I was out of town for a week on a trip with Alex, and only returned two days ago, after we drove 20 hours straight. It was a fun trip, all told, but I now deeply despise the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
I did have the opportunity during the trip to stop in one comic store, and found the three books from the last two weeks I wanted, so let's dive in.
I picked up the previous Hector Plasm books out of back issues in preparation for this mini-series a couple of months ago, but the first page does a quick recap of Hector's origin, purpose, abilities, and allies. Then Cereno and Hunter move immediately into Hector fighting a shotgun-wielding lumberjack ghost that had been killing teenagers. The ghost isn't much trouble, but the situation is complicated by a witch that was controlling it.
Still, after only 7 pages Hector's being thanks by a Professor Jervaise, who had contacted him, and is willing to spot Hector the room for a night at the local motel. As it turns out, Jervaise researches early human activity in the area, though it's the Bigfoot wing of the museum, maintained by Philippa "Lip" Dyson, that keeps the lights on. The area is deep in Bigfoot lore, including a legend about a mining camp being attacked by apelike humans who hurled rocks and possible abducted a woman.
Hector nonetheless turns down Lip's request to hunt Bigfoot, because even if it exists - and he doesn't believe it does - it isn't hurting anyone, and his duty is to maintain peace between the living and the dead. Then a body turns up - which Hunter draws with big "X"s over each eye - and the sheriff does not want to oddball stranger leaving town just yet. So Hector reluctantly agrees to help Lip with the search.
Cereno sets up most of the characters, and enough backstory to keep it mysterious as to what might be important later. I'm pretty sure Lip confirming the local community college has a 'robust occult section,' will be relevant, but was the witch's concern about the purity of their bloodline something with greater significance? The sword Hector was so taken with in Jervaise's half of the museum is definitely going to play in. Chekov's Giant Obsidian Sword.
I'd been trying for days to think of what Hunter's art reminds me of, and settled on the side scrolling Scott Pilgrim game. The shapes of the faces, but all there's a rough exaggeration to the characters that reminds me of the pixellation, without the art actually being pixellated. The exaggeration leans more to the comedy side of things, so that Hector's control of his bodily humors isn't as disgusting as it probably could be, but it works so far. I expect the truth behind the murders is going to be something personal rather than earth-shattering, so not getting too photo-realistic and serious with the art is a good call. Also, Cereno writes Hector as sort of an awkward goof, rather than a scarred, distant sentinel, and Hunter's art works with that. Hector can look cool, but can also make a fool of himself when he realizes he's a stranger in a small town, standing next to a corpse and talking to the sheriff.
2 comments:
I also got this!
I haven't read the older books in a long time, but I don't remember Hector being quite as goofy as he is in this new one. Still, I liked it a lot. It reminded me a bit of Gravity Falls, but I think that's only because of the similar setting.
I think you're right most of the earlier stories didn't have as much comedy, except maybe the one where he decides to visit a museum on a lark and ends up fighting a mummy that comes to life, only to get blamed by the other visitors for destroying the exhibit.
But he also didn't usually stick around long enough to interact with many living people, so maybe all the time fighting the dead makes him socially awkward?
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