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PIGEONS FROM HELL
Issues 2 & 3
Dark horse Publishing
by Joe R.Lansdale(Writer),Nathan Fox(Artist)
36 ppgs Colour $2.99

I remember thumbing through the first issue of this in my local comic store a few months back, and then recommending to our erstwhile CBO Chief Uncle Terry that this might be worth him spending some cash on, instead of the usual reams of stupor-heroic rubbish he invests his illicit erotic-comic royalties in ! Suffice to say it was with some suprise to have found that he actually took my advice, subsequently purchasing and reviewing issue 1 ! Obviously, wishing to repay the favour, he’s decided to allow me the opportunity of casting a critical eye over parts two and three of the four-parter, to see if my initial hunch was right, or not? Is this a lovey-dovey doozy, or a manky old bird of  a book?

Well, the first thing to state is that it’s based on an old Robert E.Howard story, which I admit i’ve never read, so I’ve no idea how faithful Joe R.Lansdale’s adaptation is. What I do  find interesting is that the story we have here seemingly ticks an awful lot of typical 80’s-type horror movie cliche boxes.We’ve got our typical group of American teens camped overnight, miles from anywhere in a creepy old house in the woods(or Louisiana Swamplands in this case), and hey, whaddya know, the creepy old house has got some strange,creepy feel to it that’s making our kids feel a bit uncomfortable here, and it’s got a really sinister ol’ back story of death and supernatural creepiness going on, and you can bet some creepy kind of old guy is gonna turn up and warn ‘em about the strange, unnatural fate that befalls anyone who enters the house, plus I bet there’s a somewhat ambiguous,cynical lawman that’ll just happen to turn up when we need him. And what’s that? He’s on the trail of some deranged axe-murdering madman on the loose nearby ? Surely not !

Well, you may think I’ve got my cynical tongue planted firmly in my cheek, but actually, it’s the cliches playing through this story that makes it so enjoyable. Lansdale’s adaptation hits all the right notes at the right times in terms of plotting and pacing, there are some neat touches in small moments that hint at where the action is going without immediately giving things away(the broken circle for instance), and some good laconic exchanges of dialogue back n forth between the protagonists.I would agree with Terry’s assertion in his review of Issue 1, that it reads very much like a script for a film.I’d suggest that’s as much to do with the content and subject matter as the writing, but that doesn’t detract from the excellent job Lansdale has done here.

Nathan Fox is someone I was aware of initially as a very talented illustrator whose work i’d come across in the American Illustration Annuals.I always thought his style suited comic-strip work, and here he does a superb job.His work has a similar stylistic feel to that of Paul Pope, all strong, fluid brushlines, and a kenetic energy that helps move the story along within the panels.There’s also a wonderful attention to detail within each panel, yet which also contains nothing superfluous to the story itself, which is the skill of a very good storyteller.There’s a terrific sequence in issue 3, in which  the gruesome history of the house is revealed, where he makes a stylistic shift to a thinner brushline, which allows a completely different visual feel, though is no less crammed with some wonderful visual detail.There are a really good number of quality visual sequences by Fox throughout these two issues: the hideously gory pages in issue 2, the strange spirits in the trees in 2 & 3, and the aforementioned back-story, for instance.

Fox’s artwork is wonderfully aided and abetted by a truly terrific colouring job by Dave Stewart, that shifts brilliantly from sober and atmospheric, to lurid and gruesome in all the right places.Initially, I thought Fox had coloured his own work, as it followed the visual sensibility i’d seen in his illustration work, which only goes to show what a sensitive and thoughtful job Stewart has done.

 So,in conclusion, I really enjoyed this comic strip. I can only recommend you go and hunt down this series if you haven’t yet, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the story concludes with issue 4. My only slight gripe with this was a definite lack of Pigeons in issues 2 &3, considering the title’s promise.Who knows, perhaps they’ll come home to roost in the finale !