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Haunted City #1
Publisher: Aspen
Writers: Chap Taylor & Peter Johnson
Artist: Michael Ryan
Typically when kids start disappearing, cops think a pedophile is on the rampage, but when you find one of the bodies seven hundred feet below the street in a cave, where obviously neither should be, you’ve got a mystery on your hands. On one hand we have a coke snorting cop, who’s under investigation by Internal Affairs, and on the other hand, there’s a mysterious investigative team called Witchfinder General. This team is part of an organization that tracks down paranormal and spiritual phenomenon that has been present for hundreds of years. They approach the crooked cop, Detective Tom Whalen, because just before he was shot in the head, he saw the spirit of a dead girl. Tom also has another problem other than Internal Affairs. He was shot by Korean mobsters and they want him dead, too. All this plus the mysterious deaths of young children in the city leads even a skeptic like Detective Whalen to think there is more to this investigation than meets the eye. He’s right, and it will take some faith in the unknown on his part, and a team of strange partners to dig deep enough to find the answers!

OK, my thoughts are as follows. The book seemed to have elements of other stories/movies I’ve seen before, but they were presented in such a way that was definitely more original than one would think. Also, it had a few moments with Detective Whalen making some humorous comments that broke things up a little, and that is a good thing. At one point, he is brought to the headquarters of the organization that’s trying to help him, and a large Jewish man (who looks like a bodyguard) is standing over him and says, “I didn’t know steroids were Kosher.” It was a great point in the story for something like that, because it’s totally unexpected. The story has me interested for sure, and the artwork had its moments where it was good but not great. It was all right, but no panels stood out as better than others. Well, maybe the last page that showed a creepy statue bearing down on a small child! Rating 3/5
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net