Writer/Artist: Gary Spencer Millidge
Publisher: Abiogenesis (www.millidge.com)
Another Bristol Comic Expo, another new issue of Strangehaven...ok ok so it's a cliche to open on, and the fact of the matter is that once the third trade (collecting issues 13 through 18) is available it becomes entirely irrelevant how much time passed between each individual issue. Having said that, part of the fun of collecting Strangehaven in single issues are the lengthy editorial pieces, usually covering some variant of "my dog ate my homework" to explain why that particular issue took so long to put together. This time around Gary setup a new office, was involved in a burglary at his girlfriend's shop and hurt his hand, had a new dog to look after...ah, but I'm telling you the plot. The editorials could be collected together in a trade of their own, to form an ongoing storyline - the trials and tribulations of actually trying to publish a comic...
Not only do you get this extended editorial up front, there's a good selection of letters and responses to close, and a nice introductory page or so for the ongoing storyline, showing us a number of characters and providing a few good clues about the series. These obviously will not appear in the inevitable trade - and also act as a good guide for anyone who picks this issue up as their first exposure to the strange little village buried deep in England called Strangehaven.
Alex - our everyman character - is trapped in the village and now teaches at the Strangehaven primary school...for all of two pupils. The head of the school is John...who is also the head of the local secret society, and who may or may not have been involved in the death of a member of said society. Alex has just rejected the chance to join up, and been drugged for his troubles - the issue opens with him finally waking up and recovering from this...whereupon he finds out that there's not just one secret society in Strangehaven but two. Who is involved in this secret secret society and what they are working for isn't a surprise in retrospect, and fits neatly into the series as a whole, but the reader is just as intrigued as Alex (the clues were there throughout but Alex - and the reader - may not have picked up on them).
In addition - the local doctor is also a member of the Knights (the "public" secret society) and his wife continues her campaign to get rid of him permanently - by enlisting his run-down brother to her cause. This section is interesting from how she manipulates him into doing her bidding, yet suffers a little from being a bit obvious - the reader knows what she'll do before she does it, and if the plan works we expect her to betray the brother to the authorities and have him take all the blame whilst leaving her spotless.
The real problem with Strangehaven is that after one finishes an issue - one just wants more. A Misery-type scenario of kidnapping Gary Spencer Millidge and forcing him to write and draw the next six issues grows more and more attractive each year...I'll start work on the shack in the woods, but until it's complete, do yourself a favour and either pick up the first couple of trades and the issues following the second trade (13 to 17 available from the website) or just give this one a go as a sampler.
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