"Why are you forgetting?"
Marble Hornets is a Psychological Horror webseries and one of the key players in The Slender Man Mythos. It ended in June of 2014, but has since been continued in a comic, written by Troy Wagner and illustrated by Jackie Reynolds. The first issue, Regards, received a digital release on February 25th, 2019, and with a physical release coming later. The second, Eyes Open, was released February 29th of the following year.
The story begins some time after the events of the webseries. Jessica Locke has a steady job at a shipping company and appears to have moved on with her life, but when she meets a mysterious masked person while on a delivery, it becomes clear that she can't hide from her past forever.
The Marble Hornets comics provide examples of:
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Issue 3.5, "totheark", follows Brian as he makes his way through the titular location.
- Ascended Extra: Jessica was a fairly minor character in the original series, only appearing in a few entries and having little bearing on the plot. She's the protagonist here.
- Big Bad: The Operator takes over as this.
- Book Ends: The webseries ended with Tim driving away from Rosswood. The comics begin with Jessica driving into Rosswood.
- Call-Back:
- According to bonus commentary, Jessica using a pipe as a weapon was a small callback to Alex doing the same in the original series.
- Most of Masky's dialogue in issue 3.5 is a twisted version of the Breaking Speech that Alex gave Tim in Entry 86.
- Alex's appearance in the Ark is identical to the one he had in the "really vivid nightmare" that Jay described on his Twitter — his eyes are missing, and he only vocalizes via high-pitched screeches.
- Charge-into-Combat Cut: How the scene at the abandoned house ends. Jessica swings her pipe at Skully, and the scene cuts away to a woman finding Jessica lost in Rosswood.
- Creepy Doll: The comic briefly features an old woman who collects eerie dolls. It isn't particularly plot-relevant, though.
- Cryptic Background Reference: Adam and the podcast Jessica listens to reference strange things happening in Rosswood before Marble Hornets.
- Don't Go in the Woods: In Marble Hornets tradition. The Operator first appears in Rosswood Park.
- Dream Sequence: Jessica has one in Eyes Open, her dream being a twisted memory of being nearly shot by Alex. The hallucination sequence in Regards also may qualify.
- Eye Motifs: Seems to be developing one. The title of Issue #2 (and a podcast Jessica and Adam listen to) is Eyes Open, and Jess herself is repeatedly seen with dark, sketchy circles for eyes.
- Fusion Dance: Skully turns out to be a fusion of all the Operator's previous victims, including (but not limited to) Jay, Brian, Alex, and White-Shirt Guy.
- Genre Blindness: Going into the spooky woods haunted by a monster to make a documentary about said monster? Sounds like a great idea, Adam.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Operator, as is par for the course in this series. Also what Skully ultimately turns out to be.
- I'm Melting!: Jessica hallucinates her doppelganger removing her face and melting into sludge.
- It's All About Me: Adam Collins is a film maker who is obsessed with Marble Hornets and has no sense boundaries as he attempts To force an interview with Jessica.
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Meaningful Release Date: Issue 3, "You Are Broken", was released on December 21st, 2020, to coincide with the Winter Solstice. - Not So Stoic: Skully loses his composure and looks outright horrified when Adam kicks David into The Ark
- Painting the Medium: During Jessica's breakdown, the panels become jagged and erratically-shaped, with edges like torn paper.
- Pipe Pain: Jessica briefly uses a discarded pipe as a weapon.
- The Reveal: Quite possibly the biggest one in the series comes in Issue 3.5: The Ark is revealed to be an infinitely looping dimension, where the Operator's victims are stored.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: Jessica has begun hallucinating from Operator exposure, and it's often unclear what's real and what isn't.
