Saturday Splash Page #123

 

"Under the Boardwalk," in Steeple #8, by John Allison (writer/artist/letterer) and Sammy Borras (color artist)

This entry in John Allison's ongoing attempt to give me an even more skewed (albeit more positive) impression of England than Midsomer Murders has starts with Bilinda (or Billie) Baker's appointment as the new curate to the church in Tredregyn (which I am never able to spell without double-checking first).

Unfortunately, the Reverend Penrose is less interested in tending to his flocks' spiritual concerns, and more focused on cleaving the skulls of the wannabe Swamp Things that keep emerging from the sea. She does make a fast friend in Maggie Warren, except Maggie is a member of the local Satanist church. Well, opposites attract, or so 9 million fanfic writers keep telling me.

Or maybe opposites keep each other at a distance where their opposing polarities and gravitational pulls are in equilibrium, resulting in a dance around a barycenter, because Billie switches to the Satanists, while Maggie ends up staying in the rectory and sort of taking on curate duties for Penrose, although his housekeeper Mrs. Clovis handles most of it.

There's a mixture of shorter plots while more longterm arcs build in the background. Penrose may be dealing with increasing attacks of the creatures from the deep one week, a bunch of horny witches holding a convention the next, or some doofuses wanting to install wind turbines as a way to commune with God.

Meanwhile, you've got Penrose slowly crumbling under the guilt of the death of Billie's predecessor, two rival Satanist churches - one Billie's part of, and another run by Maggie's scumbag British lord of a father - circling like vultures. Maggie's trying to sort out what kind of person she is and wants to be, while Billie's adapting to the reality of praying to Belial and the risks that entails. It's great when it gets you money to pay rent, but there's always consequences for such things.

More supernatural bent to the plots or no, Allison still ends most pages with some clever line or dry comment. His art isn't overly detailed, but when he needs to emphasize the opulence of a room, or the sleaziness of a "sesh gremlin", he can do it. He keeps the characters on-model, but again, exaggerates as needed. If Billie and Maggie are really hungover, he can skew the proportions or angles on their surroundings, or play up Penrose's size and grim visage when he's doing his "avenger of the night" stuff.