Comics Review – Tales from the Umbrella Academy: You Look Like Death by Shaun Simon, Gerard Way, and I.N.J. Culbard

You Look Like Death worked really well for me. It’s an Umbrella Academy spin-off that focuses solely on Klaus and his life away from the rest of the family.

I think it really benefits from having a singular main character, as opposed to a number of them in the primary series. It’s still batty enough to fit in alongside the other UA books but it’s smaller scope helps it maintain narrative coherence from start to finish in a way that I felt like the main series sometimes struggled with. Maybe that comes from (I assume) Gerard Way helping plot but leaving the scripting to Shaun Simon? Way always feels like he’s got the Morrison dial turned up to 11 and while You Look Like Death is certainly weird, it’s never hard to follow.

Ba is one of my favorite artists, so he’s missed of course. But Culbard did the trick for me here too. It looks and feels like an Umbrella Academy book. I think if you like the Umbrella Academy you’ll like what’s here, and I think it’s contained enough that you might even enjoy it if you have no prior experience with the series. I hope we continue to get more spin-offs in the same vein as You Look Like Death.