Murder mystery fans will be pleased. Goth fans will be pleased. Those who enjoy slice-of-life storytelling will be happy as well. And there's even something here for the H.P. Lovecraft fan as well. Antony Johnston delivers a fantastic story here. The plot is riveting, and while it doesn't boast a point-A-to-point-B philosophy, the reader is never in any danger of being lost either. The inky art captures the unique qualities of the story quite well, as well as the mix of down-to-earth and supernatural elements. But what really stands out as the greatest strength of this book is the dialogue, which bring the characters to life -- even the dead ones -- incredibly well.
Emily Spook is a painter, and judging from her work, one could argue there are monsters living in her head. Visions of supernatural horror take shape on her canvasses. But monsters don't live in her head... ghosts do. Spiritual reflections of the recently deceased often take up residence in her skull, and these intellectual roommates are proving to be a real pain in the ass for the young artist. The latest is particularly inconvenient, given he's a murder victim who insists she must warn his friends of the same danger that claimed his life. Emily finds herself immersed in a world of warlocks, secret societies and real monsters.
Campbell's art here is an odd blend of realism and twisted forms that serves the story quite well. I see the influences of such artists as Steve (Generation X) Pugh, Frank (New X-Men) Quitely and Guy (The Marquis) Davis at play in his work here. I love how he shifts from a more detailed approach to using simple shapes and darkness to foster a tense atmosphere. I think Campbell's most important contribution here, though, is how he injects so much strength into the main protagonist's eyes.
Where Campbell goes awry is with the lettering. While the rougher quality matches the overall tone of the story and characters, it's sometimes takes a couple of extra readings of key phrases to figure out what they say. A P looks like a D at one point, for example. Mind you, he does an excellent job of differentiating between Emily's dialogue and Simon's.
Plotwise, my favorite aspect of this book is the unconventional resolution. In a way, the bad guys win, or the bad guys turned out to be a different lot altogether. And not really that bad to begin with. Emily thought she just wanted to be normal, but instead, she finds what she's really after is a sense of belonging. The ethics of the pot is fluid and challenging as well, making this graphic novel really stand out as something unique.
At the heart of this story is an odd sort of friendsship that develops between Emily and Simon. The dialogue, despite the unusual subject matter, comes off as quite genuine. But it's when Simon and Emily start talking about things other than the core plot that the strength of the exchanges really shines through.
