Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Steven Grant
Artist: Paul Gulacy
Editor: Daniel Chabon
Release Date: 20 January 2016
Price: $3.99

In The Rook #4, Restin Dane is the name and hunting Moorlocks in Victorian London is the game. You know what’s coming next, right? You can sense it, smell it, taste it; it ought to be the most obvious, overused, predictable gambit in all of fiction. But it doesn’t matter. You want it, you need it and you will  punch the air in joy when it turns out to be true.

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Okay, I’ll spell it out for you. The Moorlock featuring in The Rook #4 is a cannibalistic killer that tears his victims to shreds. Remind you of anyone? Another clue, Rook teams up with a famous author and the world’s first consulting detective to track the bloodthirsty monster down. Yes, you’ve got it.

Rook meets Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle and Jack the Ripper! Time travel comic books do not get any better than this. Throw in Quarb, the villainous Alexander of Crime (what, they couldn’t get the copyright for Moriarty?) and you have the perfect mix. Superlative artwork from the not seen enough on comic book pages, Paul Gulacy, teamed up with a cracking script by Steven Grant.

Put The Rook #4 at the top of your wants list and start the New Year off right.

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker