Erik Leroux is dead, but before he can spend eternity with his beloved Katrina, he'll be judged on the life he led. Which he can't remember, but a guide hands him a book with all his memories. A book he must present at his judgement. A book promptly torn to shreds by some creature. Now Erik's roaming the Spirit Realm with Elizabeth, another lost soul who lost her book, trying to piece together his book and with it, his past. But there's at least one person in the land of the living that isn't done with Erik just yet.
I bought this 5-issue mini-series on a whim. I didn't know Ziegler or Cagnetti's other work, but the cover was eye-catching, with Cagnetti leaning so heavily into bright, neon color schemes. The story jumps forward and back in time, as we shift from Helena's efforts to get what she wants from Erik's tormentor/associate/prisoner (it's a complicated relationship), Dr. Perkins, to Erik and Elizabeth's travels through the Spirit Realm, to glimpses of Erik's life, told out of order.
Broadly, it's people unable to let go, creating misery for others, who in turn, make their own mistakes. Erik was a musician, Katrina the daughter of the town's mayor, who wanted Erik to stay away from his daughter, and murdered Erik to make it happen. The mayor was also funding Perkins fucking around with undoing death in an effort to have his wife back. As mayors often do, in between ribbon cutting ceremonies for the newest apothecary. Erik is the first success, but it's an Erik determined to get Katrina back, and even more determined to get revenge. They both lose Katrina, then Erik pressgangs Perkins into somehow using women Erik kidnaps to bring Katrina back.
Including Helena's sister, Elizabeth. Which is why Helena's after Erik and Perkins, to the extent that when she learns Erik's dead, she resurrects him with a spell she learned with the idea of bringing back Elizabeth. Only the spell, has a statute of limitations on how long you can be dead. Elizabeth's beyond her reach, so she'll bring Erik back and erase his spirit entirely. It's grief turned to a widening gyre of rage which can only be calmed when people stop thinking of what they've lost.
The book has the feel of an older comic, with the bright, broad colors in solid blocks that jump off the page. The flashbacks tone down the brightness, having a smeared, pastel look. Those events are being watched, not lived, so they're less distinct. Glimpses of the whole.
The art has a little bit of a Kirby vibe. Helena has a special witches hat, the Necrospire, that amplifies her power by feeding off her emotions. The thing sprouts horns in the shape and color of those white bangs she has when she puts it on. The beings who sit in judgement of souls are a color-swapped duo with the Comedy and Tragedy theater masks. The monsters that roam the Spirit Realm, souls that were deemed unfit for the Sacred Realm, are these squared-off misshapen things, with wide mouths and blunt teeth.
The shading for shadows, the contrast between yellow and black on Perkins' face, the almost serrated sides of the shadows themselves, reminds me of '50s horror comics. And that could fit the story, a man dies and learns of the monstrous actions of his past alongside one of his victims. Although I think a '50s horror comic would have had Elizabeth punish Erik, condemning herself in the process, rather than forgiving him and convincing her sister to abandon revenge. Really hammer that point about how self-damaging revenge is.
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