I came across Doctor Crowe in the Previews Catalog and it looked like a book I would like so I picked up issue one to check it out.
Overall I would say that Doctor Crowe was worthwhile. It has a great cover by Garry Brown who has been doing some really nice art on a few books lately such as Black Road from Image Comics. It consists of three short stories that seem to be totally separate from one another. Corey Fryia is the writer of all of the stories with different artists for each.
The story set up is somewhat vague in this first issue. Doctor Crowe is a supernatural adventurer that seems to travel around and take care of issues regarding monsters, werewolves, ghosts, etc. with a bit of a gothic steampunk sort of a pulp adventuring vibe. As a first issue without any real introduction you are just thrown in to the middle of Doctor Crowe's life, which was okay but not as good as it could have been had we been given some back story or knowledge of this world or the Doctor. Basically we get Doctor Crowe, who looks pretty cool with the Plague Doctor mask and such, and his assistant as characters that carry over from story to story. With the three little short stories in this issue and the subject matter it has very much a Hellboy crossed with Doctor Who kind of a feel. I think that is what they are shooting for. This comes across as a book by someone fairly new in the field of comics creation, which isn't a condemnation, it's just not on the same level as Hellboy or The Goon obviously, that tread similar themes but are executed on a much higher level.
I may read the rest of the mini series just to see what kind of growth, if any, there may be. Also, I like to see this type of an independent book find a niche, to allow the creators a chance to ply their craft and grow. I think the character of Doctor Crowe is interesting and has potential. Wanted it to be better than it ultimately was, I would put it at a C+, and would encourage them to keep going.
No comments:
Post a Comment