Dept H bills itself as a murder mystery six miles down and it is just that and so much more. This is the story of Mia, a woman raised to be a scientist. alongside her brother by their scientist father. She has traveled to the bottom of the sea to solve the mysterious death of her father in his deep ocean lab. The premise is simple enough but the story itself gets more and more complex issue by issue. There are a lot of moving parts to this story which are not yet fleshed out within this volume but are all clearly tied to the goings on within the story.
At the heart of it we have an obsessive woman’s desire to prove that her father was murdered and discover by whom. The crew of the sea lab are all well known to her, many of them having served aboard a space station with Mia and yet despite this history she is suspicious of everyone. While the corporation funding this project believes the death was the result of sabotage know of Mia’s colleges seem to think so including her own brother. We are privy to some strange goings on which ads layers of mystery and paranoia to help us match Mia’s perspective. There may be some sort of biological contamination on the ship producing aberrant behavior. There are clues to a global pandemic of some sort, but if this is what’s affecting things on the ocean floor is unclear. Some members of the crew do seem to be hiding secrets, including Mia’s deceased father and as further sabotage or accidents occur Mia becomes an unreliable narrator, due to stress and sleep deprivation. A murder mystery is difficult enough to unravel but when one is faced with apparitions, delusions and improbable sea beasts everything you read in this comic becomes suspect.
The author is trying to put us in Mia’s shoes as she goes through this trial so the narrative of the story can become disorienting. Each chapter heads a bit more into chaos to mirror the breakdown of both Mia and the station as both crumble beneath the crushing pressures of the sea and the situation at hand. Kindt expertly expresses this in metaphor and actuality by having Mia frequently explain the differences of space exploration vs that of deep sea research. While both environments are hostile to human life the sea is far worse as it constantly bears down on everything below its surface. I do wish some elements of the story were more connected as this almost feels like a novel in graphic form. I’m not sure of this “writing for the trade”“ sort of slow burn approach would have been enough to keep me buying monthly issues. As a collected work though I find that I’m keenly interested in what will come next.
ART
The line art for this book is both a tremendous strength and a glaring weakness. Matt knows how to tell a story. His sequentials flow well across the page leading us from moment to moment. His characters are all uniquely featured and expressive, the “acting”“ is good. He is also not afraid to put in the work of detailed backgrounds, really setting the stage from scene to scene. However, Kindt’s art is very rough. Faces can often be asymmetrically mis-shapened, eyes mismatched across the face, though the proportions seem solid. He seems to prefer not using rulers or templates to creature geometric shapes, doing everything strictly by hand which at least keeps the art consistent and stylistically that is probably for the best. Though a bit of style wouldn’t hurt considering how unfinished the art looks. It lacks the sort of edge Ben Templesmith was able to bring to his own unsteady style.
The colors do work quite well with flashbacks rendered in nearly monotone while the present day pages are dominated by a few colors which add to the oppressiveness of the setting of the story and mystery at hand.
FINAL THOUGHTS
A good mystery but I wish elements of the story were a little more cohesive and the art style can be off putting at times. 3.5 out of 5!
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
REVIEW: DEPT H VOL 1 TPB
Writer: Matt Kindt
Art: Matt Kindt
Colors: Sharlene Kindt
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