What do you think?
Rate this book
Identity Thief
When Daphne and Craig move into a new apartment, they have every reason to believe that they have left their troubled past behind them. Everything seems perfect, but after the discovery of a mysterious hatch in his closet, Craig begins to realize that something disturbingly inhuman is seeking a way into his home, desperate to enter his life in the most intimate and unsettling way possible.
'Identity Thief' is a suspenseful graphic novel published by Fanboy Comics. It is written by Bryant Dillon and features phenomenal imagery from the talented hands of artist Meaghan O'Keefe.
'Identity Thief' is a suspenseful graphic novel published by Fanboy Comics. It is written by Bryant Dillon and features phenomenal imagery from the talented hands of artist Meaghan O'Keefe.
90 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2012
1 person is currently reading
25 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2020
I enjoyed the art even though it was sometimes hard to decipher. The story was interesting the monster took the identity of an identity thief.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2020
Very creepy. Interesting
June 11, 2025
“Identity Thief” is a strange, unsettling graphic novel that blends horror with psychological tension. The story centers around a young man and woman who finds themselves living with a mysterious presence hidden behind a trapdoor in their apartment—a presence that slowly begins to unravel their sense of safety and self.
What works best here is the creeping unease. Dillon's writing maintains a sense of ambiguity that keeps the reader guessing, while O’Keefe's artwork is atmospheric, dark, and often genuinely disturbing. The visual storytelling heightens the discomfort, using shadow and expression to good effect.
That said, the narrative feels a bit thin in places. It leans more on mood and metaphor than plot, which can leave some readers wanting more depth or resolution. While the central idea is intriguing, I found myself wishing for a stronger emotional or thematic payoff by the end.
Still, “Identity Thief” is a memorable and eerie experience—perfect for fans of psychological horror who enjoy a touch of the surreal. It’s not for everyone, but it certainly leaves an impression.
What works best here is the creeping unease. Dillon's writing maintains a sense of ambiguity that keeps the reader guessing, while O’Keefe's artwork is atmospheric, dark, and often genuinely disturbing. The visual storytelling heightens the discomfort, using shadow and expression to good effect.
That said, the narrative feels a bit thin in places. It leans more on mood and metaphor than plot, which can leave some readers wanting more depth or resolution. While the central idea is intriguing, I found myself wishing for a stronger emotional or thematic payoff by the end.
Still, “Identity Thief” is a memorable and eerie experience—perfect for fans of psychological horror who enjoy a touch of the surreal. It’s not for everyone, but it certainly leaves an impression.
August 8, 2018
Arte muito carregada de sombras, confesso mal ter conseguido distinguir metade das páginas.. O que é uma pena pq nunca vi desenhos tão lindos de lâmpadas, virou até papel de parede aqui, vai entender... O cara com um dom de desenhar luz e vai se desgastar fazendo uns quadrinhos exagerados na escuridão. História simplinha.
September 2, 2015
Craig and his girlfriend Daphne move into their first apartment together. They leave behind their families and the problems from their old town. Brand new start, brand new day. Everything seemed on the up and up until Craig discovered a mysterious hatch door in his closet. When creepy sounds start rattling from the dark, personal items go missing, and paranoia starts kicking in, Craig might have a thief living in his home.
Bryant Dillon paints a pretty dark picture, a story hardly seen in this day and age, but has a familiarity seen in episodes of the Twilight Zone. The graphic novel isn't very wordy, this isn't a Brian Michael Bendis or Grant Morrison comic. In the horror genre, less can be more. In "Identity Thief" less is more in parts. When the reader gets to know the monster, less i s more. When the reader gets to know Craig and Daphne, the words should have been carefully chosen. We learn in the middle of the book that Craig has a problem with stealing. We learn that Craig is an artist and comic fan. We learn that Daphne is the girlfriend and nothing else. There is nothing wrong with this, however I find myself asking why do I need to know that Craig steals and draws? It helps in part with the story, there is a few scenes that have the monster 'stealing' and 'painting' scary pictures. Did that help with the paranoia feel of the book? It was hit and miss. Truthfully I wish i got to know Daphne and their relationship better, but since I didn't, i wish that same "less is more" direction went with Craig to keep the theme. This doesn't mean Bryant did a bad job, his characters were believable and the story did flow without confusion. However a do believe an outside editor would have caught this and asked for a new draft of the story. This would have helped the reader identify with the protagonist.
The star of the book is the artwork of Meaghan O'Keefe. Like I said before this novel isn't very wordy, hence it's dependant on how good the artwork is. O'Keefe sommoned her inner Sam Keith ( artist of The Maxx). Her monster was creepy as hell and reminded me of the scary paintings of Francis Bacon. Her work is full of flow, is shadowy, and takes life as each page turns. For a horror book, Fanboy Comics chose an excellent arist for this novel. I think O'Keefe is an amazing talent, unfortunately I do have a big problem with some her work. It needed a new edit. I already stated that the script could have used one more edit, the artwork needed a few touch ups.
When O'Keefe needed to thrill or scare, her characters went deranged and the artwork was perfectly paced. The scary didn't need to be beautiful and the art worked! When the flow of the book needed to be slow and pretty this is where O'Keefe's art needed to be touched up. I uploaded an image on the left, you'll see on the bottom panel that O'Keefe could paint/draw beautifully. However, on the top panel is the same character from a page before. They look like two different people. It didn't confuse me, but made me think that either O'Keefe was lazy in fixing a few of the images or no one helped her edit her art. I believe it's hard for the writer to say to the artist "can you fix this, it looks uneven." That is where a good editor comes in. It's the editor's job to say the hard things. O'Keefe has so much talent that when she misses it's noticeable. This is not meant to sound mean, but i honestly do believe this book could be something excellent if they had a new draft.
Identity Thief is a fun and original take on what really is the monster in the closet. I like how Fanboy Comics choose to stay in the horror genre and really bring it back to the comic world. We need more stories like this instead of the run of the mill superhero tales. But now that they got my attention, their work needs to outshine their talent. When they do this and i have a feeling like they will, the comic world will take notice.
Bryant Dillon paints a pretty dark picture, a story hardly seen in this day and age, but has a familiarity seen in episodes of the Twilight Zone. The graphic novel isn't very wordy, this isn't a Brian Michael Bendis or Grant Morrison comic. In the horror genre, less can be more. In "Identity Thief" less is more in parts. When the reader gets to know the monster, less i s more. When the reader gets to know Craig and Daphne, the words should have been carefully chosen. We learn in the middle of the book that Craig has a problem with stealing. We learn that Craig is an artist and comic fan. We learn that Daphne is the girlfriend and nothing else. There is nothing wrong with this, however I find myself asking why do I need to know that Craig steals and draws? It helps in part with the story, there is a few scenes that have the monster 'stealing' and 'painting' scary pictures. Did that help with the paranoia feel of the book? It was hit and miss. Truthfully I wish i got to know Daphne and their relationship better, but since I didn't, i wish that same "less is more" direction went with Craig to keep the theme. This doesn't mean Bryant did a bad job, his characters were believable and the story did flow without confusion. However a do believe an outside editor would have caught this and asked for a new draft of the story. This would have helped the reader identify with the protagonist.
The star of the book is the artwork of Meaghan O'Keefe. Like I said before this novel isn't very wordy, hence it's dependant on how good the artwork is. O'Keefe sommoned her inner Sam Keith ( artist of The Maxx). Her monster was creepy as hell and reminded me of the scary paintings of Francis Bacon. Her work is full of flow, is shadowy, and takes life as each page turns. For a horror book, Fanboy Comics chose an excellent arist for this novel. I think O'Keefe is an amazing talent, unfortunately I do have a big problem with some her work. It needed a new edit. I already stated that the script could have used one more edit, the artwork needed a few touch ups.
When O'Keefe needed to thrill or scare, her characters went deranged and the artwork was perfectly paced. The scary didn't need to be beautiful and the art worked! When the flow of the book needed to be slow and pretty this is where O'Keefe's art needed to be touched up. I uploaded an image on the left, you'll see on the bottom panel that O'Keefe could paint/draw beautifully. However, on the top panel is the same character from a page before. They look like two different people. It didn't confuse me, but made me think that either O'Keefe was lazy in fixing a few of the images or no one helped her edit her art. I believe it's hard for the writer to say to the artist "can you fix this, it looks uneven." That is where a good editor comes in. It's the editor's job to say the hard things. O'Keefe has so much talent that when she misses it's noticeable. This is not meant to sound mean, but i honestly do believe this book could be something excellent if they had a new draft.
Identity Thief is a fun and original take on what really is the monster in the closet. I like how Fanboy Comics choose to stay in the horror genre and really bring it back to the comic world. We need more stories like this instead of the run of the mill superhero tales. But now that they got my attention, their work needs to outshine their talent. When they do this and i have a feeling like they will, the comic world will take notice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 26, 2016
Daphne and Craig, a young couple still in the infancy of their new relationship together, have moved into an apartment together. As they settle into their new home, and with each other, a creature hidden in their attic begins to take an interest in the couple.
Identity Thief is a 2010 surreal-horror graphic novel, penned by Bryant Dillon with art realized by Meagan O’Keefe. The narrative is dialog light: the majority of the story is dialog free, as the sequential art follows creature that is somewhere between a doppelgänger and a mimic, scurrying around undetected in Daphne and Craig’s apartment, interacting with their personal effects, and even at times, with their sleeping bodies.
The horror showcased in Identity Thief draws form many inspirations. First and foremost, there is the more modernity-oriented fears of apartment living: alienation, loneliness and even identity issues living in the big city. There’s a heavy dosage of influence from Roman Polanski’s apartment-centric horror films Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976) on Identity Thief. The loss of identity while living an apartment lifestyle also echoes Single White Female> (1992) while the nightmarish, predominately black and white visuals recalls Max Cohen’s apartment in Darren Aronofsky’s pi (1998).
As the title implies, identity – both loss of and determining one’s own – is the biggest theme of the graphic novel, and it is tackles via three ways. The titular monster of identity thief is of course the personification of loss of one’s identity but in a physical manifestation. Craig’s activities of stealing credit cards provides a more “real world” example of an identity thief: as Craig steals other people’s identities, so too does his identity gets compromised by the monster in the attic. And finally, as a young and new couple, Daphne and Craig are searching for the identities in each other. They have not been together long, and their knowledge of each other is surface level at best in the beginning: Daphne knows Craig is into comic books. Later it is revealed that Daphne is privy to Craig’s criminal past, and overcoming an obstacle as this would certainly be taxing on such a new couple. As the story unfolds and Daphne and Craig become more acquainted with each other, so too does the creature, as it carves out its own mouth and eyes to be more like its human co-inhabitants.
While Dillon’s writing is multifaceted, O’Keefe’s art can be polarizing at times, but mostly favourable. Scenes of Daphne and Craig in more normal or mundane activities are not depicted as proficiently as O’Keefe is really capable of. Her real talent is in the nightmarish and surreal scenes: dark shadows, skittering masses, painful frames of abstraction. When Identity Thief is at its more visceral is when O’Keefe is at her best. Her art during these scenes echoes German expressionist films, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
Identity Thief may perhaps be on the niche side of genre horror, but the overall results are definitely worthwhile. There’s skill here to craft a scary and multifaceted story with so little dialog, but Dillon and O’Keefe pull it off. The graphic novel may be a few years old, but its themes are still relatable today, especially for the emerging younger generations as they seek their own identities in the world out there.
Identity Thief is a 2010 surreal-horror graphic novel, penned by Bryant Dillon with art realized by Meagan O’Keefe. The narrative is dialog light: the majority of the story is dialog free, as the sequential art follows creature that is somewhere between a doppelgänger and a mimic, scurrying around undetected in Daphne and Craig’s apartment, interacting with their personal effects, and even at times, with their sleeping bodies.
The horror showcased in Identity Thief draws form many inspirations. First and foremost, there is the more modernity-oriented fears of apartment living: alienation, loneliness and even identity issues living in the big city. There’s a heavy dosage of influence from Roman Polanski’s apartment-centric horror films Repulsion (1965), Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Tenant (1976) on Identity Thief. The loss of identity while living an apartment lifestyle also echoes Single White Female> (1992) while the nightmarish, predominately black and white visuals recalls Max Cohen’s apartment in Darren Aronofsky’s pi (1998).
As the title implies, identity – both loss of and determining one’s own – is the biggest theme of the graphic novel, and it is tackles via three ways. The titular monster of identity thief is of course the personification of loss of one’s identity but in a physical manifestation. Craig’s activities of stealing credit cards provides a more “real world” example of an identity thief: as Craig steals other people’s identities, so too does his identity gets compromised by the monster in the attic. And finally, as a young and new couple, Daphne and Craig are searching for the identities in each other. They have not been together long, and their knowledge of each other is surface level at best in the beginning: Daphne knows Craig is into comic books. Later it is revealed that Daphne is privy to Craig’s criminal past, and overcoming an obstacle as this would certainly be taxing on such a new couple. As the story unfolds and Daphne and Craig become more acquainted with each other, so too does the creature, as it carves out its own mouth and eyes to be more like its human co-inhabitants.
While Dillon’s writing is multifaceted, O’Keefe’s art can be polarizing at times, but mostly favourable. Scenes of Daphne and Craig in more normal or mundane activities are not depicted as proficiently as O’Keefe is really capable of. Her real talent is in the nightmarish and surreal scenes: dark shadows, skittering masses, painful frames of abstraction. When Identity Thief is at its more visceral is when O’Keefe is at her best. Her art during these scenes echoes German expressionist films, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
Identity Thief may perhaps be on the niche side of genre horror, but the overall results are definitely worthwhile. There’s skill here to craft a scary and multifaceted story with so little dialog, but Dillon and O’Keefe pull it off. The graphic novel may be a few years old, but its themes are still relatable today, especially for the emerging younger generations as they seek their own identities in the world out there.
March 11, 2013
I'm not a big horror fan, but if it's a good story I'll definitely roll with it. However, this was not one of those times.
In brief, a young man (Craig) and his girlfriend (Daphne) move away from friends and family to "start over." Exactly from what we discover later. Unfortunately, they move into an apartment that is not unoccupied as a strange creature lurks in the attic.
The art was dark and set the tone well, but I often found the artwork so blurry and indistinct I could not tell what was going on. I also had no sympathy for the characters. They were underdeveloped and I had no sense of commitment between the two of them since Daphne non-nonchalantly walked out during their first fight like it was no big deal. The way Craig was drawn during the fight was terrifying and I felt like she should have taken it much more seriously and gotten him or herself help. Even though the reveal of what Craig was running from fits thematically, it's just not that big of a deal and I never felt a sense of urgency on any of the main characters part to do something about it. There was a nod to a solution, but no real action.
One thing that was very weird is that I found five (5) sets of duplicate pages within the book. At first I thought it was a printing error, but it was so blatant it must have been intentional. For what reason I cannot fathom as it wasted a lot of space where Mr. Dillion could have developed his characters more.
This was an interesting idea which should have gone through a lot more development before going to art. And be sure to read it under a bright light. It's only then you can see some wonderful nuances.
In brief, a young man (Craig) and his girlfriend (Daphne) move away from friends and family to "start over." Exactly from what we discover later. Unfortunately, they move into an apartment that is not unoccupied as a strange creature lurks in the attic.
The art was dark and set the tone well, but I often found the artwork so blurry and indistinct I could not tell what was going on. I also had no sympathy for the characters. They were underdeveloped and I had no sense of commitment between the two of them since Daphne non-nonchalantly walked out during their first fight like it was no big deal. The way Craig was drawn during the fight was terrifying and I felt like she should have taken it much more seriously and gotten him or herself help. Even though the reveal of what Craig was running from fits thematically, it's just not that big of a deal and I never felt a sense of urgency on any of the main characters part to do something about it. There was a nod to a solution, but no real action.
One thing that was very weird is that I found five (5) sets of duplicate pages within the book. At first I thought it was a printing error, but it was so blatant it must have been intentional. For what reason I cannot fathom as it wasted a lot of space where Mr. Dillion could have developed his characters more.
This was an interesting idea which should have gone through a lot more development before going to art. And be sure to read it under a bright light. It's only then you can see some wonderful nuances.
March 9, 2014
I really wanted to like this book as there was a decent story hiding in there somewhere. It even used the art to help tell the story rather than always relying on dialogue, unfortunately the artwork just wasn't up to the task.
I started out liking the art style but there were too many places where I just couldn't tell what I was supposed to see which rook me right out of the story. It also felt like the male lead looked different in every other appearance. At one point I looked at three panels across two pages and it looked like three different characters to me.
Overall the story tried hard but the vagueness and inconsistency of the art was too strong for me to rate this higher than two stars.
I started out liking the art style but there were too many places where I just couldn't tell what I was supposed to see which rook me right out of the story. It also felt like the male lead looked different in every other appearance. At one point I looked at three panels across two pages and it looked like three different characters to me.
Overall the story tried hard but the vagueness and inconsistency of the art was too strong for me to rate this higher than two stars.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews