Review - Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #2

At the risk of repeating myself, I have never read a page of Hellboy. Never had a taste for that kind of stuff, horror stuff gave me nightmares you see. But with this series, which I won the first issue of in a comic store comp, has struck something within me I cannot and will not explain. The fact that a Kiwi like myself - artist Ben Stenbeck - is drawing Witchfinder may have something to do with it. The creative team certainly has. Mike Mignola, Hellboy writer and artist of old. And the superstar flat colorist Dave Stewart (always liked this style because I can do nothing else with Photoshop). But is this enough to make it a good issue?

The Good: as always, Ben's art for this is top-notch. I enjoy his shadowy, semi-realistic art, and it complements Dave's flat coloring as well. And Ben's put in a little allusion to his nationality; one of the thugs eyeing Sir Edward up in a dark street is a Maori, with big lips and green moko tattoos. Mike's dialog for this is detailed and realistic, and sounds like it could actually sound plausible in real life. Letterer Clem Robins has a lettering style I like a lot - his long tails, clear letters,which look hand-rendered rather than computer-generated. All round, for art, it is an amazing issue.

The Bad: I'm pretty pleased with this issue as a whole, but the story itself seems to be what those in the profession call an expository - where a long talk between characters reveals a large or not-so-large amount of info to the reader. That's what this issue feels like. There's not so much blood and gore as #1; no sign of the monster until the last page - I have been getting into this, so I kind of expected some gore. But never mind. Oh, and one more thing; the spirit guide Zora calls Sir Edward "poor man" in every speech bubble. That's kinda annoying.

The Ugly: no uglies have been identified in this comic. From my experience, this is usually a sign the creative team knows what they're doing. But of course I already knew that - it's Mike Mignola, for crying out loud!

Overall, Sir Edward Grey: Witchfinder #2 comes in for me at 8/10. The story wasn't as great as I thought it would be, but for what it was, I enjoyed it. The art cheers me up from any screw-ups as usual, so I put the comic down happy. Go figure.

Posted by Fanbot at 8:01 am, SUNDAY 9 August