This supernatural noir from Antarctic Press comes to a crowded close, hitting some new highs but leaving us with a sense of unfinished business.
Written by Justin Boyd, V.J. Boyd
Illustrated by Christian DiBariGhost cop Tom Fraley stands alone, his allies fallen like so many dominoes, while the serial killer who took Tom’s earthly life 65 years ago becomes ever more powerful as he claims more victims. Can Tom put a stop to the rampage before the killer becomes truly omnipotent?
Centering on a ghost with a mission to complete, but hopping from narrator to narrator as different facets of the story come to light, “Ghost Cop” has felt like an intravenous dose of a much longer series. The idea of a mid-century cop stranded in the modern world has proved to be a good anchor, grounding the variety of subject matter; and just when this last chapter seem to lose coherence, we return to that dependable image. This series has definitely been doing too much in too little time; but what’s been standing at its core all the while seems to hold up, coming through stronger than ever in the issue’s last pages.
The buddy-cop dynamic between Tom Fraley and modern investigator, Laticia, on the other hand, finds an odd conclusion here. The thing that supposedly drew them together is subverted in a big way, and we’re left with a lot of questions about Laticia’s special abilities. As for the murderer Fraley’s been set on catching – well, this part of the story gets a deus-ex-machina ending, with a force bigger than Fraley stepping in. As I said, this ending isn’t exactly coherent, and there’s no overt catharsis. But then, this lack of release, this continued searching, fits well with the noir tone.
DiBari’s art hasn’t been quite consistent over the course of the series – some moments have come across more confidently than others – but this chapter is probably the best-looking of them all. We’ve got graveyards, hospital rooms, and scenes on the demonic plane; and the spooky, sombre, and surreal beats all come across equally well. Combined with Michael Spicer’s bold colours, DiBari’s sketchy style is particularly appropriate to the Hibernaculum, a whirling force from the spirit world that swallows up whole pages.
Fraley’s characterization, meanwhile, hits a new high in this issue. His craggy features and grouchy poses are more compelling than ever, and his ghostly gaze is used to alarming effect. The last page in particular is admirably subtle, underscoring the sympathetic side of this grumpy personality. And while Laticia seems tame, even fearful, by contrast, the contrast between the two characters is a neat source of visual tension, underscoring the temporal distance between them. Similarly, seeing our villain morph from screeching god to worried son is a revelatory process, with DiBari using a keen sense of scale to emphasize this transformation.
All the while, Kel Nuttal’s letters are distinct enough to make the changes in voice clear, and deliver a bit of mood and personality on their own. This is a book with a lot of narration and dialogue, and the flow of the lettering keeps the big plot easy to follow.
We’ve got an ending here that works and doesn’t work, staying true to the thematic core of the story without paying off all the elements of the plot. But besides wishing that it could’ve been longer, or that the story had been less ambitious (and why would you do that?), there’s not much more you could ask for. It’s an exploration of an archetypical figure, with versatile art capturing the most engaging facets of it. While “Ghost Cop” hasn’t succeeded entirely, it’s at least done something interesting.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Browse
