With more than a nod to John Carpenter's They Live (it's on the cover and everything), this is a teenage horror story of magic sunglasses, bought from the back pages of a pulp comic book. After inheriting boxes full of his brother's crap comics, Kenny and best friend Ted decide to order a pair of The Phenomenal Gamma Ray's 'magic specs.' But rather than revealing a world of shadowy conspiracy, these sunnies instead grant their wearers' wildest dreams. Well, not that wild. As Kenny and Ted are quick to learn, its powers do have limits. Infinite video game lives rather than infinite life lives. 

And, as this comic makes its horror bona fides known, Ted and Kenny could do with a few spare lives.

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Set in 1987 America, this supernatural horror story is more Goosebumps than John Carpenter, although there are enough flourishes of darkness (an ominous missing person's notice on a milk carton; a bloody switchblade) to appeal to older readers. In its tale of unrequited love between a boy and his best friend, writer David M. Booher sets up an interesting quandary and enticing stakes. Will Kenny use his magic specs to make best friend Ted reciprocate his own feelings? The story starts out simple enough, but there's room for this to get darker and more difficult before the end is up.

Booher's dialogue disguises the daft gimmick, almost doing enough for readers to not be asking why a pair of teenagers would waste their money on a pair of mail-order glasses from a comic book. Pop culture references and creative (and horrible) synonyms for 'gay' are the order of the day, with Booher seeding tension and foreboding with Kenny's thirty-five-year-in-the-future narration. 

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The story and dialogue are well-matched to the work of illustrator Chris Shehan, who continues the 80s' Stranger Things/Stephen King vibes. The art is understated but effective - the characters well-defined, if somewhat inexpressive. Colourist Roman Stevens drenches the thing in gloom, brightening up only for the specs' bright red lens. This grounds an otherwise daft concept in reality, while flashes of violence and the school bullies' homophobic language remind readers what sort of story we're in for.

Specs #1 opens a classic Goosebumps / Twilight Zone scenario, modernised with a fresh new dynamic at its heart, and a blood-tinted vision of 80s' Americana.