Fiction Leads to Chilling Reality in Intriguing You’ll Do Bad Things (Review)

Image Comics is the home of the best indie books on the market. Image publishes a little bit of everything, from pitch perfect sci-fi to some of the greatest horror comics of all time. The best creators in the comic industry work at Image, and every month there’s something new for fans to sink their teeth into. Writer/artist Tyler Boss is most known for his work with writer Matthew Rosenberg, the two of them teaming up for sci-fi/horror comic What’s the Furthest Place from Here. Boss’s work as writer has always had a certain flavor to it, and his next major Image series from him a classic Boss book. Boss teams with Italian artist Adriano Turtulici for You’ll Do Bad Things, a horror comic with a great premise. You’ll Do Bad Things #1 is another example of an intriguing comic that has the potential to draw readers into it.

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The issue beings with a man and a woman ending a date. The woman tries to take the man up to her place, but he refuses, leading her to think about the fact that they had been dating for so long, yet she’s never gotten a kiss as she undresses and goes to bed. Meanwhile, in the car outside, the man sits there, looking at a picture of himself and a child. The next panel reveals someone in his back seat, who stabs the man over again. The attacker walks away, and as he does so, pay phones ring as he walks by.

The story then shifts to a man talking to his cat as his phone rings. This is Seth, the man who wrote the previous scene. He doesn’t want to answer the phone, but does so anyway and it’s his agent. Readers are let in on who Seth is — a true crime writer who’s trying to write something else but can’t. It seem like every story he writes turns into a crime story, and he lies to his agent about having writer’s block. He erases the scene he just wrote before the phone call. The next scene takes him to a magic show with his sister and son, and the two adults discuss his problems on the train home, while his son does a magic trick. Later at home, he begins to write again, telling the story of two men who meet at a bar, a customer and a bartender at closing. They tentatively make plans to leave together after the bartender is done closing the bar, but that ends in another murder from the same person as the one from the first scene. Seth apparently fell asleep while writing and his cat wakes him. The two of them walk to bed, leaving the written scene on the monitor. The issue ends at the bar that he wrote into existence, as two police discuss the grisly murder of the bartender.

You’ll Do Bad Things #1 is a book that constantly leaves the reader guessing what comes next. Boss does a brilliant job of engrossing the reader every time he presents a new scene change, each one pulling us in. That’s what makes the first murder so shocking; going into this book without any expectations make the book hit that much harder. We don’t know if the woman is our main character or anything like that. A great thing about the first issue of an indie book like this is trying to figure out what’s going on, and this book keeps you guessing in the best possible way until the end. Seth being an unfulfilled writer who wants to do something new is a cliche thing for a creative to write about, but Boss does a good job of building him through the issue. At first, You’ll Do Bad Things seems like it’s going to be true crime book, but the ending changes all of that. As readers, we see Seth write the murder that happens at the end, but then going back to it raises the questions that readers will want answered. Do the things that Seth is writing about actually happen? Did erasing the first story keep it from happening? What’s going on? This is a great way to kick off a new book.

Adriano Tutulici’s art is perfect for this book. Turtulici is drawing the book like it’s a crime book — not exactly realistic but not overly fantastic — which definitely helps keep readers guessing what exactly is going on. The coloring is also very cool, using a lot of neons to light scenes. There’s an old school vibe to the art; the art feels like an old Marvel comic from the 1970s, which is definitely a plus.

You’ll Do Bad Things #1 keeps you guessing from start to finish. There’s a mystery at the center of this book, and it’s one that is impossible unravel on the first read through. Boss knows how to hook readers. I want to know what happens next in this book and anyone else who reads it will, too. Turtulici’s art works brilliantly for the book, its old school vibe never tipping the book’s hand on what kind of story this will be. While it falls into some cliches — writer’s block, pushy agent, unfulfilled artist — it’s presents an intriguing enough mystery that will draw readers in.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Published by Image Comics

On March 26, 2025

Written by Tyler Boss

Art by Adriano Turtulici

Letters by Hassan Otsame-Elhaou