Echoes (comics)

Echoes
Cover to Echoes issue 1 (art by Rahson Ekedal)
Publication information
Publisher	Top Cow
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Limited series
Genre	Horror
Publication date	December 2010 – April 2011
No. of issues	5
Main character(s)	Brian Cohn
Creative team
Created by	Joshua Hale Fialkov
Written by	Joshua Hale Fialkov
Artist(s)	Rahson Ekedal
Letterer(s)	Troy Peteri
Collected editions
Echoes vol 1 HC	ISBN

Echoes is an American five-issue comic book limited series written by Joshua Hale Fialkov and drawn by Rahsan Ekedal. Published by Top Cow Productions, it tells the story of Brian Cohn, a man with schizophrenia who learns his father may have been a serial killer. The first issue was released in December 29, 2010.

Joshua Hale Fialkov and Rahsan Ekedal first worked together in 2008 on The Cleaners, a horror comic book series for the publisher Dark Horse Comics. Fialkov brought the story to Ekedal in its early stages, and Ekedal provided some concept art to accompany the pitch. After being accepted by Top Cow, Fialkov crafted the story mostly by himself, although he did adapt the script to Ekedal's style.

The art in Echoes is completely black and white, which was more affordable for the artists, but also because Failkov felt grayscale was more effective. The artistic style was inspired by the Warren Publishing horror comic books Creepy and Eerie from the 1960s and 1970s, which both Fialkov and Ekedal enjoyed. Ekedal said of the artistic style: "A lot of the look developed out of my attempts to visually represent what it means to suffer from a serious mental disorder. So I tried to put Brian's doubts and terrors into every shadow, every line."

Fialkov said the idea of a suburban setting with an ordinary-seeming killer was conceived because its "so much scarier and so much more upsetting" than an urban setting. The idea of the dolls made from victims' flesh came from Fialkov's research about voodoo, as well as his own interest in cults and secret societies. Fialkov also said Echoes was partially inspired by the 1960 horror film Psycho, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, because he felt both stories were driven by the characters and drama rather than the horror. Fialkov described the series as "achingly dark", and said of writing it: "I haven't really done a hard horror book in a long time. It was a lot of fun to actually do something that's just grotesque and upsetting."