D'Israeli

After a mysterious events start occurring in places and vaults holding arcane and technologically advanced artifacts our venerable Witchfinder, sir Edward Grey, is called to investigate. Being in the same timeline/universe as main Hellboy story-line Witchfinder encounters creatures that are just starting to rise their ugly heads at the beginning of the XX century.

Due to this and repeating motif of secret societies and organizations working in shadows this story might seem as a repetition and constant recycling. In my opinion it is not the case, you just need to read stories at the normal pace. Binge reading the entire series will, like it is case with sword-and-sorcery and mystery novels in general when read non-stop without breaks, overwhelm the reader. And that would be a sad state of affairs because there is a lot in these booksto discover and connect the dots.

So read them slowly and with breaks between issues to truly enjoy them.

Art is good, again standard for the publisher. Approach is more comic-y than previous issue. Sir Edward Grey is more like himself (or at least he is same as he was in first issues) - more of a detective that will act and bring weapons and might into play when required. But with all of that he is not that rather dark persona fighting the underworld creatures in volume 4.

All in all recommended to all fans of mystery, horror and Hellboy universe in general.… (more)

The prolific and popular Warren Ellis, creator of Transmetropolitan, Planetary, Red, and numerous other titles, began his first ongoing series, Lazarus Churchyard, in 1991 for the short-lived Blast! magazine. In 1992, Atomeka (via Tundra) released a three-issue series quickly followed by a collection of the entire run illustrated by D'Israeli that featured the vaguely cyberpunk eponymous character. After a "plasborging" experiment replaced roughly 80 percent of his body with an intelligent, evolving plastic, Churchyard can react in 0.132 of a second to any situation and adapt accordingly. Additionally, the plastic processes toxins of all kinds, essentially granting him immortality. The tales open some 400 years after the experiment with the weary Churchyard longing to die. While at times clumsily written, Lazarus Churchyard successfully and entertainingly showcases many of Ellis's literary tropes such as transhumanist themes and biting socio-political commentary. Though much of the material covered later became commonplace, in 1992 there was nothing else quite like it.… (more)

A sequel mystery of the classic H.G. Wells novel, The War of the World, this graphic novel takes up what might have happened if one Martian survived and was fed human blood in exchange for knowledge of Martian technology. Exsanguinated bodies are discovered in the Thames River at low tide and a Scotsman comes to London to search for his missing daughter. Major Robert Autumn and his man, Archibald Solomon Currie take up the search to discover what is happening.

The art work is well balanced with the amount of text. The heavily accented Scots and Cockney dialogue is pretty heavy and is on occasion, undecipherable.

Good story, cliffhanger...I'll be looking for the sequel.… (more)