Rhymes With Geek

Criminal Macabre: The Third Child
Story: Steve Niles
Art:  Christopher Mitten
Colors: Michelle Madson
Publisher: Dark Horse

Oh great I’ve bitten off more than I can chew again.  Here I was thinking this might be a new Steve Niles book only to discover that good old Cal McDonald has been around since 1990.  An anti-hero monster hunter, Cal’s been through years of adventures battling freaks, demons, and everything in-between.  The latest romp through the land of the grotesque picks up in the middle of what is clearly a new arc which ties into a larger overarching story.  I briefly considered moving onto another title but something about this series caught my eye regardless.  If you can forgive a novice to this series, we begin our review of  Criminal Macabre: The Third Child, the latest mini-series from Dark Horse Comics.

Story:  Like I said earlier, Cal’s a monster hunter.  Wikipedia compares him to John Constantine and he definitely got that vibe a little bit due to the smoking and trench coat.  Only unlike John, he appears to also be a vampire-type monster as well.  At least I think?  He’s got some giant black wings and red eyes so who can tell in the end.  Cal hangs out with monsters and there’s a whole seemingly well plotted out back story involving how this all came to be.  Needless to say Cal is pissed about his current undead predicament but doesn’t let it deter him from blasting the undead and demonic.

This series picks up with a strange demon baby pair strolling around turning creatures into demonic entities.  They seem intent on bringing a third demon to earth as well.  Cal’s associate Mo’Lock shows up and insists that Cal help investigate these demonic entities.  Unfortunately it appears that the newfound monster powers are making it hard for Cal to focus and he’s finding himself filled with blood lust.  At the end of this issue someone named Jason Hemlock appears in a very bloody fashion.  This name probably means something to long time readers but I had no clue who this was and was just kind of grossed out.  7 out of 10.

Art: I dig Christopher Mitten’s work in general.  I liked it in Umbral.  I like it here too.  It’s dark and moody and the perfect choice for a horror comic.  It reminds me of Mike Mignola quite a bit and a lot of the Hellboy series.  He draws a mean vampire and manages to express violent and gory scenes without making them too disconcerting.  Not to sound weak of heart but sometimes when these horror comics are too ‘over the top’ graphic it just takes away from the story.  Let me use my imagination a little bit.  Mitten does a good job with this while not teasing too much.  He’s the right guy for this series.  8 out of 10.

Overall:  Well I can’t say this series really had a huge effect on me either way.  I know there is quite the voluminous backlog of material to pick up and start reading if I want to learn more about Criminal Macabre.  After this first issue I don’t really feel much either way.  Perhaps things will get pretty crazy in issue #2.  I’ll skim it most likely and see where it goes from there.  I suppose I wasn’t sure what kind of story I wanted when I opened up the pages.  Was I looking for something more crime or macabre?  Criminal Macabre offers both but it kind of left me with a shrug.  Not a bad series but perhaps a bit late in the life of Cal MacDonald to start reading for the first time.  It’s not you it’s me!  Overall:  7.5 out of 10.