Baltimore: The Curse Bells by Mike Mignola

Baltimore: The Curse Bells by Mike Mignola

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


This was more creepy than Baltimore: The Plague Ships, and that's saying something.  Baltimore is still on the hunt for his one-eyed, scarred vampire nemesis, but he comes across a cult of demented nuns who follow an occultist bent on rebirthing a powerful sorceress. 

I think this series is for readers who loved the Monster of the Week type programs such as Night Gallery or Thriller, or even episodic television like The Incredible Hulk where our lone hero conquers a different situation each week.  I could see this as a good television adaptation in the right hands.

The artwork is as beautiful as The Plague Ships, and the writing just as atmospheric.  Although this was more scary. It delves deeper into the themes of diabolism and occult dealings with dark entities, and this town that Baltimore goes to is full of a sense of wrongness, death and murky secrets.  I did read this at night and I didn't have nightmares, but that was because I read something else before I went to sleep.

Baltimore has to balance his selfish need for revenge against the greater good, and he teams up with an American journalist who is writing a book about vampires after discovering they were real in the Great War. I thought the reporter looked a lot like Edgar Allen Poe, and I wouldn't be surprised if that was a deliberate choice of the creators of this graphic novel.  Part of the narrative even includes as passage from "The Bells" by Poe. 

I think this was just as good as The Plague Ships if not better, but it's more disturbing and disarming than that prior book in the series. I know that's because it focuses on occultism, black magic, and people who trade the lives of others for ultimate power. Those subjects are inherently more affecting to me than, say zombies and vampires.

Baltimore is a very effective dark hero with an antiheroic bent.  He is the dark hero that fights against the darkness, and strives to recover his own lost soul in the process.  Those kinds of heroes always get me.

I am loving this series.  Keep them coming!

Overall rating: 4.5/5.0 stars.



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