Comic Spotlight - "Resident Alien"

Resident Alien is a comic book series that is published Dark Horse Comics. It isn't released as an ongoing monthly title but rather as a series of mini series that are released maybe four issues or so in a year. This publishing strategy seems to work well for Resident Alien. As of this writing there have been three mini series released with hopefully many more to come. The writer for this series is Peter Hogan and the artist is Steve Parkhouse, both veterans of the industry.
The general concept is that a few years ago an alien crash landed on earth. Now he is stranded here and is trying to make contact with his home planet so that he can go home. Kind of an ET scenario. In the meantime he is biding his time, living in a cabin by a lake, spending his time trying to figure a way to contact his people, and also fishing in the lake. He has the power to camoflouge himself so that only approximately one in a million earthlings can see him in his true form. To everyone else, he appears as a normal looking human man. He lives under the guise of a semi-retired doctor named Harry Vanderspiegle. His cover is that he is retired yet does some research from his home by the lake. Harry keeps to himself and has very little contact with other people in the area.
After the murder of the local doctor, the only doctor in the region, our alien is approached by two people from the nearby town of Patience, the Mayor and the Sheriff. They want Harry to fill in as the town doctor for a short time until a full time replacement can be found. Unable to come up with a non suspicious way of not helping, Harry agrees to help. Harry begins providing medical services to the locals and is surprised to find that he enjoys it. He also begins investigating the murder of the former town doctor and discovers he has great detective skills. This twist leads us off into the meat of the series.
Resident Alien comes across as a mash up of Diagnosis Murder, Murder She Wrote, and Northern Exposure, only featuring an alien protagonist. The small town doctor solving mysteries. Patience is a typical quirky little town with quirky people that seems common in these types of stories. Towns from shows like Northern Exposure, Gilmore Girls, Hart of Dixie, or Picket Fences come to mind. We get to know many of the folk throughout the series and Peter Hogan writes in such a comfortably breezy manner that it feels like I'm watching a series on ABC Family. Steve Parkhouse renders his art in a simple and effective way, with nice linework and beautiful colors that help sell the total package.
You will never see this title at the top of any sales charts or on many end of the year "best of" lists since it is such a low profile, understated, and under the radar book. That's a shame because Resident Alien is a great book and reading it feels like you are slipping into a comfortable pair of old shoes. I look forward to more great mysteries and stories with Dr. Harry Vanderspiegle in the future.