Gods (illustrations by Guy Davis, Dave Stewart of colors) - After the catastrophic upheavals described in King of Fear, the everyday lives of Americans (and other humans) was found significantly altered. It is in this context that the story begins. 2 employees of a security firm doing their round in a railway station of goods. It falls on 2 squatters in a cattle car. The arrest degenerates quickly as they came across an organized community following premonitions Fenix, a mysterious young woman. The central services of the BPRD spotted expectancy remarkable life of this community and they hurry Abe Sapien, Kate Corrigan and Andrew Devon to try to question Fenix.
Monsters (illustrations Tyler Crook, Dave Stewart of colors) - Liz Sherman decided to be forgotten; she lives in a mobile home in the middle of a group of such precarious dwellings on blockwork. One night she finds 3 idiots emptying his fridge. This is the end of his period of isolation. It must be a place in this community masking strange practices.
On one side, the player can only welcome the fact that the destruction caused in King of Fear is not an event like this in passing as quickly forgotten as described. It means that Mignola and Arcudi will take time to walk their characters in different places to show the extent of damage and the impact on the common man. But I'm not entirely convinced by this form of 2 short miniseries. In "Gods", the writers are attached to a traveling group of young people having faith in the lucky star that represents Fenix. But the first episode is devoted to this group, the second is devoted to the BPRD with a break in the middle for that Professor O'Donnell could rave about the race that inhabited the earth before humans. And the last episode focuses on the inevitable confrontation against the monsters. Throughout the pages the reader has the impression of a patchwork assembled only for the writers manage to cram elements that do not go together strongly, but are essential to describe the state of the world within which members of the BPRD .
Guy Davis assures the show all by itself by the graphic illustrations bias very assertive. He knows the right balance between the descriptive aspect (through efficient and highly effective line) and the atmosphere through a form of rendering rough around the edges, on the edge of the sketch some faces. Monsters are always so successful and well designed for uncompromising inhumanity. There are one or two faces that seem to have been scrawled a little faster, and the hair of Devon Andrew agent figured large in marker strokes to a result that looks more like a feminine bottom placed on the skull, than true hair implantation. As usual, the sophisticated and intelligent work of Dave Stewart complete the drawings by strengthening the atmosphere while staying in the background.
"Monsters" is not suffering from an exploded structure because the unity of place is respected from the beginning to the last page. By cons, Mignola and Arcudi still struggling to provide a substantial history in a small number of pages. The character study of Liz Sherman is very successful, that character developing its own personality by refusing stereotypes. The use of a trailer park generates a special atmosphere without being overly murky. But the events occur too quickly for the reader to have the time to enjoy this environment. On the one hand the horrific appearance strikes the imagination by its suddenness and barbarism; the other story has no time to dwell on the foundations of this act remains superficial.
This story marks the beginning of Tyler Crook as the new designer of the BPRD series. It retains the style a little sketched Guy Davis, but with a less dry ink, a little fatter. There is no stylistic hiatus, but an evolution towards a less scratched style. It remains to see how the style of Crook evolve over time.
This volume is a bit disappointing since it looks like an assembly of disparate elements that do not constitute a single story. Mignola and Arcudi still struggling to densify their plots so that the reader finds its account in the shorter formats. Guy Davis is always impressive mastery, Tyler Crook promises to be a craftsman of a sufficient level to succeed him. Dave Stewart remains the undisputed master of setting discreet and essential colors.
