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Graphic Novel Review: Mr. Higgins Comes Home by Mike Mignola, art by Warwick Johnson-Caldwell

Mr. Higgins Comes Home by Mike Mignola, art by Warwick Johnson-Caldwell

Dark Horse, 2017

ISBN: 9781506704661

Available: print, ebook

 

Mr. Higgins Comes Home is an original graphic novel by Mike Mignola and Warwick Johnson-Caldwell. The household at Castle Golga are planning for the annual festival of Walpurigsnacht, as a pair of vampire killers question a man locked in a monastery on the Baltic Sea. The last thing Mr. Higgins wants to do is relive the last moments of the death of his beloved wife, and be reminded about the terrible thing that happened to him. The problem is that the vampire hunters are persistent, and will stop at nothing to destroy all vampires that plague the land. To do so, they feel they must have the help at the exhausted and frightened Mr. Higgins. When the trio do manage to get themselves into the castle, things don’t quite go as planned; Mr. Higgins reveals just why he didn’t want to go there in the first place, and why he insisted upon his own imprisonment.

 

This is yet another fantastic story by Mike Mignola, and is set unexpectedly outside the universe readers are used to seeing. There is no Hellboy, and no BPRD in this setting. The horror setting is also well paired with some great humor. Johnson-Caldwell’s artwork complements the story nicely in that he selected a very different colour palette for the typical Victorian setting. Colors are brighter, while somewhat muted, and the art style is simple, yet communicates the necessary details to the scenes. If you are a Mignola fan, you really should pick up a copy of this book. You will not be disappointed. Recommended.

 

Contains: some violence

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

 

Posted on March 20, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: Welcome to the Apocalypse, Book One: Pandora by D.L. Richardson

 

Welcome to the Apocalypse, Book One: Pandora by D. L. Richardson

CreateSpace, 2016

ISBN: 9781370736201

Available: Paperback, eBook(Kindle, Smashwords)

 

Want to get away from it all but don’t have the time?  Want to experience an apocalypse firsthand?  Want to be a hero and save people from zombies or aliens?  Then welcome to the apocalypse!  In this science fiction thriller, the Apocalypse Games are the latest in virtual reality simulation gaming; twenty-four hours of simulated terror in a fully immersive virtual world where anything can happen.  Using the latest technology, players are attached to a pod with a neural network that enables them to feel, taste, touch and, smell everything they encounter.  Each player starts alone and empty-handed.  Each must find a weapon, find the enemy, find safe zones, and find survivors.  It is survival of the fittest, in a kill-or- be-killed world.

 

Welcome to the Apocalypse, Book One: Pandora has a really good premise, and I was really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver what I had hoped for.  While the plot and setting were laid out well at the start, as the story unfolded it became harder to sort out what was going on.  The ending was really abrupt, and I still wonder what happened.  The descriptions and action parts were generally well-constructed, and flowed nicely.  The characters were pretty distinctive and easy to keep straight.  The fun part of them was that some were virtual reality characters and some were real people.  The author had several instances of telling instead of showing, and there were many instances of poorly worded sentences that were confusing and hurt the flow of the story.  The story could also really use some help with editing. Spelling and duplicated or missing words throughout the made it really hard to stay immersed in the plot, and this really made the story fall apart for me.  I have not read this author’s work before.

 

Reviewed by Aaron Fletcher

Posted on March 18, 2018 by , Reply

Book Review: Clowders by Vanessa Morgan

Clowders by Vanessa Morgan

Amazon Digital Services, 2018

ASIN: B078GTVF7Z

Available: Kindle edition

 

Author Vanessa Morgan acknowledges that the real city of Clervaux, in Luxembourg, is not noted for supernatural events, or for being a haven for cats.  However, in the fictional world of Clowders, the human inhabitants of  Clervaux are vastly outnumbered by cats, a clowder of cats (“clowder” is the collective noun used to describe a group of cats). The story starts when an American couple, Aidan and Jess, move to Clerveaux with their young daughter, Eleonore. Aidan, a self-absorbed wanderer, has been hired to work in a veterinary practice in Clervaux, and Jess has agreed to the move to please him and save their marriage. What they have not been told, although it is common knowledge among the villagers, is that a tengu (a spirit of the mountain and forest found in Japanese folklore) protects the village’s cats, and if a human kills a cat, the tengu kills nine humans.

 

Aidan and Jess are driving home from an unsatisfying night with colleagues from the veterinary clinic, when Jess accidentally runs over and kills a cat.  The tengu stalks the family, although they are still ignorant of the curse.  Others, who have lived in Clervaux much longer, sense that they are all doomed, but still do not tell Jess and Aidan.  When the villagers learn about the accident, they turn against the newcomers, fearing that they will be among the nine victims.  When Jess and Aidan finally learn about the curse, they plan to leave.  But can they escape?

 

Morgan does a good job in describing the flaws and foibles of the characters.  Although the death of the cat was simply an accident, the characters’ weaknesses and actions contributed to it.  For example, although Jess had drunk the least, was her driving impaired by drinking more than usual because of worry and jealousy at Aidan’s flirting with another woman?

 

In the ebook version I reviewed, Morgan gives away the plot before the book before the book’s introduction. There is one instance of in which “of” is mistakenly used for “off”. Morgan has a good story here; Clowders is worth reading. Recommended.

 

Contains: moderate sexuality, moderate gore

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on March 17, 2018 by , Reply
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