Patrick Neighly is proving to be quite adept at varying the genres that he works in. Near-future espionage for Subatomic, far-future post-apocalypse for Black-Eyed Pea and now The Supernaturalists, which is a period/horror/conspiracy piece. Neighly's story here is complex, and occasionally borders on convoluted, but it never quite crosses the border and instead remains a fast-paced and twisted thriller. While the mysteries and conspiracies build slowly, the revelations are often whiplash fast, and the story never feels like it's treading water, as our two lead characters make their way through high society and secret societies in search of an unusual killer. Neighly is joined on art by Jorge Heufemann, whose stark black and white artwork really brings to life the trappings of high society or the bowery in 1926 Manhattan as well as the horror of the monsters of the piece.
The Supernaturalists, as you might guess from the cover, is a vampire story. However, it's not quite so simple as "a vampire stalks the streets of Manhattan in 1926, and one cop is out to stop him." Oh, it starts out looking like that, but as we're introduced to Edgar Drake's eager civilian friend and would-be partner Esme, or we start to see that the murders tie into high society somehow, it becomes much bigger. Neighly gives life to a vampire subculture that is quite different from the now trendy secret society hierarchy of White Wolf games but no less well-thought-out or interesting. In Neighly's vision, vampires have more of a shared heritage than a society, and they may have vampire friends but they certainly don't gather in secret to plot out their dominion over the world.
Neighly has a great cast of characters to work with in Supernaturalists. Edgar Drake is the quintessential pulp hero, a cop who skirts the edge of the rules and has to live up to a big mistake he made but who, deep down, has a strong faith in his badge. In fact, there's a really nifty little scene where Drake uses his badge instead of a crucifix to hold off a vampire, and it's both an innovative idea and a good snapshot of Drake's mindset. Esme starts off looking like little more than a smart, sexy society woman and becomes much more throughout the story as we know her. And the revelations about both of their respective "families" make it clear why they're the perfect choice of protagonists for the series. There's also a really interesting vampire introduced about halfway through, Charlton, whose tale of surviving a crashed ocean liner and quirky manners make him a fascinating character.
The tale does take some unusual twists and turns, and the reader needs to be prepared for some coincidences. The introduction of the Sultan of Brunei is sort of a weird element that is too conveniently useful later on, but it's a believable coincidence, so it's more something odd and noticeable than something unbelievable. There are also a couple of minor story hiccups, such as Drake deducing that vampires can't smoke because their lungs work, and then two panels later Charlton lights up without explanation, but it's easy enough to explain away by saying that he isn't inhaling, even if it is unnecessarily confusing.
On the art side of things, Jorge Heufemann does an excellent job. When I last saw his work, on the full color Subatomic, I compared him to Eric Shanower and said I didn't think he'd be out of place at Vertigo. This time out, his work looks like the shadowy, stylized look that Brian Michael Bendis favors in his artists, albeit not quite as dark and stiff as Michael Gaydos or Alex Maleev can be at times. Instead, the period looks of the characters and spaces defined by shadows and light remind me more of Frank Miller's Sin City work, or the black and white work done by Phil Hester. At any rate, Heufemann really gives the book a period feel, and his designs for the characters really give them a lot of personality, especially the sexy Esme or the hard-boiled Edgar Drake.
The Supernaturalists didn't impress me as much as Subatomic, the debut from this creative team, but it's still a pretty good tale. Certainly at $10 for a 160-page graphic novel, it's one of the better deals in comics, out-pricing even some of the big contenders and with production values that are exceptional. 8/10
