Victorie City is a hard to book to read. It’s hard to look at and equally as hard to appreciate.
Detective Hecktor Ness is still on the case of a missing person, albeit, not officially. In the meantime, the vicious serial killer, Brahm Allvar faces the chair resulting in the situation going from bad to worse, practically at the flip of a switch.
Writer Keith Carmack has lot going on in this issue. As such, it’s not such a bad idea to fall on the old “cop suspended but still working the case” routine. This allows for story progression, whilst also meaning the main focus, of this issue at least, falls on other aspects. Some might suggest that this is writing by the numbers; I think that would be to simple a statement to use for a complicated story. Not having read previous issues, I can’t say if the spooky dialogue is a one-off special or part of the overall scheme. Either way, its effective nonetheless; equally fascinating and scary. Kudos must go to letterer and designer Jessi Adrignola, who goes for a scratchy style of font that resembles something you would expect to see scrawled on an asylum cell wall.
Vincent Nappi’s style in the books also carries that “crazy” element forward. Heavy lines and the use of what appears to be black wax crayons, gives the book a very distorted unreal feel. The imagery invoked may well be familiar to horror fans, who may well enjoy it. Panel structure does change throughout the book adding to the distorted feeling, which is  more akin to a kaleidoscope of darkness.
I may have said before, that I’m not a huge horror fan.  Reading this book, there is nothing particularly appealing to me. However, IDW are doing some great work on their non licensed books and despite my distaste for this specific genre, I am still able to recognize quality work when I see it, even if it is hard to appreciate.
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Author Profile
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I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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