Richard Sala's new ongoing comic-book series Evil Eye, much like his recent graphic novel The Chuckling Whatsit, features a clueless, bespectacled protagonist, a serial killer on the loose, and various grotesque masterminds scheming away in darkened rooms. What it lacks is the real sense of menace that made Whatsit so effective. Even while college students are being murdered by a shadowy killer, then drained of glandular fluids from their necks, Evil Eye feels too cute. That can be blamed on the artwork, which doesn't measure up to most of Sala's previous accomplishments: The figures are drawn small and stiffly posed against simple, uninspired backgrounds, a far cry from the richly cross-hatched creepiness of Whatsit. Perhaps Sala hasn't yet hit his stride with this series stretching out in front of him, but the fact remains that The Chuckling Whatsit is still a much better introduction to Sala's work than Evil Eye.