It’s been awhile since the last issue of “Joe Golem,” but the series is back at last in “The Outer Dark.”
Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher GoldenCover by Dave Palumbo
Illustrated by Patric Reynolds
Colored by Dave Stewart
Lettered by Clem RobinsTwo years after he killed a child-snatching monster and stopped an undead takeover in the Drowning City, occult detective Joe Golem searches for a man with superhuman strength who is attacking citizens under orders from the otherworldly voices in his head. But Joe has his own demons to wrestle with…
Mark Tweedale: It’s good to have “Joe Golem, Occult Detective” back. As you can see from the solicitation blurb above, this story is set in 1967, two years after “The Rat Catcher” and “The Sunken Dead.”
Well, sort of. There’s a parallel story from “The Sunken Dead” about a pair of monks, set in 1454, and in “The Outer Dark” that story continues, picking up events only a few days later. So Joe’s story in the 1960s is a series of mostly self-contained mysteries, but the monks’ story in 1454 has a definite ongoing structure.
This means that Joe’s story is picking up two years later, setting the scene, introducing the new mystery—it’s all set-up. Meanwhile, the monks’ story is right in the thick of things still. It’s an interesting contrast and it works to the book’s advantage, especially in its pacing.
Christopher Lewis: For sure. I am happy to see that all of the New York characters made it back in this issue. While this issue is set-up for the new 1960’s story, it appears that we may be starting to brush up to elements of the larger “Joe Golem” storyline that could lead Joe to insights about his past and/or Mr. Church’s past.
Mark: That certainly seems the case.
Actually, this issue surprised me, as it wasn’t Joe or Mr. Church that held my attention so much as it was Lori. Joe’s wrapped up in the latest case at hand and he’s quick to dismiss his dreams, but Lori is far more likely to gleam insights about Joe’s past and Mr. Church’s involvement in it. “The Outer Dark” has given Lori a bigger role and that’s something I really enjoyed here. She was at her least interesting when she’s just Joe’s girlfriend, but she’s clearly more than that now. She’s been with Joe for two years, and she’s taking his dreams very seriously, even going to the point of doing her own research into the 15th Century.
I have a theory that if you want to get a reader involved in a particular aspect of the story, it’s a good idea to have a character that’s fully engaged with it. Joe is dismissive of his dreams, and I think if he had remained the reader’s link to this aspect of the story, our interest would have waned, but through Lori’s eyes this thread becomes more engaging than it’s been in any prior issues.
Chris: Agreed. Actually Lori’s growing role seems to be the only thing that has changed from the last few arcs. All other characters have remained the same. From the perspective of art everything also seems the same. The exposition being cloudy and grey, the tones, the scenery, etc. are all the same. After two years I would think something would feel different, but it doesn’t and I am actually not sure how to take that.
Mark: That’s interesting because I didn’t have that feeling. To me things felt similar, but evolved. The relationship between Joe and Lori, for example, has clearly evolved considerably. The Drowning City, as a character, has evolved too. With each new arc of “Joe Golem, Occult Detective” I feel like I get to know the city better and get a feel for its rhythms.
Back at the beginning of “The Rat Catcher,” the city had an alien quality to it. Now, there’s a familiarity to it. I think part of the reason for that is Christopher Golden and Patric Reynolds have gone out of their way to show the mundane aspects of living in the Drowning City. Simple things like how a character goes from one location to another really help sell this world to me.
Continued belowThere’s a two-page scene early on, which could have easily been set in a café the whole time, but instead Golden and Reynolds invest in a page getting to the café. This is the kind of character in a scene that I respond well to, especially when Lori and Joe are going up the fire escape. It wordlessly says so much about the world.
Chris: I never thought of the Drowning City as being a character before, but it makes sense. I also see your point about how by seeing Joe and others continue to explore the city grows it as a character. However, while there were things that Reynolds did in this issue that I enjoyed, my primary hang up was there being little differentiation between the art and colors in this issue as compared to the last five especially after two years had passed.
Mark: “Joe Golem, Occult Detective” is somewhat of an anomaly for me, because it’s a project where Dave Stewart’s colors aren’t clicking with me. In fact, there’s one aspect of them in particular that actively irritates me, and that’s the way he colors Lori.
See, Lori has many different outfits. In every story, she’s wearing something we haven’t seen before, and if the story goes over multiple days, she’ll have multiple outfits. Meanwhile Joe and Mr. Church wear pretty much the same sort of clothes over and over again. For me, this is a character detail that I appreciate, but it gets lost in Stewart’s coloring because he keeps coloring her the same way every single time. She should contrast visually with Joe, but because she wears the same colors over and over, it has the same feeling of her wearing the same outfit.
As for Reynolds’s art, I appreciate the contrast in his compositions. Look at the way he does a scene in the beginning with Lori, Joe, and Church, then compare it to the dramatic angles later in the issue. His lighting becomes much more dramatic in tense moments too. Shadows start to creep into the scene. In fact, you can basically look at any scene in the issue and use the shadows as a measure for how tense it is at a glance.
Chris: Interesting. Let’s jump into spoilers. From a plot perspective I was really surprised at how Joe was affected by drinking Church’s tea in this issue. So far in the series the tea seemed to only quelled Joe’s nightmares, but in this issue it appeared to have the bigger effect of influencing his current memories. After drinking the tea he forgot that he had just had a bad night’s sleep, which only peaked Lori’s concerns about the tea and Mr. Church as a few hours earlier Joe and her were discussing his horrible sleep and nightmares.
Mark: I think I need to go back a reread the last two arcs again. I had the impression the tea was always wiping his most recent memories too, but maybe I just jumped to that conclusion myself.
Chris: The tea’s effects makes me want to talk about a recurring theme of control that keeps showing up in both storylines related to control of Joe and the Golem.
In the flashback story the Golem is being directed to kill witches by a priest, and there was great fear by others of the ‘Brotherhood’ that a Golem can’t be controlled, leading to the premise that at sometime in the future the Golem will go berserk.
In the 1960’s story we know that Mr. Church wants to keep Joe from remembering his past, but the exact reason for this is unknown. Also, we now know that the tea affects Joe’s current memories and appears to keep Joe calm and docile. Is Joe forgetting for the benefit of Church or for Joe? The benefit of Joe because he couldn’t handle the truth, or the benefit of Church so he can control Joe and have a disciple to help with his magical investigation?
Mark: I’m curious, have you read the original prose novel?
Chris: It’s funny you ask. I have it on my nightstand right now to read. I tend to mainly read comics, but in this instance I am willing to read prose. Without giving any spoilers would reading it give answers to my questions?
Continued belowMark: It certainly would. I think this is where a comics-only reader would be having a very different experience, because Church is largely an unknown. I’ve already met him in the prose novel, so I don’t have many questions about him. I imagine this changes the dynamic in scenes between Joe and Church.
Chris: Good to know. As of now in the comics we have seen a very cordial almost father/son relationship between Church and Joe. However at the same time we have repeatedly seen Church lying to Joe about his dreams and also wanting to make Joe forget, therefore it leads a comic-only reader to question Church’s motivations and to not completely trust him. I am curious to see how reading the prose story will affect my perception of the relationship.
Jumping back into this issue, the central mystery of this story peaked my interest, and I was also excited to see Germans/ex-Nazi’s showing up as antagonists. During the ferry sequence, I was surprised when the German Bodo started freaking out and murdering people.
During this sequence Reynolds initially depicts Bodo as normal, meek man, until he starts to snap at which time Reynolds gradually shows Bodo become more and more menacing throughout every panel. During this time Bodo murders multiple people on the boat and his eyes change color to full black that are full of stars, like the night sky, as if he is transforming into something else.
Reynolds also does a good job here of showing peripheral character’s being concerned and then frightened as Bodo becomes feral. In one scene there is a woman petrified, clutching her purse to her chest, after Bodo breaks a patron’s neck. The next panel shows a close up of Bodo’s face depicted with his teeth bearing, foaming from mouth, and with black starry eyes. This one panel and the transformation of Bodo into this lunatic man are chilling.
Throughout this scene Stewart used the same color scheme as he does for the rest of the issue. However during the panels where Bodo is breaking somebody’s neck and during the firefight with police where Bodo is killed, Stewart changes the background colors to bright yellow orange accentuating the fight scenes.
Mark: That’s a punctuation technique Stewart uses quite a lot. I find it interesting you say Stewart uses the same color scheme throughout the issue. Certainly the scenes with Joe and Lori are very similar to the ferry sequence, and I think the contrast could have been much stronger. Both sequences have a kind of sickly look to them. However, I wouldn’t say the ferry scene used the same color scheme as the rest of the issue―the opening and closing sequences use distinctly different palettes than the rest of the issue―but even within the scene itself, there’s a subtle shift, emphasizing more greens, which gives the sequence a sense of unease before Bodo snaps.
The way Reynolds plays with perspective in the added to that sense of unease. The sequence starts off relatively flat, like you’d get from a telephoto lens, but gradually changes so you get more of a wide angle lens effect. You can really see this on the panel where Bodo’s eyes are full of black and stars, the way his face distorts unnaturally. I feel like the moody stuff, especially in what I’d consider the more noir-ish moments, are what he excels in.
Chris: Reynolds’s use of angles and perspective throughout the issue was expertly done. However our different perspectives on the colors of this story are interesting. I did notice the subtle changes in the coloring that you mentioned, but because everything was so similar it all blended together for me and felt the same.
So, are you ready to put a score on this one?
Mark: Yeah. This was a 7.5 for me. Reynolds’s artwork really works for me, especially in the opening and closing scenes, but I feel like the color issues we discussed held it back. I was expecting this to be a slower issue than it turned out to be, especially since it’s been almost a year since the last issue, but it had momentum from page one. It’s a strong start for this new arc.
Chris: This is a 7.0 for me. It was a good opener to a new story arc, however aspects of the color held it back.
Final verdict: 7.25. A promising start to “The Outer Dark.”
