REVIEW: Scotland Yard

G’Day Crusaders,

This is Dodgy86 in the mix bringing you Scotland Yard by Dobbs with art and cover by Stephane Perger. Proudly published by Dark Horse Comics.

Opening the pages, the visuals of the infamous landmark of London such as Big Ben is infiltrated with not only snow and eerie fog but a figure in the forefront who looks to be carrying a human head in one hand and a clenched fist with the other. What are we as readers in for?

Set in the winters of Victorian London in the late 1800s, we are introduced to actions of serial killers. The victims are wearing wound-up collars which disperse a sinister snapping blade which decapitate’s the victims, literally the head comes clean off the shoulders. The result of a bungled stage-coach robbery of a prison coach which leads to the release of England’s most wanted serial killers. This leads to the meeting of the tag-team of Inspectors Tobias Gregson and G. Lestrade (from the pages of Sir Arthur Conan Boyle’s stories) who are assigned to the re-arrest before there is more innocent blood to be shed, Gregson and Lestrade seek the aid of the street urchin Wiggins (also of Boyles’) who is one-half of the stage-coach robbers and nurse Faustine Clerval (who appears to recent French-created character) aim to solve a series of crimes including those caused by the escaped felons.

This book is 104 pages with a feeling of a dark TV drama, there are a vast amount of characters for us readers to meet. With the page count, Dobbs utilises it efficiently by pacing the story and introducing each character briefly page-by-page without losing the readers whilst still telling the story. I enjoyed meeting characters from different authors and mediums. The brilliant art by Perger gives dimension scene-by-scene; from warm colors when everyone is safe to pages without dialogue nor monologue with black and white panels with red for blood offering readers an eerie sense of emptiness in the mind of a killer.

For fans of Sherlock Holmes and other crime noir stories based in the Victoria-era will feel satisfied with this book. It offers smart dialogue due to its pacing and moments of total violence and horror aided by the art. Do ya’self a favor and check it out!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Author Profile

Shane Tydeman

The Wonder from Down Under,
Dodgy is a senior contributor to Comic Crusaders. Co-Host of The Yeah-Nah Wepa Show! An advocate of indie comics and is creator of Indie Comics podcasts Flipside Focus, Sunderkatz and Think Indie Podcast!

An unapologetic movie fan, NBA fan, action figure, trading card fan! Also an advocate for Depression awareness!