In “The Lonesome Hunters” #2, cartoonist Tyler Crook starts to explore the more fantastical elements of the book’s world. My last review largely talked around spoilers, but I really want to dig into Tyler Crook’s storytelling here right up to the final page. This review is written for those that’ve read the issue already.
Created by Tyler CrookAfter fleeing their tenement during a monster magpie attack, Lupe finds herself a pupil to an aged monster hunter and on the run from ancient evils determined to take them down and retrieve the relic they protect.
“The Lonesome Hunters” #2 opens in a manner familiar to those that have read Tyler Crook and Cullen Bunn’s “Harrow County,” with a double-page spread. It’s not a common thing in comics, in part because the left hand side of the spread is usually reserved for the inner cover credits page, but the way Crook uses the spread here is different even from “Harrow County.” There’s no speech balloons, no narration captions, no characters to be seen at all. This is simply a location. It could’ve been a single splash page or even just the first panel of a page. But it’s not. Crook dedicates two pages to stillness. Even the movement implied by the image—the motes drifting, the water moving past stones—is quiet and gentle. We are meant to feel the weight of time before a god awakes.
Unlike the first issue, which was oversized, “The Lonesome Hunters” #2 is standard comics length, so taking time with moments like this opening are costly in terms of page real estate. When Crook gives something space, he’s telling us it matters. When the magpie is defeated, he gives a half page panel to Lupe looking at her uncle dead on the couch. When Howard and Lupe are on the train after escaping the magpies, Howard asks if Lupe is okay and notice how much space it costs for her to reply “No.”
“The Lonesome Hunters” isn’t a series where characters can use an ancient sword to kill a magic magpie without consequences. In the aftermath, as Lupe is struggling with the turmoil of everything, she’s shown in contrast to people just going about their day. This moment of isolation from her trauma wouldn’t have the same impact if we could only see Lupe.
I have a frustration with stories where there’s invasive possession, but when the thing possessing the host is removed, somehow the host is immediately fine. The person’s biology was being rapidly and violently changed to accommodate the possessor, and somehow when that stops their body presses the undo button and it’s all good again. So I appreciated that “The Lonesome Hunters” acknowledges that from the moment Lupe’s uncle was possessed, it was already too late to save him. Crook is laying the groundwork for the series here, and as he establishes the magic of this world, he’s also establishing its tone, its rules, and its consequences. This is not a story where Lupe could have run up to her uncle and told him to fight the magpie’s influence and somehow by sheer will he’d shake it off.
In the aftermath of the trauma Lupe has experienced, the storytelling is decompressed and deliberate. But later, when Howard and Lupe get to Tina’s house, and we start learning more about the sword, the magpies, and the church Howard was formerly a part of, the story becomes much more compressed. This stuff is the engine of the plot, but it’s not nearly as important as the look on Howard’s face when he points out Lupe’s bravery, or later when Lupe points out Howard’s bravery. Those moments are mostly silent and given a significant chunk of the page for emphasis. Both employ stillness to make the reader feel the weight of time. Neither character is being flippant here—they’re saying something that matters to them and they want the other to know they see this special thing inside them.
Even in sections where the book becomes dialogue dense and focuses on building plot, Crook expresses unspoken character dynamics. Before Howard takes Lupe to Tina’s house, he says that he thinks Tina will let them stay there—he’s uncertain. Later, when he and Tina are talking, you can see him trying to read Tina. Does her concern outweigh her anger toward him?
And you can see Tina trying to read him throughout the scene too. It adds a secondary level to the sequence which gives us a sense of Tina and Howard’s relationship beyond what’s vocally expressed. I don’t mean to downplay the dialogue though. Issue #2 is quite dialogue heavy at times, so with the visuals taking on as much storytelling weight as they are, Crook’s dialogue is sharp and focused. When Tina and Howard talk, they introduce a lot of new information to the reader, but it’s always given in such a way that it simultaneously defines their relationship. It really comes across that Tina is both deeply hurt by Howard and yet deeply cares for him too.
There’s a lot of world building in this issue, especially as more of the magical elements at playing become prominent. Much of this is explained through dialogue, but it’s also balanced with significant chunks conveyed through visuals. The magpies with their strings of shiny objects around their necks tell us about them without having to stop and explain. Our assumptions are further reinforced when we see the magpie Queen with jewellery around her neck and on her forearms—these birds like shiny things.
We only see the magpie Queen properly for a single panel in this issue, but it’s enough we can get a sense of what she is. We’ve seen how the magpies can take a host and how the host’s body physically changes, so extrapolating from that, as soon as we see the magpie Queen, we can see that, like Lupe’s uncle, her arms are human-shaped, but with talons and scutes. We’re likely looking at a human host, but much further progressed in their transformation. And if this is the case, then the bird mask is more like a helmet, protecting the magpie Queen perched atop her host’s head. This is all major world building and it’s all done primarily through visuals.
While there is a lot thrown at the reader in “The Lonesome Hunters” #2, it’s clear there’s far more beyond what this first arc will explore. Yes, the magpies are the pressing concern right now, but when Tina mentions “everyone and everything in North America” is going to be looking for Howard’s sword, it gives the reader just enough to tease a larger world out there before moving on to the more immediate concerns of the characters. Already The magpies are fascinating to me, and so to have them portrayed as the tip of the iceberg has me anticipating stranger things in future arcs. . .
However, though Crook’s world building has me intrigued, it doesn’t overwhelm. The core of “The Lonesome Hunters” is Howard and Lupe, and that comes through page after page.
Final Verdict: 9 – Crook demonstrates his careful control of pacing to accentuate character, bringing Howard and Lupe to life vividly on the page.
