I have wanted to read Corktown since seeing the cover for the first time. Any time there’s a ghost detective, I’m a little interested, but even more so I was captivated by what else the cover was showing me. I won’t say exactly what I noticed, but after you read the issue I would encourage you to take a long look at the cover again. I’m going to skip telling you a big part of the plot. I think it’s better left for you to discover it and I don’t need to spoil it in order to talk about the issue. It does plot the series down into a very specific genre, but it’s a nice twist on the genre. It’s not quite the refreshing twist the genre needs, but we’re several generations out from that happening. I’ll probably be old and really into gardening by the time that happens.
The gist of the story is that we meet a dude that’s about to meet his death. After he dies, Homicide shows up (in case you don’t know, any time there’s a death, it’s homicide, it doesn’t have to be a murder) and we meet and learn about our ghost detective. She was the first in a string of murders and now she’s ghost working the case while her old partner tries to solve the case as well. Our recently dead dude also becomes a ghost and our dead cop begins walking through the ropes which was pretty interesting. She gets him to accept his death pretty quickly, but she’s patient and kind throughout it, which was a nice change of pace. Usually in stories of ghosts and recently dead there’s a whole scene of “I’m not dead, no you’re dead” blah, blah and then they’re ghosts still and we’re all bored. Not the case here, which was nice.
The art is in all black and white which was a good fit for the book. I think the colorist for the cover could pull off coloring the entire issue, but money. The book work in black and white. The art isn’t 100% made to be black and white, but the grey tones help. Something the artist captures quite well is snow. I love snow in comics, but there’s a lot of bad snow. It’s not perfect in Corktown, but overall you really do feel as if the city is covered in snow and has brought the world to a halt.
The twists of the story really grabbed my attention and made me want to read more. Like I said, it’s an interesting twist on the genre, but really it’s an interesting twist on a few genres. The story isn’t perfect, there’s some exposition that could be better, the art struggles at times and doesn’t make full use of the black and white medium, but none of that stopped me from really enjoying this book. The premise really got it’s hooks into me and made me put everything I’ve listed with this review to the corner and I was able to enjoy what I was reading. And I will enjoy reading the next issue as well.
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Corktown #1 Writer: Mario Candelaria Artist: Scott Ewen Publisher: Alterna Comics Price: $2.99 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital
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