Story: David Pepose

Art: Alex Cormack

32 pages, 4.99

Mad Cave Studios

Review: Kris Lorenzen

What It Is: The new demonic horror series set amongst the religious-political intrigue of the 1740s, as Europe teeters on the cusp of the Age of Reason.

The Good: This is how to make a first issue. Introduce all the players and touch on their motivations and backstories. Set up the stakes. Tease the forthcoming complications and leave the reader wanting more. Pepose makes it looks easy.

He already proved himself an interesting and competent writer with SPENCER & LOCKE and SCOUT’S HONOR (certainly enough to get Marvel’s attention), but this is his best first issue to date.

When one artist does as much of the art as possible, you get their best work. Traditionally, this meant penciling, inking, and coloring and the most you could hope for was two out of three. Cormack does it all in this issue and it shows. Every spotted black, every hue, every special effect—all hum in harmony and sing the same song. The time and place are communicated with cartoon efficiency and speak to his strength as an illustrator. The highest compliment I can give comic book art is that it feels drawn by human hands. It’s not photorealistic or overly digital or any of that boring stuff.

The Bad: There’s a story beat near the end that’s handled like a twist but really isn’t—it’s given away in a close scrutinizing of the title and even in the solicit for this issue. No blame falls to the creators for this, really, it’s more of where pop culture storytelling is at this moment in time, like it’s impossible to get comics (or movies, or TV series…) greenlit if there’s not a gimmick or hook of some kind.

There are a couple unnecessary captions sprinkled throughout these pages. Comics is a visual medium, if the art tells the story then leave the words out.

The Score: 9 out of 10 capes.

Further Reading: Pepose and artist Jorge Santiago, Jr.’s SPENCER & LOCKE books (Action Lab) were big hits here among the Super Hero Speak crew a few years ago, and Cormack’s work on SEA OF SORROWS (IDW) with writer Rich Douek is another perfectly freaky horror comic for this or any spooky season.