Review: Dark Horse Presents #9

This is kind of a strange issue of Dark Horse Presents. There are some new stories added and finally some old stories have ended, but there isn’t a strong cohesion to the book. The volume jumps between emotions and frankly it could have been arranged better in that regards. Instead we’re taken from one hot property to the next. Sure this is just a showcase of Dark Horse Talent and the biggest names get top billing, but the books should still have an organic feel to it while reading. With that aside there were far more stories to be enjoyed in this volume compared to the last.

If you read the site then you know that I love me some "Lobster Johnson" and he our lead story for this volume. He’s going after a mobster that got off a murder rap and beat the justice system due to a pact with a monster/demon thing. He knows that Lobster Johnson is coming for him and so he makes another deal with it to see his enemy defeated. The monster takes the mobster into his body and he begins kicking the shit out of Lobster J. This was a fun story with a lot of action and basically Mignola’s take on the classic monkey paw story that is found all throughout horror. The art is sharp and clean and holds its own against the new mini-series out now.

The next story is another prequel-esc tale from "The Massive" which has yet to be released from DH. This story is about a boy growing up in the Bay of Bengal, which is where the story takes its name from. The village lives off what it can take from the ocean, but there way of life is changed when corporations begin dumping toxic waste just off the coast of the Bay. The boy decides to swim out to the boats and board them. There he stabs a man who promptly throws him into the water leaving him for dead. This is another great precursor to the ongoing and has piqued my interest yet again. There is a very strong social message in this tale which will probably never be seen by the people that need to hear it.
"Concrete Park" really slipped by me with its first two installments, but after talking to creator Tony Puryear about the book I checked it out again. I almost wish that it was given a one-shot so that I could get the entire story in one big chunk rather than being split up. With the cast of characters I sometimes need to remind myself of who is who. I enjoyed this chapter as it added a lot of depth to Isaac, but really wished that I could follow more of Luca’s story. It’s a very interesting world that Puryear has created and hopefully we’ll have more info about Concrete Park in the form of an interview.

I would be reminiscent if didn’t talk about "The Many Murders of Miss Cranbourne". It was a bit boring. I wanted to be interested, but when the old lady started solving her own crime just to look smarter than the detective I lost interest in reading the next installment. Also I hate “letters” in comic books. If you’re going to do a letter use it as narrative captions, don’t show me a zoomed out look at the page I’m not interested. The art was good, but I’m not sure where the story wants to go and I’m finding the character of Miss Cranbourne less and less believable. The entire story is starting to come off cheesy and full of satire rather than being a well thought out murder mystery with light-hearted moments. A detective slamming open a door after characters saying “Murder” over and over and then saying, “Murder is a foot”, came off like a bad play and not a comic book.

It looks like I’m going to hit all of the stories with the exception of Future Tarzan and Skultar and one other, nothing against those stories but there isn’t anything really to say about either. If you enjoyed either tale in the last issue, then you’ll continue to do so in this issue and if you enjoyed Murky World you enjoy the other tale.

Our second to last story is entitled "Amala’s Blade". The gist is that a young girl is boarding a pirate ship that looks like something out of Pirates of the Dark Waters. The art style is also a little on the P of DW side as well, but it’s a great look that works for the story. The girl goes on to kill a couple of men with a strange crossbow that shots blue phantom arrows. All the while the ghost of her father is talking to her trying to get her to quit the life she’s been leading. It’s an interesting introduction even if it doesn’t give us a lot on the characters or even the plot. I still rather enjoyed it and would definitely read the next chapter.

The last and probably my favorite story of the issue is "Alabaster: Wolves". When Dark Horse teased about this a few months back it opened my eyes to writing of Caitlin R. Kiernan and I’ve been enjoying it ever since. Needless to say that I’ve been looking forward to this comic adaptation and it didn’t disappoint. Dancy is waiting for a bus in a town that, well probably doesn’t have any running busses. She begins talking to a bird that calls her a “whackadoodle” and tells her to get out of town quick. It’s too late though as a young girl about her age approaches. They begin to banter back and forth take sharp verbal jabs at one another. The story ends just as it’s getting good which will probably tick you off since you’ll have to wait for the series to launch. The art is fantastic and really brought the characters and tone of the world to life. This story should probably have ended the issue, but Skultar is after it.

This was one of the stronger volumes of Dark Horse Presents, but it could have been pieced together better. I found it funny that Alabaster was the second to last story when typically it would have been first or second. Granted Mike Mignola isn’t going to take second billing, not after everything he’s done for Dark Horse and them for him. But I would say that Alabaster is much like Burden of Beasts and should have been at the beginning. There’s also a lot of black comedy or attempts at it that just didn’t fit in between the more serious stories here. In general this was a good collection, but didn’t have the feel that a normal issue of Dark Horse Presents usually has.

Score: 4/5

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 2/22/2012