a lack of clarity in the action, but never falters in terms of depicting the viscera and terrifying, sometimes exaggerated facial expressions of both the villagers and the bizarre Igor himself. Ramirez’s colours give the comic a fantastic ambience, with a murky atmosphere and muted colours giving way to plenty of blood and fire later on.

It’s a fantastic read, though not for the faint of heart; despite that, it never feels gratuitous, and shows huge restraint, in terms of the revelation of the catalyst for the siege (thankfully), but it’s been marked NSFW for a reason.

Many thanks to Benjamin Ruffett for providing me with a digital copy of Siege Town for review purposes; you can check it out yourself via Global Comix here.