IDW has been publishing comics loosely based on Konami's Silent Hill series since 2003 by two different writers: author Scott Ciencin and writer/IDW editor Tom Waltz.
Comics written by Scott Ciencin:
- Silent Hill: Dying Inside (2003)
- Silent Hill: Among the Damned (2004, one-shot)
- Silent Hill: Paint It Black (2005, one-shot)
- Silent Hill: The Grinning Man (2005, one-shot)
- Silent Hill: Three Bloody Tales (trade paperback collection of all three one-shots)
- Silent Hill: Dead/Alive (2006)
- Silent Hill: Hunger (2006)
Comics written by Tom Waltz:
- Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward (2008)
- Silent Hill: Past Life (2010)
Dying Inside stars troubled, self-loathing psychotherapist Troy Abernathy, who takes patient Lynn DeAngelis, a former film student, back to Silent Hill, the haunted town where she was traumatized. He believes that what she saw in Silent Hill is a result of some sort of crime committed against her when she visited the town. Of course, when he takes her back to the town, he discovers that she wasn't making anything up about seeing monsters, or being menaced by an evil little girl in a white dress. And then, the town has its way with his own personal demons...
After Troy's disastrous trip to Silent Hill, a young, female punk named Lauryn takes her gang to the town, inspired by the videos that Lynn took during her time there, in the hope that it will garner them some fame and fortune. However, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Lauryn has her own personal reasons for wanting to venture there...
In Paint It Black, a burnt-out painter finds unexpected inspiration in the horrors of Silent Hill, only to wind up fighting for his life alongside some cheerleaders; in Among the Damned, a suicidal soldier sets off for the town as his final resting place, only to have his life changed forever by a diva who also wishes to escape her past; and in The Grinning Man, a state trooper trails the eponymous undead killer.
Dead/Alive is the proper ending to Ciencin's Silent Hill comics. It stars a tortured actor named Kenneth who winds up in Silent Hill, which has become a battleground for forces trying to monopolize the town's dark powers.
Hunger tells the story of journalist Douglas Brenneman, who dreams of Silent Hill, despite having a seemingly perfect life, with a decent career and a loving wife. The peace of his neighborhood is shattered when someone is inexplicably murdered, and, as he investigates the incident, he is inexorably pulled into the town.
Sinner's Reward stars professional hit man Jack Stanton, who decides to leave his criminal past behind and ends up in Silent Hill. Unfortunately for him, his past is about to catch up to him now that he's in town...
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Jack’s father Michael, wanting his son to follow in his footsteps as contract hitman, sadistically forces Jack to kill his own dog when he was only eight, beating him for hesitating. Traumatizing the poor boy for life, Michael succeeds in creating a cold-blooded killer out of Jack, who goes on to kill many people, innocent or otherwise, which, in the end, results in Jack's suicide, in an attempt to escape "Mad Dog's" influence.
- Accomplice by Inaction: In Sinner's Reward, this is what Jill is guilty of due to her turning a blind eye to the wrongdoings (murders included) committed by the mob boss, who's her husband, in order to remain in a more comfortable lifestyle and eventually got her in Silent Hillnote .
- And Then John Was a Zombie: Kenneth. His lineage is key to the Order's plan. His father fell in love with a demon that pretended to be a human. But she was literally a Noble Demon, "of a higher order than these animals". It's possible that she was actually one of Silent Hill's gods.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Connie in Dead/Alive and an unnamed woman in Hunger. Both are incubators for Samael, the demon that the Order is trying to resurrect.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Christabella. Damn.
- Came Back Wrong: Troy. The trope is much in effect when you can emit tentacles from your chest.
- Creepy Child: Christabella, the girl that haunts Lynn, and the other children killed by the Order.
- Damsel in Distress: In Sinner's Reward, this is how Jack meets Sara in Silent Hill (she's being tied up before Jack frees her).
- Dead All Along: Sara.
- Decoy Protagonist: Troy.
- A Dog Named "Cat": In Dead/Alive, Kenneth is revealed to have a dog named "Bear".
- Does Not Like Guns: Sara. After Jack frees her, he offers a gun to Sara, who adamantly refuses to take it. However, as the story develops, it turns out that she wouldn't need one, anyway...
- Downer Ending: Paint It Black, Hunger, and Past Life.
- Driven to Suicide:
- Troy's wife, after discovering that he killed her abusive ex-husband.
- Jack starts out in Sinner's Reward on the verge of killing himself. He goes through with it at the end.
- The End of the World as We Know It: The setting of the second half of Hunger.
- Eye Scream: In order to desensitize Jack to murder as prerequisite for grooming him to become a professional assassin, Jack's father forced Jack to kill his dog, which Jack did by shooting his dog in the eye.
- Fetus Terrible: In Dead/Alive, the main character's ex becomes an incubator for Samael. Also mentioned in Hunger, but the poor woman isn't named. It could be Heather from Silent Hill 3.
- Follow in My Footsteps: Jack's father, who is a professional assassin himself, pressured Jack to have the same profession as he.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Troy in Dying Inside, fellow soldier Aaron, and Dahlia in Among the Damned. However, the latter reappears alive and well at the end.
- How We Got Here: At the start of Sinner's Reward, Jack Stanton, a professional hit man, contemplates suicide. The rest of the story details the plot that leads to it.
- Humanoid Abomination: There's a lot of these things here. Troy after being resurrected. Also the manifestation of Brett. He doesn't seem like much initially but when he is but back under Christabella's control, Hoo Boy...
- There's also Christabella, considering that she controls all of the other abominations of Silent Hill and is essentially channeling it's power. And to top it off Kenneth's mother and by extension, Kenneth himself.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In Sinner's Reward, The mob boss who ventures into Silent Hill in pursuit of Jack and Jill meets his end this way, courtesy of the Pyramid Head and his Great Knife.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Troy genuinely wants to help people like Lynn, but is too wracked by guilt by his wife's death to even help himself. Unfortunately, after sacrificing his life to let Lynn go free, he just becomes another one of Silent Hill's demons, a shallow manifestation of his womanizing ways. Subverted in that he's more self-destructive than malicious or harmful to others.
- Leave No Witnesses: The backstory of Sinner's Reward. The mob boss Sara's father offended put a hit on Sara's father. Jack, the hit man said mob boss enlisted to eliminate Sara's father, carried out the murder of Sara's father, before killing Sara's mother as well (since she was right next to her husband). On the way out, Jack encountered Sara and, not wishing to run the risk of having Sara incriminating him as a witness, murdered her as well before fleeing the scene. Sara is understandably angry once the truth is made clear.
- Missing Mom: Jack's mother died while Jack himself was young, leaving Jack to be raised by his father.
- Nothing Personal: Jack insists that the murders done by him are this trope, as he's a hit man for hire. Sara doesn't buy it, insisting that It's Personal for her.
- Plot-Inciting Infidelity: Jack and Jill's love affair serves to kick-start the plot of Sinner's Reward, as the mob boss, who hired Jack and is Jill's husband, was unaware of said love affair until Jack and Jill ran away together, leading to him deciding to have them brought back to him, which results in all of them ending up in Silent Hill.
- The Power of Love: Quite possibly the only explanation for Dahlia and Kenneth/Connie/the entire world's survival.
- Professional Killer: 2 of them, from Sinner's Reward:
- Jack.
- So is Jack's father, who forces Jack to become one.
- Rejected Apology: Near the end of Sinner's Reward, Jack makes one more apology for the murders (see Leave No Witnesses above for details), only to be greeted with cold dismissal."Jack, you CROSSED the line of being able to apologize for what you did LONG before you killed my family... You KNOW that, don't you?"
- Reset Button: Kenneth pushes it at the end of Dead/Alive, giving him an elusive happy ending for a Silent Hill character.
- Redemption Equals Death: A theme shared in both Ciencin and Waltz's comics.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Jason, the protagonist of Among the Damned, is dealing with suicidal thoughts following an unspecified conflict involving monsters and watching his fellow soldiers die before him. The forces of Silent Hill returning to rear their ugly head certainly don't help, but amidst the torment, he ends up running into undead, yet content incarnations of his squad, who openly forgive him and encourage him to keep living beyond his trauma.
- Sleeping with the Boss's Wife: A backstory of Sinner's Reward shows that Jack had slept with Jill, the wife of the mob boss who hired Jack, before the two of them decided to ditch said mob boss and start their lives anew. It also overlaps with Plot-Inciting Infidelity, as said mob boss was unaware of the love affair between Jack and Jill until they left together, and, upon discovering the love affair between Jack and Jill, decided to have them brought back to him, resulting in everybody eventually ending up in Silent Hill, where the rest of the story takes place.
- Took a Level in Badass: Lynn becomes determined to face her fears and leave Silent Hill. Lauryn seems fairly badass to start, but gets more so once she starts using the Order's magic against them. Douglas may be a mild-mannered journalist, but do not fuck with his wife.
- Villain Protagonist: Lauren deliberately lead her closest friends to their deaths, knowing full well what would happen to them, purely so she could gain zombie slaves. Plus, the whole reason she came to Silent Hill in the first place was so she could take control over the town and its monsters for her own gain.
