Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson
Artist: Ben Stenbeck
Colourist: Michelle Madsen
Release Date: OUT NOW!
Price: $3.99
Dark Horse Comics
Q: When you have carelessly mislaid your favourite practitioner of the supernatural arts, who you gonna call? A: Why, Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder of course.
The original and most famous Witchfinder was Matthew Hopkins, the celebrated 17th Century nut-job who sent countless grannies to the stake simply because they knew how to cure a headache. He’d have been better off asking these alleged witches for some of their ‘herbal remedies’ and just chilling out.
Sir Edward Grey, it seems, is made of sterner stuff and in Sir Edward Grey, Wichfinder #1 he gets to tangle with the real thing. A favourite of Queen Victoria after foiling a coven’s plot to kill her, Sir Edward’s continued investigations into occult matters brought him into conflict with the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra and the honorary if sometimes mocking title of Witchfinder.
In Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder #1 the dapper, autocratic and imperturbable Sir Edward certainly has his hands full. Digging the new underground railway system unearths a subterranean temple, there seems to be a plague of zombies emanating from a Jewish cemetery and the Heliopic Brotherhood wants to make him an offer he has no hesitation in refusing.
An intriguing opening gambit from Mike Mignola and Chris Robertson ably augmented by Ben Stenbeck’s art and the muted tones of Michelle Madsen’s colours evoke the Victorian era in all its macabre glory. As a central character, Sir Edward is a little aloof but with skilful handling, he could become as enigmatic a protagonist as that other Victorian icon, a certain Mr Sherlock Holmes.
Sir Edward Grey Witchfinder City of the Dead #1 is definitely one to pick up/download and inwardly digest.
Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker