William Harms is a name I didn't know until he wrote a haunting little tale called Abel that was published by AIT/Planet Lar a little while back. Bad Mojo is his second at-bat that I've read, and it's got a killer high concept: A baseball pitcher on his way to his big pro contract hits a witch's car and gets cursed to die every night and come back to life every day. Where does the story go from there? Well, that's kind of the problem, because once we've gotten past the high concept as described on the back cover copy, the story doesn't really go anywhere. Bruce, the pitcher in question, tries with his two friends to get the curse overturned in kind of an oblique way, and there's a distinct feeling throughout that the protagonists really don't have any say in what's happening to them. That's not unrealistic, and it's certainly not uninteresting reading, but helpless protagonists and an antagonist who is rarely seen doesn't make for the strongest conflict, or for a very good resolution of the story.
There can be no denying that Harms can write a strong scene. The back-and-forth between Bruce and his friends is very true to life, and given that much of the story is focused on these three interacting in stressful situations, that interaction is key to making the book enjoyable. I lost some sympathy for them when they were stupid enough to get caught in a diner right as Bruce was about to die for no better reason than he was hungry and they couldn't keep their eye on a clock, but in general I did feel bad for these poor schmoes who got in over their head through dumb luck.
However, while seeing the friends deal with their unusual predicament and descend into the predictable but understandable bickering gives rise to a lot of good character moments, the essential message of the book seems to be "you guys were screwed from the beginning, why did you even try?" which doesn't make for great drama. There's a lack of tension as to what will happen, as Bruce is essentially immune to harm and the only one ever put in serious danger of it. There's also a pretty strong sense that the protagonists just can't do anything, they're powerless and not smart enough to think their way out of things. While this might have worked if Harms's antagonist were smarter or more interesting, instead she's just selfish and powerful, and so there's no real joy in seeing her win either.
Harms is joined on art by Steve Morris, a new name whose style is unusual but compelling. The gray tones sometimes get out of hand, such that a lot of the third chapter is exceptionally hard to read, but the general look is very attractive. Morris uses a very realistic look with stylized touches that remind me somewhat of Frank Quitely, although Morris's faces are a little more inconsistent than those seen in Quitely's work. At any rate, there's some really nice detail to be found in Morris's work, especially in regards to the backgrounds, and his sort of mundane, real world look really helps to highlight the unusual circumstances of the story.
Bad Mojo has a killer high concept, interesting lead characters and strong moment-to-moment writing, but it's crippling flaw is in its structure. Harms flashes back and forth between the present predicament and the earlier story where the friends got themselves into it, and it's effective at building up some tension as to what will happen, but that tension goes to waste as the story just kind of peters out. Entertaining though the small-town sheriff cliche was, having the band caught and subjected to mob justice for witchcraft was neither dark enough to be really scary nor absurd enough to be really funny. And the final resolution of the story is undeniably an ending, but it's far from a satisfying one, leaving me feeling like these guys are exactly where they started, and the intervening pages didn't really tell me anything. As chapter one of a larger tale, Bad Mojo might be interesting, with the protagonists having expended all the obvious solutions to their problem and then finding another, but when the solution is essentially them giving up, as is implied by the ending, it's more than a little anti-climactic. 5/10
