“Cojacaru the Skinner” concludes and somehow manages to do an excellent job of introducing the Outerverse to new readers while exploring the deeper mythology and teasing future plotlines for long-term readers.
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Illustrated by Peter Bergting
Colored by Michelle Madsen
Lettered by Clem RobinsCalled forth from beyond the grave to fight witches once again, Cojacaru the Skinner wreaks her havoc on the witches of the Hexenkorps. But with their evil buoyed by the violence of the Nazis and the supernatural presence of the Outer Dark, the ghostly warrior will have to depend on a ragtag group of white witches and resistance soldiers to back her up. It will prove to be a desperate fight indeed.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed “Cojacaru the Skinner” #1, I get the feeling my last review came off somewhat muted. I had to talk around a lot of things I liked because of spoilers, but I’m not doing that this time around. Spoilers abound. You have been warned.
In that last review, I talked a little about how Crina Cojacaru was one of the people chosen to fight against the Outer Dark, just like Joe Golem and Lord Henry Baltimore had been chosen. But she is also part of another group of people that keep showing up again and again in the Outerverse—girls that have some power waiting to be tapped into. It’s something we glimpsed a little of in flashbacks during “Joe Golem: Occult Detective—The Conjurors,” and Crina mentions it again here, but we also get to explore this aspect of her character a little more through Marcelina as her own power awakens.
More and more, this aspect of the Outerverse is becoming more important. I suspect we’ll see it developed a little more in next month’s “Imogen of the Wyrding Way,” since this would also be an aspect of Imogen’s life, and someday when we catch up with Molly McHugh from “Joe Golem” again, I’m betting we’ll see it developed further.
I like this storytelling approach where an element of the universe is explored through multiple characters, each focusing on different aspects of that element. Through Imogen, we see the toll it takes on a person and through Marcelina we see the transition period. In this way we’re exploring this element through two contrasting aspects told in parallel. The two play off each other well, so that when a cold and emotionless Cojacaru speaks about her childhood, we have Marcelina to juxtapose her against.
The parallels throughout the story are really what bring it to life for me. It allows Cojacaru to remain this stoic, inhuman ghost, while indirectly fleshing her out.
As the first “Tales from the Outerverse” story, “Cojacaru the Skinner” does an excellent job of functioning as a completely standalone tale for new readers, while also diving deeper into the lore for long-term readers. If you’ve been following the solicitations and know what stories are coming up and you’ve seen those covers, I’m pretty sure you can piece together the kinds of things this story is carefully laying the groundwork for, and yet if you are unaware of all that, you lose nothing. The story still functions perfectly.
In terms of the art, there’s so much going on in Peter Bergting’s work that I love. In the first issue especially, most of the story revolved around getting to the cathedral at the center of Wroclaw, and I can’t help but wonder if the city was specifically chosen because of the design of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. After all, if such a significant chunk of the story is going to revolve around getting from one location to another, then it’s going to be extremely important to make it clear when the characters are moving forward, when they are impeded, and when they are moving backward. Visually, it’s extremely useful to have a building that’s the characters’ goal be visually striking, but also conjures up the visual of goal posts. It’s a nice bit of visual shorthand that reads so smoothly, you don’t even notice it.
Continued belowI love all the different witches in this too. They are so much more than a homogeneous horde. Even without a word being said, we get a sense of each coven. There’s even a naked witch among the horde, but carefully drawn so that she’s not sexual at all, but instead exudes a primal, beast-like quality.
Bergting uses gore very specifically too, being very specific when a power is used the first time, so that when that power is used on future occasions it doesn’t need to dominate the scene to read. The first time trees magically grow through the witches, we see every horrific detail. Later, this same power is a small detail in the background of a panel, but it loses none of its potency, because the memory of that previous panel is burned into the reader’s brain.
Also, just look at the cover on this issue! If that doesn’t make you want to pick up this comic, I don’t know what will.
Final Verdict: 8 – “Cojacaru the Skinner” is one of those rare stories that manages to pull off a perfect balance between serving both new and long-term readers. In this first “Tales from the Outerverse” story, Mignola, Golden, and Bergting have certainly put their best foot forward, and I eagerly await more.
