DARK ENTRIES HC

Review by: forestjwp


Size: pages
Price: 19.99

Wow, I think that is all I can say for this book at the moment.  This was not what I was expecting at all when I jumped on board with one of the two new releases from Vertigo’s Crime line.  I expected a supernatural mystery that would be ho hum and see where it would take me.  It was not that it was much more. 

The overall production of the book is great.  A small hard bound novel that looks as thought it would fit right in with a good novel that you own.  It also doesn’t look like your traditional trade, it was produced to look like a novel.  Paper quality is great and the cover image itself was amazing.  Lee Bermejo sold me as soon as saw it on the shelf at my store.  Overall I was surprised that the quality of book and applaud Vertigo’s effort on this new line.

The writing was superb. I have never personally read anything written by Ian Rankin and do believe that this is first work in comics.  What a twisty story that evolves from an investigation into a haunted television “soundstage house” to a tale about people and how one person’s actions have it domino into someone else’s life.  It also is a blast across the bow to reality television which it deserves whole heartedly.  (Do we really need Shaq vs. ABC?)  I thought it was well written and works within the John Constantine character.  I will admit though that this story could have been done without him being involved, he may have been used to create a draw to this new line.  So overall the story is a 5 and would love to see Ian Rankin take another crack and comic juggernaut. 

The art was very good.  The black and white used in this book was well done and did not detract from the story at all.  There were no jarring moments that took me out of the story and it worked well with in the story.  I am not familiar with Werther Dell’edera, so I don’t know if this is comparative to his other works or not.  His lines appear sloppy at times, but do not make the characters hard to tell apart and as I mentioned do not take you out of the book at all.  There is a very neat trick that he does visually at a key turning point of the book with the backgrounds to the cells to denote a change in location.  I didn’t realize it at first, but after just picking up my book I noticed it. 

Overall, this book gets a 4.5 and a high recommendation.  I can not compare it to the other Vertigo book as I have not read it yet, but will be picking it up soon on the strength of this book.  I will say that I did not enjoy it as much as Parker, but still gets a 5 in story.  I can’t wait for the release of more of these books to see what kind of direction this line takes.  Will it allow itself to be broad as it appears to be at the start with the Filthy Rich book appearing to be the more noir type of the two and this book Dark Entries being something completely different?  All I know is that the next title when it comes in January of 2010 and see what Jason Starr does in the The Chill

 

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 4 - Very Good

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