Obscure Comic of the Month
takes a detailed look at a little known entry from my personal comic
book collection. Some will be from major publishers, others self
published projects, Original Graphic Novels, issues and Manga. What
they'll all have in common though, is that I've rarely, if ever, seen
anybody talk about them.
Necessary Monsters by Daniel
Merlin Goodbrey and Sean Azzopardi – First Comics 2011
There exists a world of
horrors beneath the one we know. Where creatures of our nightmares
stalk amongst humanity and play their games of vengeance, murder and
intrigue. To police this world there is The Chain; a covert agency of
monsters and killers, charged with keeping the human herd from ever
growing too thin.
Contains Mild Spoilers
I picked up the first book
of Necessary Monsters when I was at Leeds Thought Bubble a couple of
years ago. The creators were promoting their second run of the series
(sadly still uncollected) and It was pitched to me as 'Oceans Eleven
with movie monsters,”. Suffice it to say, the pitch was unique
enough that I couldn't possibly refuse.
It's important to note that
I'm not a fan of horror films, at least not the slasher genre anyway,
and that colours my experience with Necessary Monsters to a large
degree. The cast is heavily populated with ersatz versions of horror
icons. Cowboy 13 is a reference to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Charlotte
Hatred a reference to The Ring and Creeping Tuesday to Nightmare on
Elm treet. If you're a fan of those films, you'll probably love the
comic unconditionally on those grounds alone.
But I'm not a fan of those
films, and so I'm left to look at Necessary Monsters on its own
merits. Fortunately for me, despite all of it's horror references,
the comic is very much a hard boiled spy story, with much more in
common with a Bond tale than Friday the 13th.
The story follows Tuesday
Jones, daughter of a killer who could walk into dreams. She's
inducted into The Chain, a secret organisation of monsters and
killers who police the other monsters and killers. The Chain are not
good guys, but they are less bad than the bad guys, or so we are led
to believe. As the story goes on it starts to show that the villain,
Harps Bane, may have more noble intentions than it initially appears.
Azzopardi's art is just
perfect for the story, the stark black and white keeps the story
grounded even as body parts begin to fly, and it walks just the right
line between serious and ridiculous. His art does become a little
ropey at times, with quite a few character looking a little off
model, and his guns look really... odd. Most of the visuals are great
though, and a battle between two elderich abominations at the climax
is particularly inspired.
As for the plot itself, it
doesn't waste any time in getting to the good stuff. The use of pop
cultural touchstones allows for the reader to fill in the blanks of
the world building all on their own. The cast are all thoroughly
likeable, no mean feat considering they are mostly indiscriminate
murderers. They're all appropriately grotesque too, setting the tone
for the plot and leaving you wondering how it's going to end.
The comic throughout makes
the most of the visual medium to create what is essentially a form of
American folklore. Both Lady Liberty and the Hollywood sign play an
important role in the plot and combined with the horror symbolism it
takes a wry look at the concept of American personal identity.
As the plot unfolds, Tuesday
is presented with a choice, embrace what she is as a monster, or turn
away and return to the mundane world. It's good allegorical
storytelling, essentially using movie monster tropes to tell a modern
fable about being true to your identity. It's no accident Goodbrey
cast Tuesday as a young black American in a story about personal
identity, and her story arc is particularly touching.
Now the comic is not without
it's problems. As mentioned earlier, the cast are likeable for a
bunch of murderers, but that doesn't change the fact that they are,
ultimately, murderers. It makes it hard to keep the reader
sympathetic to The Chain's cause, but it also causes a massive
headache in the dissonance between characters. Tuesday and, to a
degree, Hatred are more like vigilantes in the use of their powers,
taking down killers and gangsters in a form of warped justice.
Cowboy 13 on the other hand
is an actual serial killer, who we see murdering teenagers at both
the beginning and the end of the book. If Tuesday is, at least to
some degree, empathic towards the plight of victims then it seems odd
that we're supposed to just accepter her working alongside 13.
Perhaps this is something that gets addressed in a later story, but
for now just leaves things feeling a little off kilter.
Maybe it's just because I'm
not a horror movie fan though. Most slasher villains become figures
of fun eventually and the audience cheers along as they murder people
in progressively more ridiculous ways. Maybe we're supposed to cheers
along with Cowboy 13 retuning to his murderous roots, but for me,
somebody reading this as more of a pulp spy story with a twist, It
doesn't ring true.
I suppose that is emblematic
of Necessary Monsters problems as a whole. The comic has one foot in
one genre and one foot in another and never fully reconciles the two.
It's a fun book, and a unique premise, and finishes at an excellent
point that leaves you wanting more. It's best enjoyed quickly, and
not thought about too much. For horror movie fans, It's probably
perfect, but for everyone else, it might leave you feeling as though
something is missing.
Jack Harvey 2016. Necessary
Monsters (c) 2011 Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and Sean Azzopardi. Images
used under Fair Use.
