Written By: Fred Van Lente

Art By: Guiu Vilanova

Color Art By: Mauricio Wallace & Josan Gonzalez

With all that’s going on with DC this month, it’s easy to overlook some of the other publisher’s new releases. For me, this is when I’m looking for more diversity for publishers, to keep up excitement on the big news, and to just avoid oversaturation. Due to that, I was excited to check out Weird Detective 1 from Dark Horse this week, being a horror fan as well as liking the quality that Dark Horse has been putting out recently. This issue surprised me in more ways than one, and on both ends of the spectrum.

To start, I want to say that I’m not the most well versed in Lovecraft lore, which is the main focus of a lot of this book. While familiar, the source material is a big blank spot for me, so take that as you will. The gist of this story is that we are following Detective Sebastian Greene and his new partner Sana Fayez as they investigate a series of unexplainable deaths. We quickly find out that there’s a lot more to Sebastion, or whatever he is, than anyone realizes. The best aspect of this issue, to me, was Van Lente’s use of these “new senses” for Sebastian to be as successful as a detective he is. Even though he’s finding these clues to the mystery, which could seem convenient, the length’s that Van Lente goes to explain it. I never once felt cheated by that. Also, there’s a great balance of this supernatural story with Sana’s mundane and hectic life. She frequently battles with her wife over things like watching their child and making dinner on time; which is a nice, occasionally humorous contrast. While I really enjoyed those points, I found myself a little strained with others. The Chief of Detectives that gives Sana the assignment is so one dimensional it’s like a caricature. While that’s not always a bad thing, he’s dialogue just seemed to go one forever, and really drew me out of the story. Also, while I like the supernatural bent in Sebastian, it’s clear (SPOILERS) that he’s no longer actually Sebastian. After we see him talking to his very snarky cat, it becomes clear that Sebastian is actually in this alien like clawed creature, whether by transference or something else. That part of the story got lost with the much more compelling murder mystery happening. While it could work in a future issue, it felt superfluous here, even in a double sized issue.

I came in familiar with Van Lente, but I’ve never seen Vilanova’s work until opening this cover. Initially, I found myself really enjoying it. The rendering is reminiscent of Adam Gorham’s work, with an economical but sculpted line. Also, the coloring work helps this book a lot. The palette balances the grittiness of detective work with the craziness that is Lovecraft. The creature designs, in both color and rendering, are very strong; a la something you’d see in BPRD. I was really taken aback, however, when I hit the halfway point, and the art took a bit of a dive. For a chunk of the back half of the book, the storytelling began to suffer from either stiffness or muddy faces and reactions. The characters we got to know just didn’t look the same. That said, this issue was double sized, and that change in art, which started strong, screams rushed to me. If I had to guess, we are more likely to see the stuff we got in the first half rather than the latter half.

For value, this might be the best place for it on the stands this week. While having the 3.99 price point, this gifts you a double sized book for the price of one. On top of that, Van Lente is crafting an interesting story, which found a perfect home at Dark Horse. Let’s hope, as I expect it to, that the art gets back on track with issue 2.

 

3.5 Cthulus out of 5