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13th Son #1
Book Released: 26 Oct 2005
Review posted: 21 Dec 2005
Writer: Kelley Jones
Artist: Kelley Jones
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
3.50 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Robert Murray
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Usually, horror comics are not my cup of tea. Simply put, horror
comics are not nearly as scary as a horror movie or a suspenseful TV
show, mainly because the reader controls the pacing of a comic book.
Horror is heavily dependent upon pacing and things jumping out at you
from nowhere to scare you witless. Comic books are great at handling
the grotesque elements of horror, but they really don’t scare
you, which is what I want out of horror in the first place. If
Psycho is like the fastest roller coaster in the world, a
horror comic is the merry-go-round.
Horrific creatures shooting the bull like
guys in a local bar is funny, and Jones gets that.
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Now that I’ve gotten my gripe out of the way, I wanted to
tell you why I picked up this comic book and why I’m writing
this review! A few years ago, I picked up a series called Criminal
Macabre on a recommendation from a friend of mine, and I was blown
away by the story, the humor, and the unorthodox art of Ben
Templesmith. When the sequel, Last Train to Deadsville, came
out, I jumped on board again, only this time I was amazed at the art
by Kelley Jones. As I read this series, I remembered Jones’s
earlier work on Batman. I really loved the way he had presented
Batman as a truly frightening figure out of nightmares, which is the
way Batman should always be presented. As for the Deadsville
series, I really enjoyed Steve Niles’s work once again and I
have been an avid fan ever since. Glancing through the comic shop
this month, I came upon The 13th Son #1, which featured Kelley
Jones both as writer and artist. I knew that I had to give this issue
a shot, to see if he could truly equal his art with his writing.
With this first issue I think that Jones has done a great job in
depicting a horror/supernatural tale that is uniquely his own. First
off, there are touches of his Batman running through this issue, with
a mysterious figure of the night who is taking out the creatures that
lurk in the dark beneath the city. Some individual panels looked
almost identical to images I had seen in those Batman issues,
images of the Dark Knight jumping into a group of bad guys, ready to
inflict some serious damage. Even the battles look very
DC-Comics-esque. But there is one major difference between those
Batman tales and this fine little tale, and that is the humor and
quirkiness that Jones injects into the story (very similar to the man
he worked with on Last Train to Deadsville, Steve Niles). Horrific
creatures shooting the bull like guys in a local bar is funny, and
Jones gets that, which lends a unique color to this fable.
All in all, I really enjoyed this issue and I look forward to
reading the next. However, for Dark Horse to promote this as part of
their horror line of comics doesn’t really do the title
justice. This is a superhero tale without the traditional
superhero, and I think that readers who buy The 13th Son should know
that right away. The title character is more Batman than universal
monster, and the villains are more colorful than your garden variety
creepy-crawly. That said, most pop culture fanatics will get a kick
out of the X-Files-style pacing and the Hellboy-like antics.
It’s clear that Kelley Jones had a lot of fun creating
13th Son, and anyone reading this issue should have fun as well.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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