Monday, March 03, 2014

An insane artist? Wow, how often does that happen?


I'm trying to work on some longer homemade strips, but we've got a second to check out the recent Baltimore: Chapel of Bones two-issue miniseries; written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, art by Ben Stenbeck, colors by Dave Stewart.

These issues bring the comic series up to the end of the novel Baltimore, or the Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire: the titular vampire hunter Lord Henry Baltimore summons three old friends to meet him, as his hunt of the vampire Haigus nears completion. While Baltimore blames Haigus for the deaths of his family, Haigus blames Baltimore for waking him and his kind up: by this point, World War I has been called on account of vampires and plague. But Haigus is both exhausted by Baltimore's constant pursuit, as well as unwilling to go on in the world he knows is coming. You see, while Haigus may be Baltimore's proverbial white whale, he's by no means the end boss.

This is a dark, brutal book: while Baltimore trudges along with a grumpy, fatalistic stoicism; everyone else is trying to eke out any sort of life in a world that seems like it's ending. Which is probably how it felt in that time anyway, the vampires and monsters are just icing on the cake. These two issues are 19-20 in the series, so you're not so far behind you couldn't catch up yet.

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

I've got an issue of this series. About the only I could find at the time. But yeah, this one's pretty damn good. Dark, but good.