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Hector Plasm: De Mortuis
Book Released: 07 June 2006
Review posted: 12 June 2006
Writer: Benito Cereno, Nate Bellegarde
Artist: Nate Bellegarde
Colors: Jacob Baake, Russ Lowery
Publisher: Image Comics
5.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matt Rawson
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Hector Plasm: De Mortuis is a hell of a lot of fun.
This book is a collection of short stories that have appeared as back-ups in such
places in Invincible and Western Tales of
Terror. Some have been totally remastered for this collection, and one story
appears here for the first time. I haven’t experienced this level
of supernatural fun since I first discovered Mike Mignola’s
Hellboy.
Throughout the stories we follow the hero, Hector Plasm, as he
fends off ghosts and demons, sometimes in very unconventional ways. Within
this slim volume I feel that I know the characters and where they are
coming from. The supernatural, as a literary
I haven’t experienced this level
of supernatural fun since I first discovered Mike Mignola’s
Hellboy.
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element, can be approached
in a few different ways; in Hector Plasm: De Mortuis, we take
the adventurous route, even though sometimes all it takes to vanquish the
specters is a few well placed words of advise. Where the overall tone
of the book may be more on the light-hearted side, there are several
images and passages throughout the book that do evoke a certain level of
horror. This successful amalgamation of tone and high quality is why I
freely compare it to Hellboy, but Hector Plasm: De
Mortuis is very much it’s own original entity.
Benito Cereno shows his chops penning six of the seven stories
therein. He keeps the dialogue short and to the point, and even when there
is a lot of dialogue it is because it is needed, not to fill up space
on the page. There is no stating of the obvious, redundant passages, or
descriptions of what can clearly be seen with the art. Cereno offers
solid writing all around, and even beyond all his technical success manages
to bust out some ripping good yarns as well!
Nate Bellegarde’s art is simply fantastic. I was first
exposed to Bellegarde’s art in Loaded Bible,
and was impressed enough with it to pick up Hector Plasm: De
Mortuis. Bellegarde’s art is a mixture of animated simplicity and high impact
action, but he can draw a quiet scene with just as much skill and design as
his action sequences. His character designs are original, iconic, and
interesting. Bellegarde offers top-notch art all around.
The cover art is what initially made me take a closer look at this
book (and, incidentally, notice Bellegarde’s name as the
interior artist). Cory Walker has provided
Bellegarde’s art is a mixture of animated simplicity and high impact
action, but he can draw a quiet scene with just as much skill and design as
his action sequences.
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an iconic scene for Hector Plasm
where he is being descended upon by a horde of ghosts while drawing his
blade for battle. The perspective of the image does a fantastic job of
drawing the viewer not only into the image but the book itself as well.
Alex Stodolnik provided the color art for the cover, and the shade of
green he used for the ghosts is both appropriate and comforting to the
eye. All in all, a very successful cover illustration.
Jacob Baake’s interior coloring is a real high point of the
book as well. Not only does it fit with Bellegarde’s art
perfectly, but it stands on its own as a noticeably worthy addition to the
book. Russ Lowery provided wonderful coloring for one of the more
surreal tales, and his effort truly added to the creature therein the
horrific look that stuck in my head.
I highly look forward to more Hector Plasm yarns, and I urge anyone
out there that is jonesing for some good old-fashioned supernatural
adventure stories, with a peppering of humor and horror, to go out a pick
up Hector Plasm: De Mortuis! You won’t regret it!
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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