I read this first in spite of my excitement over the other great books coming out this week (Beasts of Burden, Invincible, Chew), because I was suspicious of my infatuation with first issue.  I wondered, “Betsy, the first issue came out MONTHS ago. Sure you read it four times in one hour and you made your mom read it and she loved it too but have we not been burned before?” My trepidation has usually served me well, so I entered the Dark hesitantly, slowly, with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. And then I saw the first page, with its beautiful, soul expanding art, it’s compelling fascinating characters, and mentally stimulating plot.  How could I have doubted? How could I have forgotten the sense of dread, of urgency, of history?
The art! I have not the words to convey the superb emoting both the conventional human actors (The Indian Princess and Jester) and the animals (Percy, Scout) did, nor how every single character is unique. In a crowd scene, or a battle scene, it is clear that every character on the page is an individual, that the artist (Charles Paul Wilson III, HOLY CRAP!) knows who each of them are, what brought them to Dark and why they fight for or against the Boogeyman.  It sounds cliche, but seriously one must see the art in your hands to fully comprehend the beauty of these pages.
The first issue certainly suggested a juxtaposition between the World War going on in the real world, where the Boy’s father is fighting, and the battle in the Dark, but the second issue expands the metaphor, but is never blunt, nor overbearing.  The Mayor of Hopscotch is just like those in Europe who “ruled” their towns under the Fuhrer’s sufferance, tiny impotent men begging for scraps of power from the invading force. They torture their fellow countrymen because they finally can, and delight in  turning anyone, family, friends and especially outsiders over to their master to prove how “loyal” they are.  And like the Third Reich’s top administrators, the Boogeyman has no interest in loyalty, genuine or contrived, and devours all who come within its grasp.
I wont even go into the exciting developments, the hints at deeper rivers running through even the most apparently shallow characters, and expanding (and hopefully crumbling) world of the Dark and Boogeyman. It would be too much and I honestly want people to experience this story for themselves, as I have, instead of second and third hand. Trust me. It’s an epic.