We at Multiversity Comics have already been raving about “Five Ghosts” (See: Michelle’s review of issue #1 and her subsequent “Hype Machine” column). But little-comics-that-could like this could use all the press they can get and “Five Ghosts” #2 proves to be just as deserving of rave reviews.
Written by Frank J. Barbiere
Illustrated by Chris Mooneyham“BLOOD FOR THE SPIDER GOD”
The year’s most exciting new adventure continues!
Pulp is a genre that has been in circulation so heavily over the last several years that the modern works within it can no longer lean on it at as a crutch. There’s so many great comics out there, many of which are pulpy, so the mere presence of period settings and retro style is not enough anymore. Why, Dynamite Entertainment has an entire comics line based around the idea of pulp comics. “Five Ghosts” manages to win the reader many times over with its own charms and then has plenty of sleek pulp style to make things even more enjoyable. The pulp seems to come out of the concept and plot itself – not the setting or the art style (whichever actually came first is immaterial). To heavily reference classic public domain characters and utilize them in swashbuckling adventures and treasure-hunting screams “pulp” harder than just about anything could.
“Five Ghosts”, for this issue at least, deals heavily with the occult. Fabian Gray and his companion have been captured by a tribal group who seem to worship and revere spiders. This affords the book plenty of creepy moments and tension-ratcheting segments for our heroes to navigate through. This navigation occurs in a variety of novel ways, considering that our hero can tap into 5 different sets of “abilities” based on 5 historical literary characters. That this is treated matter-of-factly with absolutely no exposition is both a service to the story and the reader. Our hero sees and object or a way out, an image of the character he is channeling may flash over him, and he performs the action. Everything is clearly and attractively laid out. I’ll steal from Michelle here and say that any of these pages would look great on your wall. That sentiment applies to the way that the art looks, but just as much to the sequencing and panel-work of the storytelling. This issue almost doesn’t need dialogue at all.
Everything is not as simple for our hero as whipping out some mystical powers, however, and that is where the real depth of “Five Ghosts” lies. The series aspires to go just a little bit beyond being a straightforward rough and tumble adventure by dropping in little elegantly presented mysteries along the way. There are several characters and flashbacks for whom the true purpose within the story has not been revealed yet. These aspects of the plot are woven in and out of the story throughout the issue to keep the reader engaged at all times. Again, there’s no exposition. The book is content to let you figure it out or to be mystified until all is revealed. But before you think too much about what this mysterious thing over here meant, the plot is already pulling our characters forward and you with them. In this way, the book is gorgeously paced for reader enjoyment.
Chris Mooneyham’s art recalls what Chris Samnee does on stuff like “Rocketeer” and even compares favorably to capturing the vintage occult creepiness of pulp adventure stories in the same way that Jim Steranko did with “Captain America” or the S.H.I.E.L.D.-centric stories. That same sense of hypnotic surrealism is present in Mooneyham’s “Five Ghosts.” Pulp stories are most readily known for the specific feelings that their covers often expelled. They usually took the most outlandish, creepy, or dire situation from the novel or magazine and put it right on the cover. When one thinks of a 10-cent adventure novel, one pictures a yellowing depiction of a hero in peril, at the mercy of some impossible circumstance. Well, nearly every page of “Five Ghosts” is a successful evocation of that sensibility.
The opening of the issue is perhaps the most impressive of Mooneyham’s works, so far. These pages are a darting anachronistic set of sequences that create an air of mystery about our central character more than it accomplishes anything else, but damn, does it hook a reader. You can see the idea or sense of motion behind every panel, even if the reader cannot yet place those moments into the storyline. It’s a daring choice to make. Lesser artists could have left the reader cold right then and there on the first three pages. Instead, the art teases the mind and readies the reader for whatever else lies ahead.
And what lies ahead is a comic that should be cherished. This is a book with a great premise that actually delivers on it and reads great all the way through. It’s a book that will look great in your long box, on your shelves, on your iPad, on your wall, in a hardcover edition, or under blanket on your living room floor with a flashlight. At the end of the day, “Five Ghosts” is a book that just plain feels great to read.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy it. It’s adventure that grabs you and doesn’t let go.
