Witchfinder: In the Sevice of Angels #2

Witchfinder: In the Service of Angels #2
Written by Mike Mignola
Illustrated by Ben Stenbeck

Mignola is laying out a period mystery drama with a supernatural foundation. One would expect no less from him. What is astonishing is that he makes this London of 1879 just as real as the settings he places the BPRD in during the Forties or where Hellboy lives out his story in the present. It is a fertile mind that can handle such diverse locales and times so capably. The mystery is tense in this one, the stakes high, but as of yet there is not a lot of out and out action. This isn’t a bad thing by any means. He is doing solid character work and that is to be commended. This book is as much about mood as it is the horrible.

Mignola is giving us background in his larger epic here. It is great to see how far back his story goes. That kind of world building is what makes such a complex concept work. Here we see Victorian London’s dark corners, its alleys and the men who would profit at the expense of others.

RIYL: Hellboy, The Strange Adventures of H.P. Lovecraft, Proof, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Star Wars: Dark Times - Blue Harvest #0

Star Wars: Dark Times - Blue Harvest #0
Written by Mick Harrison
Illustrated by Douglas Wheatley

Dark Horse reprints the two Star Wars chapters from their online anthology, Myspace Dark Horse Presents. The story is set up for the "Blue Harvest "storyline that begins in Dark Times #13. Evidently, a large demand for this introduction caused this #0 to see print.

It is easy to see why. Harrison’s dense script is epic and exemplary of the heights of storytelling for which this franchise is known. The scope is breathtaking here. It is almost as if there is an illustrated version of the famous vanishing scroll that introduces each of Lucas’s films and as the score of John Williams quiets down, you can almost feel the fade.

RIYL: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Wasteland

From the Reading Pile: Pixu - The Mark of Evil

Pixu: The Mark of Evil
By Gabriel Ba, Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos, and Fabio Moon

Four of comics most, for lack of a better word, avant garde artists team up for one creepy story.

When a strange marking appears in their apartment building, five people begin to have their lives changed.

The story here is not the easiest to grasp. The "monster" is not a physical beast but a plague of the mind. The abstraction that crawls from the walls and windows into the characters is a feeling of dread, confusion, chaos, etc. These various dark thoughts creep into each of the tenants and eats away at them.

This is one of the more disturbing reads in quite a while. As the evil is mental, there is no beast to be slain, outside the apartment and its occupants themselves.

What is most astonishing is that the styles of the four artists blend together. They are, of course, complimentary, but there are moments when it is as if one artist did it all, even though you can definitively say it was this one or that in a particular panel. Collectively, they create a new visual vocabulary that is not present when they work individually.

Pixu is a ground breaking work of horror that will set its seed in the reader, much as it has its players.

RIYL: Locke & Key, Sin Titulo, Strange Embrace

From the Reading Pile: Sin City Vol 2 - A Dame to Kill For

A Dame To Kill For
By Frank Miller

The Hard Goodbye suffered from Miller's penchant for hokey dialogue. Oddly enough it worked well enough for Marv's story.

Here, Miller delves fully into Noir. Dwight's speech is full of the cadence and swagger of Bogart at his finest. The lust between Dwight and Ava is thick, the smell of sweat rises from the page.

What's more, Miller embraces the pulp mechanisms, sprinkling bits from the other volumes here and there. The story becomes a frame and like a Leonard novel, old friends are hiding in corners.

Oh, Ava's monologuing can get overbearing - but it is made up for in spades by the momentum that keeps the pages turning and the story moving.

To this reader, this is a better outing that the first volume. Miller is playing around less and hunkering down to tell a decent story.

From The Reading Pile: Hellboy Vol. 2 - Wake The Devil

Hellboy: Wake the Devil
By Mike Mignola

More from the uncontrollable stack of books I have yet to read. Like Sin City, I am reading this in the big Library Editions from Dark Horse. This first hardcover (of which this is the second half) took me a while, because to be honest, Seed of Destruction didn't exactly set my world on fire. Fortunately, it was not my first experience with Hellboy. I had checked out what ever mini series was being published when I first got back into comics. I dug it, but after a couple of series... I am thinking I made it to The Black Flame... I realized that this world was rich in back story, so I decided to start at the beginning and then these cool hardcovers were solicited.

This is more like it. After the somewhat empty opening of the first series, the whole ball of wax gets rolling here. Rasputin, Vampires, Gods, Nazis, Mad Scientists, Disembodied Heads. That's what our Demon friend should be fighting. However, the emotional connection to his team becomes clearer here. We see him face his destiny and claim his own path. The wry humor is here. Perfect comics from a genius of the medium.

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From the Reading Pile: Sin City Volume 1: The Hard Goodbye

The Hard Goodbye
By Frank Miller

Having seen the movie, I was a big enough fan that I own the entire series in the big over-sized hard covers, but have never actually gotten to reading them - hence the name of this new feature, brought on by my illness this past weekend, where I didn't read anything new to review and pretty much just lied around reading things from the big pile in my comics room.

This was a solid story. It easy to see why they made the movie focus on this story. Marv is a great character and there is a nice balance between the noir darkness and Miller's sense of humor.

The art is amazing. Miller utilizes the black and white to the nth degree. He has a sense of shadowing seldom seen in comics and the simple palate accentuates this. The detail is amazing.

The only thing that holds this book back is the ham-fisted dialogue. Of course, it is perfect coming from Marv, but still unbelievable. What was once kitschy enough to make The Dark Knight Returns a breath of fresh air is over the top here.

Still, all and all, a great read deserving of the accolades and status it has obtained in fandom.