Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Caitlin R. Kiernan
Artist: Daniel Warren Johnson
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Release Date: 9 December 2015
Price: $3.99

Nowadays, probably due to an over-developed cynical streak brought on by old age and too much malt whisky, I rarely find myself immersed into a comic book’s universe quite so quickly and compellingly as I was when reading Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird #1.

In Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird #1 exactly who is this mysterious and obviously very dead female, caught in the void between heaven and hell? Who are the sinister mask-wearing women meeting with a no-good low-life in a sleazy diner? And for that matter, just what the hell does he have in his briefcase?

The fact that I have been hooked so easily no Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird #1 gives an insight as to how expertly Caitlin R Kiernan’s writing pulled me in and intrigued me. The artwork by Daniel Warren Johnson reminded me of early 1980’s Heavy Metal magazine, which in my book is high praise indeed!

The central character in Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird #1
Dancy Flammarion has appeared in previous Dark Horse story arcs ‘Wolves’ and ‘Grimmer Tales’ and having discovered that I am now going to have to read those too. And if you have not, I strongly suggest you do. Not due to plot are story of Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird #1 but because both titles deliver the goods too.

For Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird #1I need to know more. To quote the final words of this issue, ‘This isn’t the way the story ends’…

 

Reviewer: Steve Weller
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker