It isn’t the things that go bump in the night that people should be afraid of. Looking back men and women have been killing each other with anything they can get their hands on. One of the first things we remember as children is being told about the first murder. Cain hits his brother over the head with a rock, killing him, then stupidly lying about. When theoretically there are four people on the planet, it’s pretty easy to figure out who the murderer is. Still, Cain lies. In essence, that may be a part of human conditioning and the need of self-preservation. Therein is one of the problems for Sir Edward Grey who does paranormal investigations for the crown.
In issue one of “Witchfinder: City of the Dead†Mike Mignola has given Grey one serious conundrum. It seems that it is easier for Grey to contend with the dead than deal with those in the land of the living. After all, zombies don’t lie. A necromancer might reanimate them, but a zombie won’t lie to your face. Meanwhile, living breathing people tell falsehoods because they generally have something to hide. And in 1882 there seem to be only a few who can be trusted.
One of the fascinating things about the 19th century was the uprising of mediums (those who talk to the dead), those intrigued with the undead and writers who delved into the fear of science and magic combining to create the things of our nightmares. Still, those things do not bother Grey as much as the cult that caused the death of his friends. And he has to deal with a group member getting in his face while dealing with the all too real depraved persons in the human world. There’s also the dead bodies who look as if they’re getting a good night’s sleep rather than showing decomposition for nearly 50-years. It’s all exciting to look at. The first installment in this series weaves a complex narrative that centers around a man who seemingly doesn’t have anyone to share his demons with. His job is a lonely one. With only a cook and a gun-wielding butler he must contend with the evil that surrounds him, both supernatural and depravedly-mundane.
The reign of Queen Victoria has been fictionalized in part to show the repressive state of that era. Thus creating the gothic genre. With the nearing of the 20th century where Bram Stoker’s “Dracula†(written circa 1897), H.G. Well’s ‘The Invisible Man’ and Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde’ leads the reader of those stories to imagine just how emotionally stagnant this era might have been. It was supposed to be a thriving time of science, literature and culture within the British Empire. Instead, these authors and those who wrote penny dreadfuls portrayed what happens when people are forced into an unnatural state. Perhaps that is why the long-reigning queen’s lifespan has been a plot point in current television series. As recently as in an episode of Doctor Who (entitled ‘Tooth and Claw’), it alluded to that the monarch had a form of hemophilia that was really a cloak for lycanthropy. This resulted in the forming of Torchwood (an anachronism for the Doctor). Folklore combined with real historical figures gives a storyline plausibility. And with that kind of supernatural staying power, it’s no wonder that Mignola firmly establishes Grey in the 1880s.
So much surrounds the first issue of ‘The Witchfinder’ that you don’t realize just how many dangling questions are left. But what you do know is that major cliffhangers will lead to a big payoff in the next issue.
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