Dark Horse Presents is an anthology of comics, both one shots and new/young Dark Horse series. I love comics, but hate having to start a series in the middle, so I really enjoyed this collection. A few of the pieces are a part of existing series, ones started in previous editions of Dark Horse Presents, while others are brand new. What follows is a brief overview of each. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a new favorite.
Dark Horse Present #21 has 11 different stories covering everything from superheroes to folk rock philosophy. Yeah, that’s right. Folk. Rock. Philosophy. Oh, yeah, and some guy named Neil Gaiman offers up some poetry.
Chapter 4 of Alabaster Boxcar Tales is based on Alabaster by Caitlin Kiernan. This series follows Dancy Flammarion, a young albino girl haunted by a spirit and driven to kill dangerous monsters. It has a rather morbid, biblical tone to it, with the narrative frequently quoting scripture. Fear not, those of you who prefer your comic stay off the soapbox; the lines of bible verse are used, quite effectively, to express the uncertainty that Dancy feels in a world in which she is very much alone.
Part 2 of The Victories: Babalon Falling is the second of what I understand will be a three part series by Michael Avon Oeming, co-creator of Powers. This comic was a little confusing at first because it jumps back and forth between two seemingly unrelated stories and doesn’t make a connection, at least not in this comic. I took a look back at part 1, and it reconciles the two stories. Spoiler from part 1 (highlight the blank space): The flashbacks are from Jackal’s childhood attempting to explain the source of his insanity.This makes the whole story make a lot more sense. The story seems to have a lot of the psychological and philosophical undertones in common to Batman and his villains, but it’s a classic dark hero trope executed well, so I think it’s great.
Chapter 2 of Journeyman by Geoffrey Thorne follows Dr. Haley Shore, a young genius who has been employed to open a box of unknown nature. The chapter opens with her having narrowly escaped a feral, wolf-like beast called a frillogan and meeting a strange man “Journeyman, J. McDuffie Swift, Esq.” He’s a charm about him, and a wonderful accent, and very unusual wardrobe. But there’s something odd about him. I think it’s definitely a series worth keeping an eye on.
“The Day the Saucers Came” by Neil Gaiman, supported with art by Paul Chadwick, is a beautiful poem which speaks with Gaiman’s usual gifted prose about the our own self-obsession and lack of realistic prioritization. It’s a short poem and I really think it’s worth the read, so I will leave it at that.
“Cat’s in the Cradle” is by Shaun Manning and is a one page, truly insightful look at the song of the same name by Harry Chaplin and at the true significance of it’s lyrics. I think Manning has really looked at it from a very different perspective, one that is much more uplifting than the most obvious interpretation. The scratchy, sketchy style of Andrew Drilon‘s art goes almost eerily with the work in a way that is absolute brilliance.
Chapter 1 of Arcade Boy is just the beginning, but I’m pretty sure I’m already hooked. Written by Denis Medri, the story follows an arcade savant, Hiroshi Noto, and a child (his son?), Alex Raje, in scenes spanning from 1985 to 2025, where it seems the main plot will take place. I’m going to make two predictions here, not spoilers because I’m just guessing: Alex will learn to fight crime using virtual reality gear developed by Noto and the main theme will be either big game companies versus indie games OR classic games versus modern gaming. I’m totally getting a Feedback vibe on it, and lovin’ it.
Chapter 3 of Station to Station is a bit of a shift from the other works in this anthology which have more of a superhero or fantasy (or philosophical) theme to an action hero/scifi feel. It’s by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman and has just about everything: giant amorphous beasts, dinosaurs (that people are RIDING!), explosions, ray guns, et cetera as a result of collapsing bounds between realities. This is the conclusion (or is it?) of a very action filled story. If you’re willing to go back to read the first two chapters, it’s definitely worth the read.
Chapter 1 of Tiger Lung by Simon Roy and Jason Wordie shows the beginning of what I think is shaping up to be an interesting adventure. In 30,000 B.C.E., Tiger Lung enters a cave a right of passage with his tribe, but will he come out again? And if he does, will he emerge in the same place or even the same time as when he left? We’ll only know when we see Chapter 2, but I look forward to finding out.
Chapter 3 of X by Duane Swierczynski follows the titular character breaking into the safe room of a criminal kingpin. With a crowbar. Not a crowbar and bunch of other stuff. Just a crowbar. This guy is a badass. But he might be in more trouble than he thought. This comic is grim and gory and very much a classic iron age story of a half-psychotic antihero out for vengeance. I have to say I loved the comic, but Swierczynski is one twisted dude.
Chapter 1 of Villain House was hilarious. It begins at a medium security prison for “mediocre, midlevel mooks” where Shannon Wheeler begins a tale of two criminals, and long time associates, the Squid and Pachyderm. They escape and antics ensue. It’s the most cartoony of the comics presented in this anthology, but in a refreshing sort of way. I’m not sure if I want the story to continue to follow the Squid and Pachyderm, or if I’d rather see what other semi-effective heroes Wheeler has up his sleeve, but I’m really looking forward to more from this series.
And lastly, chapter 18 of Finder: Third World by Carla Speed McNeil is a little too far in for me to go back and find all the background since McNeil has been writing the Finder series for seventeen issues. The story takes place in a futuristic, transhumanist setting and follows a courier, Jaeger Ayers. Now, if you’re thinking, “Wait a second, I’ve played Skyrim! He’s a mailman! Why do I want to read about a mailman?” then you need to calm down. In a world were the country side is wide open and not everything that walks the planet is terrestrial being a courier is harder than you might think. In this issue, his employers have found out that he has a knack for moving about undetected. But will he give them his secrets, if it means his freedom?
All in all, I think the Dark Horse Presents series is a great collection for those interested in a wide variety of stories who want to get into a story before it becomes too deep to navigate. For $7.99, this collection of 11 comics is a hundred kinds of worth it. Honestly, I’d pay eight bucks for Neil Gaiman’s “The Day the Saucers Came”, “Cat’s in the Cradle”, Arcade Boy and Villain House alone. Can you guess what my favorites were?
Matthew Bryant, aka Baker Street Holmes, is a writer and editor for the Red Shirt Crew. He loves comics, especially Garfield, the X-Men, Batman and Serenity. You can follow him on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or e-mail him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.
The Red Shirt Crew Blog and Podcast Network 