WEIRD DETECTIVE #1
Writer: Fred Van Lente
Artist: Guiu Vilanova
Release Date: June 15 2016
The streets of New York have been plagued by a pattern of crimes too weird and bizarre for the average detective. Lurking in the evidence, are shadows of loathsome horrors from beyond space and time, seeking to usher in the unimaginable evil of the Old Ones. And the only man capable of fighting against the unspeakable terrors isn’t a man at all. Detective Sebastian Greene is one of them; it takes a monster to catch a monster, Weird Detective #1.
Weird Detective #1 is the newest horror miniseries from Dark Horse Comics by Fred Van Lente and Guiu Vilanova. The pair unleash some good ole Lovecraftian vibes in this new book. The story takes place in New York City, and it begins its first weird murder with kids swimming in their local community pool and scared out of the water by a body that is nothing but hair and skin. At the crime scene, the main character, Detective Sebastian Greene is also introduced to his new partner. Sana Fayez, his new partner, notices that he is very weird. His recurring excuse for everything is that he is Canadian.
Solving these mysteries will require a lot of skills. Throughout the book, Greene gives out a very Sherlock Holmes kind of vibe. The thought bubbles and fun little pictures show how his powers work on trying to solve these crimes. Actually, he narrates them himself and is a self-admitted man of 16 human senses! During the investigation of this very weird murder, their only lead is from a perverted Janitor, which thru the perception of Sebastian Green, he is busted for watching the boys shower and selling the videos. That night, we get another murder, which we get to see all the gory details of it happening. This murder involves crime families, of which one of them posses the power of the Old Ones.
The book isn’t all horror and suspense. It has bits of comedy mixed into it too. Its not every day that a secondary character is a pet cat that cusses more than a sailor. While his partner Sana Fayez spies on him, she does think for a minute that it looks like he and his cat were talking. Though he wasn’t moving his lips. We find out that not only does the Chief of Detectives suspect that he has changed within the last few months, but could be that his body has been taken over by an alien or super natural entity. That is what he has also tasked Fayez with. How has he gotten so good all of the sudden?
The art from Guiu Vilanova was a great choice for this book. The way Vilanova has the characters flow thru the story makes it feel like a perfect pace of not reading too fast, or too slow. I love the way the faces are drawn on the characters to show their expressions in the different scenes. Even the cat shines with detail. Its almost as if Garfield the cat finally started to move his mouth and face when he talks. The color duties are shared by Mauricio Wallace and Josan Gonzalez. I enjoy how the pallet changes from scene to scene, and helps remind the reader when we are in flashback scenes and in super natural expositions from Greene.
- Story - 9/109/10
- Art - 8/108/10
Verdict
Weird Detective #1 was a very fun story to read. With 52 pages of comic book, it was very much worth it. I am very interested to see where this next issue takes us as we find out more about Detective Sebastian Greene. Hopefully we will get more insight on his origins and his intentions. Maybe we also will get more comedic relief from him and his talking cat.