Cojacaru The Skinner #1 Review: In It For the Witches

Nazis in literature have been known to align themselves with supernatural beings in order to win the war. It’s actually one of the oldest and craziest ideas out there but it has been successful. Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden team up to create another addition to this genre called “Cojacaru The Skinner” with artist Peter Bergting

In Poland during World War II the Nazis have aligned themselves with witches called the “Hexencorps” to kill off a squad led by Lieutenant Alexandre Gareau because his spies stole a list of Nazi collaborators in England and France. Gareau does have help from good witches and one of them manages to summon an ancient witch hunter called “Cojacaru The Skinner” to help out.

While the plot of Nazis using mythical creatures is old, there is a possibility strong writing winning out in the end. Mignola and Golden do manage strong enough writing to keep the reader engaged. The characters, while not fully developed yet, do seem interesting. That is, the witches are interesting. Again, it’s an old concept to have good and evil witches, but Mignola and Golden do make these witches interesting. For one, they just look like normal women instead of the cliched tall hat and black clothes. The two factions of witches sounds interesting and it would be great to know more about them.

 Gareau, on the other hand, isn’t interesting at all. He comes off as a generic Lieutenant that can be found in any World War II story.

Bergting’s artwork is solid is many cases. The witches’ designs, as said above don’t go down the cliché black hat and dress route. The backgrounds, while nicely drawn, don’t have that war-torn World War II look to them, which is a mild criticism. The military characters, just like how they’re written, are boring. The only characters worth mentioning are the witches.

“Cojacaru The Skinner” may have boring military characters, but the witches more than make up for it in clever use of old cliches and character designs. Mignola and Golden may have only made this comic two issues, but this first half does make the reader want to see how the other half ends the story.