Canmore-based Renegade Arts Entertainment will release its first monthly comic next week and to celebrate, Renegade publisher and editor Alexander Finbow wants to share it with Bow Valley comic fans a day before the rest of the world gets a crack at it.
Issue 1 of Dept. of Monsterology, a four-part series, will officially be released Oct. 16.
Rusticana Grocery – one of the few places in the Bow Valley that carries comics – is hosting the launch Tuesday (Oct. 15) from 4-6 p.m. Finbow will be on hand with signed copies and other Renegade goodies.
Dept. of Monsterology follows two teams of researchers based at Dunsany College tasked with the mission “to investigate the dark and unexplored corners of our world – the places we’ve forgotten, lost or believe to be mythical. And to study those things that may still be lurking there.”
And “those things that may still be lurking there” are monsters in the classic sense of the word; monsters that would be right at home in Hellboy or H.P. Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu: wretched, horrid creatures.
These are also the monsters of myth, legend and a rich imagination. Issue 1 of Dept. of Monsterology, written by Gordon Rennie and illustrated by PJ Holden, both of whom have worked on comics 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, includes Chinese vampires, Jiang Shi, and fish-like humanoids with glowing red eyes and a mouth full of huge fangs.
Despite the presence of monsters, this is not a horror story. It’s instead an adventure that draws the researchers, separated into two teams, Team Challenger and Team Carnacki, into a world of danger, action and suspense.
And like the monsters, there’s nothing stereotypical about the researchers in Dept. of Monsterology, officially the Department of Cryptozoology, Mythological Studies, Parapsychology and Fortean Phenomena.
There’s Amelia Court, the tough-as-nails fieldwork specialist; Harry Wilmington, Professor Emeritus, who specializes in mythological studies and Antiquarian History, whose brain is housed in a suit of powered armour reminiscent of an early deep-sea diving suit (although, unfortunately a little too similar to a Big Daddy from the video game Bioshock, but still pretty cool); and the mysterious young woman, Samwi, who is able to project herself into the astral plane.
The story is tight and engaging. Rennie has crafted a page-turner, smartly ending every two-page spread with a cliffhanger. Holden’s art, meanwhile, is dark and somber. It’s heavy on the flat greens and browns, deep purples and blues, and black, with few bright colours. Holden’s palette is fitting to this world they have created, as what self-respecting monster would want to inhabit a bright, colourful, cheerful world?
So far, Renegade’s first foray into monthly comics is a success. If the first issue of Dept. of Monsterology is any indicator, Issues 2-4, and perhaps beyond (if the demand is there, this comic may turn into a on-going series), hold great promise.
It’s been a busy year for Renegade, with a number of new releases of projects on the go. On the comic side, however, Renegade released three other new comics in summer: Tales of the Buddha (Before he got enlightened); Shame: Pursuit; and Channel Evil.
But these three come with a warning: they are for mature readers only.
Tales of the Buddha, written by Alan Grant, the Scottish writer who penned the script for The Loxleys and the War of 1812, is Grant’s take on Buddha’s journey as a young man before he settled down to reach enlightenment.
And as it appears Buddha was a globetrotting party animal – think The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers meets Heavy Metal magazine meets religion. It makes for a bizarre, funny and certainly raunchy poke in the ribs of the world’s great religions. It should be noted that Grant is a Buddhist, but he obviously doesn’t take himself too seriously.
Tales of the Buddha is a collection of short adventures that plunks Buddha into the lives of Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Jesus and Santa Claus. Tony Blair and George Bush Jr. make an appearance, as well.
It’s irreverent, satirical and laugh-out-loud funny, but, depending on your sensibilities, some of it might make your skin crawl – but then, that could just be the whole purpose of this book. It pushes boundaries and Grant is an experienced and highly regarded writer whose stories seldom (if at all) stick to what’s expected. He’s not going for shock for shock’s sake, but shock to shove us kicking and screaming from our comfortable and often-narrow little worlds. As a result, there’s more going on in the subtext than what may appear gratuitous swearing, nudity and drug use.
Shame: Pursuit, meanwhile, is Book 2 in the Shame trilogy written by Winnipeg writer and colourist Lovern Kindzierski. He was also the colourist for Renegade’s The Loxley’s and the War of 1812.
In Shame, Kindzierski explores the idea of good vs. evil from a different perspective. His character, Virtue, is the purest woman on Earth. But when she allows herself to have one selfish thought, she conceives the most evil woman on Earth.
Illustrated by John Bolton, Shame is lavishly illustrated or rather painterly. It’s gorgeous and grotesque. Nothing about this book says “comic” other than its format. Between the two of them, Bolton and Kindzierski have crafted something unique. Comics have come a long way and Shame: Pursuit, along with Issue 1, Shame: Conception, is one of the fruits of that journey.
Channel Evil, finally, stands quite well on its own feet. Also written by Grant and illustrated in pencil and ink by Shane Oakley, Channel Evil is just that – a slime-ball TV talk show host named Jez Manson attempts channeling for a lark on his show and instead opens a door better left shut tight.
Instead of having a laugh at his guest’s expense, Ba’al, a god turned demon, who Grant described in an interview with the Outlook, as “a really bad dude,” possesses Manson.
The idea came to him after a frightening stint in his sensory deprivation chamber, where he would retreat to relax and think about his stories. He had been reading about channeling and thinking of ways to use that in a storyline when he retreated to his sensory deprivation tank to think about another story.
As he was thinking about the villain, a man named Cornelius Stirk, who ate the hearts of his victims, he began thinking about the evilness of that act when a disembodied voice said “You think that is evil? I can show you what evil really is!”
Grant fled the tank terrified, but with an idea for what would become Channel Evil.
“That having happened to me, I figured I’d better check out channeling, so I read several dozen books on the channeling experience and that led on to Channel Evil. If you can channel a character and don’t know if he’s evil, then you’re taking a real chance,” he said.
But he was quick to add that based on his experience, he would not try channeling. The story continued to grow after his research led him to the concept of one supreme god evolving from many gods, with Ba’al being one of these lesser gods.
“I was surprised. I knew of Ba’al and I knew Ba’al was supposed to be a bad guy, but Ba’al started off as a good guy. People worshipped him through rituals and ceremonies and looked to him to make the harvest good and the rest of it, so I explained that Jehovah knocked Ba’al and the other lesser gods (from the pedestal) so there was no room for them anymore,” he said.
Ba’al, who falls from a place of power and respect, slides from grace, becoming a malevolent spirit seeking revenge.
“Somebody who was at the top of the chain and suddenly nobody loves him anymore and what does he want? He wants revenge.”
As evil personified, Ba’al seeks revenge in the only way he knows how, through destruction, chaos and death. It’s a dark story and like Dept. of Monsterology, Oakley’s black-and-white art is fitting.
These comics are available locally at Café Books or through Renegade Arts Entertainment at renegadeartsentertainment.com
