Basketful of Heads is a 2019 comic book series from DC comics and written by established writer (and son of Stephen King), Joe Hill. Basketful of Heads Trailer – Credit: DC Comics
The comic centers around June Branch, a girl who stumbles into a crime scheme when her boyfriend, Liam, is kidnapped. She now pursues his abductors, finding out the story along the way of what is really going on at Brody Island. June is armed with a Norse ax that allows her to behead her victims in one swing, but the mystical powers of the ax keep the heads alive after they have been separated from their bodies.
The Yellow Raincoat “trope” can be seen all over this comic book. At first the ones involved in the criminal underbelly of the island are the ones that wear the raincoat. As foreshadowed by the cover art, June eventually is brightly garbed herself. The Yellow Raincoat in this series could be signified as taking on the will to do things that would seem unseemly to the greater society.
The first person we meet wearing a Yellow Raincoat is Mr. Hamilton who tries to help June shortly after she has cut off Puzo’s head. She approaches Mr. Hamilton to try to find a way out of this situation, only to be thrown deeper into the plot. She later finds that Hamilton’s willingness to help her is in short supply.
Just like Mr. Hamilton, June later meets Hank (pictured below, right). Hank also feigns kindness to the protagonist, later showing that he – like Mr. Hamilton – are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Both Mr. Hamilton and Hank attack June shortly after meeting her when they feel she has learned too much about their operation.
Mr. Hamilton (left) and Hank (right) wearing Yellow Raincoats. – Image Credit: DC Comics
As mentioned prior, June later adopts this Yellow Raincoat herself. June taking on this moniker could symbolize that she is taking on the ability to “do what is necessary” – just like her previous attackers. We see this in her behavior up to this point; June has gone from scared to attack someone to defending herself without flinching, she was willing to cut off her own thumb to escape from being handcuffed, she tortured Puzo’s and Hank’s severed heads, she has lied to various people and not afraid to “pull the wool” over other’s eyes so she can come out on top.
June has gone into self-preservation mode and it’s not too much of a stretch to think that it’s the same mentality these men had while the wheels of their scheme started to turn. Only time will tell what the color yellow really means for June (as of writing this, the most current issue is issue 6). It wouldn’t be far of a stretch to say that the color yellow may be a protection color for June (Like for Alice from Friday the 13th), but we will have to keep reading to find out.
As obviously seen, writer Joe Hill may also be referencing some of his father’s work with Basketful of Heads as well. Just like how June is the first person we see wearing a yellow raincoat in the comic (as well as in the advertising), Georgie Denbrough from Stephen King’s It books and movies is seen in much the same way. This trait carries over to another work by Joe Hill – Plunge as well, which also involved characters wearing yellow raincoats. While it may seem like an semi-unrelated note, the genealogy of both King and Hill being father-and-son horror writers is the main link that we need to justify this callback.
Hill goes on to mention in the Red Ink Interview in the back of the first issue, that his father used to give him comics to read as a kid (King brought him up right!). He also says that he thought that comics would be a great medium to tell stories and approached DC with his vision. DC loved the idea and dedicated a line of comics – Hill House Comics – to Hill’s four color universe. With that, Basketful of Heads as become the foundation for Hill House Comics. It only makes sense that Hill references his father’s work as it was through his father’s cause that Hill fell in love with the medium.
Basketful of Heads is on-going, with the latest issue coming out at the end of June this year. Don’t lose your head – pay attention to this series if you haven’t done so already!
This post was initially published on my blog, The Yellowraincoat of Horror.