Early Haunts. A Graphic Collection of Seminal Ghost Stories. T.W. Burgess (Adaptor/Writer). (2020)

 

A very enjoyable and engaging collection of influential ghost stories. For each story T.W. Burgess provides information showing the famous descendants of the story and its elements.

The Greek Myth-The House in Athens. Pliny the Younger (Writer) Mike O’Brien (Art). A house in Athens was haunted by a ghost who rattled chains. No one would love there until a philosopher heard the story and chose to investigate. T.W. Burgess traces the ghost of Jacob Marley from a Christmas Carol shaking his chains at Scrooge back to classical Greece and a haunted house in Athens in a story told by a Roman senator. Mike O’Brien’s art catches the time and mood without being stiff or archaic. It is expressive and gives the story the right pace to be both ancient and fresh. The muted colouring gives the story the atsmohere is deserves and brings out the details of the art.

The German Legend- The Death Bride. Friedrich August Schulze (Writer) David Romero (Art). A dreadful promise of revenge made by a deserted lover to be at the wedding of the man who broke her heart. T.W. Burgess connects the story to one of the most important horror stories ever written, Frankenstein. The creature makes a fatal promise to his creator that he keeps. The structure of the story is a Gothic classic of a story within a story that has a framing device of an Italian Marquis telling the story of The Death Bride. The Marquis was staying with a family, one of whose daughters had died. The Duke of Marino arrived and soon was planning on marrying the second daughter, the twin of the deceased. The Marquis was not happy with this as he had some knowledge about the Duke, and he told the story of the Death Bride which seemed very disturbing to the Duke. There is a wedding and there is trouble. It is a great story, beautifully told and constructed, down to the surprise at the conclusion. David Romero’s art is a perfect match to the story, it allows the layers to be seen they unfold and gives the expressive cast the chance to draw in the reader and to enjoy the lovely mix of the romantic and the gothic. The colouring gives the shadows and candlelight the place they deserve.

The Italian Fable- The Wild Huntsman. Gottfried August Burger (Writer). Brian Coldrick (Art).  A Count loves to hunt and pursuing a white stag ignores al the advice to stop until he finds that his hunting has led him much further astray than he could have imagined. T.W. Burgess links the wild hunt to the Headless Horseman of Sleep Hollow. Brian Coldrick’s art delivers the story with energy and force, the cast are given a slightly fairy tale look as they chase their way to doom, the Count constantly spurning the advice to take care as he gets lost in the desire of the hunt. The colours are a careful arrangement of shades which bring out the autumnal setting and the steadily darker tone of the story. The cast are boldly drawn and subtly expressive.

The Japanese Folk Tale – The Tale of Dish Mansion. Baba Bunko (Writer), Bri Neumann (Art), Bryan Valenza (Colours). A maid in the house a police official as an accident. The police official is furious and punishes the maid very savagely. The main commits suicide and returns to haunt the house. T. W. Burgess links the story to the Japanese horror classic, The Ring, for myself I saw a connection to one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s best ghost stories, The Brown Hand. Bri Neumann’s art is lovely, a stylish take on Japanese forms that is never a copy. It moves and breathes with confidence and captures the tones and styles of the story. Bryan Valenza’s colours complement the art perfectly, they are clearly intended to invoke Japanese colouring without ever trying to simply copy it.

Early Haunts is a treat for any fan of ghost stories or comics, T.W. Burgess has chosen the stories with great care, writes about them with interesting and persuasive detail and had delivered a warmly enjoyable book.

The Pilgrim. Mark Ryan (writer), Mike Grell, Stephen B. Scott (Art), Jason Millet (Colours) John Workman (Letters). Masterstroke Studios (2020)

 

An enjoyable first part of a story about a physic intelligence service. PSIMEX Research Institute are a physic intelligence service and they are coming under significant pressure to deliver a substantial result. PSIMEX need to stop a war criminal from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. The story sets up the attack on the war criminal and the trouble that is unleashed.

The opening episode of any story must do a lot of heavy lifting, setting up the story context, introducing the cast and setting the wheels in motion. Mark Ryan has not quite pulled it off in this comic, the story is a bit muddy and the action takes over a little too late. There is clearly a great many threads being established, in an opening chapter there is a lot of room for the reader just taking events on faith that they will become clear later. There were too many of them relative to the time for the action by the team, the balance was off a little. Still there is more than enough going on to successfully rouse and sustain a reader’s desire to know where the story is going.

The art by Mike Grell is beautiful, it is pleasure to read, the cast are expressive and engaging, there is a depth to the art that draws the reader into it. The action scenes are full of energy and the talking heads demand attention. The colours by Jason Millet are spot on, they bring out the details of the art and contribute to the atsmohere in the story. They contract the shiny technology with the shadows of the business to lovely effect.

John Workman’s lettering is quiet and understated, it is easy and natural to read, adding to the rhythms of the action.

The Pilgrim clearly has big ideas and plans and very talented creators working to deliver them, as the story expands the problems of this episode will hopefully vanish from sight.

Blackwood. Evan Dorkin (Writer), Veronica Fish, Andy Fish (Art), Dark Horse (2018)

 

An enjoyable and engaging supernatural academy story. For students start at Blackwood College and find themselves involved in the secrets of the college and all the danger that brings with it. The Dean of Blackwood College sort of vanishes and the difficulties this creates involve the new students and the desperate staff trying to cope with the situation. The reveals are smart and very well set up, the story twists and turns in a very engaging way before coming to a very satisfactory conclusion.

The problem with the story is that one of the leading characters is deeply unlikeable, they are angry and flailing at everyone who comes within range all the time. There is a reason for the anger, in dramatic terms it is unrelenting, there is no space for the reader to sympathise with the character. I simply did not want to spend time in their company. It speaks to the strength of the story and the depth of the rest of the cast that I completed and enjoyed the story. Evan Dorkin has provided superb plot mechanics; the story is great fun and develops in an engaging way.

The art by Veronica Fish and Andy Fish is friendly and inviting, it packs in an extraordinarily level of detail without every feeling crowded or overburdened. The detail gives a strong presence to Blackwood as a location and a space, it is as full of nooks and crannies, secret rooms and unexpected turns as it should be. The cast are vivid and expressive, the students are individual teenagers who are never less than natural, responding to the extraordinary in credible way. The adult staff of the college are a pleasure, they are capable, stressed concerned and trying to manage in the face of tremendous forces. The dynamic they have with the students rings true. The colours are subtle and on point, they bring out the details and give weight to the emotional tones of the story.

Blackwood College firmly establishes its own identity and force, it has a deep context which is a pleasure to explore.

Reanimator Incorporated. Chapter One. Andy Perry (Writer), Lyndon White (Art, Colours, Letters) Hassan Otsmane Elhaou (Editor), Christopher Holmes, Fred McNamara, Jack Jennings (Editor and Contributor). Quarktion Comics (2020)

 An enjoyable and engaging supernatural horror story. Herbert West is obsessed with reviving the dead, not creating zombies, returning the dead to their lives. This process involves reanimating the corpse and the process is proving to be frustratingly elusive. There is a lot of external pressure on Herbert West in addition to his own obsessive desire which have led him to have fractured his private life. A success at reanimating proves to be problematic and increases the pressure for success when a significant event occurs that increases the pressure on Herbert West.

Andy Perry has written a very engaging opening part of the story, the set up is established with clarity and force and the ending is an enticing invitation to see where the story will go. The cast are introduced and given meaningful motivation and energy to drive the developing situation and to collide with each other in an interesting and engaging way. The investment that the cast have in the process captures the reader and allows them to have a stake in the story as well.

Lyndon White’s work is superb, the colours are the first aspect that grasps the reader and brings them into the story, they create the emotional context for the action. They bring out the forces that are surrounding and driving the case with subtle and insistent force. The details of the art are equally impressive, the cast are individual and expressive. The laboratory is happily a considerable distance from the Gothic, it has a cool scientific aspect which plays nicely against the work that is being done and the results that are emerging.

Reanimator Incorporated. Chapter One does everything a fist issue should do and does so with wonderful confidence and talent. The creators allow the readers to settle into the story and get ready for the wild ride that is going to follow.

Deadskins! Part 1 & 2. Clay Adams and Alexandre O. Philippe (Writers), Leila del Duca (Pencils), Brett Nienburg (Colours), Charles Pritchett (Letters). Fried Comics (2020)

A very engaging and enjoyable horror comedy western. Shane, a fastidious young man takes a train west and awakes to find himself in the middle of a massacre. At the town he was going to he finds Jack, a blind man, is the sole inhabitant. Jack tells him everyone else has left including the woman Shane had come out to see. Shane, and Jack leave town to find the fort where Annie was headed for. It does not go well. The reveals are very well set up and the story moves at a sharp pace and the end is a great hook for the following parts.

Clay Adams and Alexandre O. Philippe have taken staples of the western genre and mixed them with bloody black comedy to great effect. Shane and Jack are a superb odd couple pairing, they play against each other with great effect. Shane has enough vigour and determination to not be annoying while also capable of being horrified and frightened. Jack is every old prospector town drunk that has ever limbed into a saddle and here is no trace of a cliché about him. The elements of the story are structured with great care, none overshadow or undermine the other, they fit together in a coherent, hugely enjoyable whole.

Leila del Duca’s art is a joy to read, it is expressive, lively and suitably exaggerated to catch the mix of the story. Shane and Jack spring off the page and establish themselves as rounded and credible. The West of westerns is delivered in each panel and full page, it is exactly the context that is needed to bring out all the elements of the story.

The colours by Brett Nienburg are astonishing, the way that red is used over the line art is stunning, it is not just blood it is a statement.

The letters by Charles Pritchett are easy to read, they do not distract the reader, they support the flow of the story with understated craft and skill.

Deadskins! Is a great fun comic and an excellent western.

 

Angora Napkin The Golden McGuffin. Troy Little (Writer and Artist). Pegamoose Press (2020)

 

A very funny illustrated fiction that is constantly unexpected and wildly inventive. The Napkin sisters, Molly, Mallory and Beatrice are the staff of the Angora Napkin existential detective agency. A client arrives to declare that he has been murdered, just does not know when or where.  Using a board game, the Napkin sisters find out and they set out to forestall the murder. It does not go well and the hunt for the Golden McGuffin is underway. From the noir parody opening the story is a rocket propelled journey a not quite satisfactory conclusion.

Angora Napkin is crammed with jokes and set ups and in a physical format this plays against it for a reader. Reading a physical story is a continuous experience, if the story is too full it does not give the reader time to digest the content before adding more equally detailed pages. This works well on a website where a page a day or week creates the natural breaks for the reader. Reading the story is a little exhausting, I have enjoyed the book a lot more after I read it and could let the content settle in my brain. The standout jokes, there are a lot, came to the fore and I found myself laughing more at them than when I was reading.

Troy Little has put significant work into Angora Napkin and it shows, the story never flags or falls flat, it is kept in the air by a smart structure that allows the action to fly. There are so many ideas that it is amazing that they are all carefully used, none are there for decoration. Wi amazing economy Troy Little makes sure that every set up is completed and goes somewhere without any sense of story bloat.

The element that hols everything together is the wonderful dynamic that is developed among the sisters. They are developed and rounded characters, each being true to their demented selves and strike off each other in a way any family member would recognise.

The art is a joy, it has the energy and force needed to support the story, the cast are wildly expressive and absurd as they should be. They have the energy of a animation with the detail of a comic, a stunning combination.

The colouring is perfect, it brings out the details of the set ups, the cast and the gives the story an additional vibrancy that benefits from. Flipping through the book as I was writing this post, I have laughed out loud at each page I looked at, it is a really engaging book. The finale is not come off, it does not detract in the slightest from what come ahead of it.

Angora Napkin The Golden M^cGuffin is a treat for a comics fan.