Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin #3 - A Review

Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin #3 is light on action but heavy on drama and comedy.  Your enjoyment of this issue may be entirely dependent upon how much tolerance you have for Harry Dresden snarking as the whole world is turning against him.  Of course if you didn't enjoy that sort of thing, the odds are you wouldn't be a fan of this series in the first place.



The plot thickens as wizard/detective Harry Dresden doubles his efforts to aid a family in ridding themselves of a supernatural curse. We see Harry work some serious magic this time, evoking spirits to gain information while risking pneumonia (Unlike most magic, communing with nature spirits DOES require the mage to be naked in the woods).  By issue's end, we see Harry confront another supernatural menace we've never seen before in The Case Files in a scene that promises the next issue will open up with the action that this issue lacked.


The artwork by Joseph Cooper continues to impress.  All the character designs are unique and distinctive, so there's no confusion about who is who - a problem that existed in previous Dresden File graphic novels.  The flow of the story is well-depicted, though this issue seems somewhat slow since most of the action involves Harry investigating and talking to people rather than making things blow up.  Get past that though, and this book's an enjoyable read.

Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin #2 - A Review

Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin #2 is a lackluster follow-up to a promising first issue.  It's not a bad comic but there's very little action and a lot of talking-heads moments.  I suspect this entire series will read better once collected as a single graphic novel rather than as a monthly comic.


Little happens in terms of the plot this time around.  The most interesting bit comes at the end, when Harry has his first encounter with the titular ghoul.  Before that is more of what one might expect with this sort of story - Harry being ordered to get out of town by the corrupt/incompetent sheriff, Harry being rehired by the town mayor and a fair bit of political intrigue involving the cursed family Harry is investigating. 

I'll give Jim Butcher and Joseph Cooper credit for this much - at least there aren't any werewolves involved, which I fully expected after I realized the cursed family was named Talbot.  And there is plenty of the standard Dresden wit, which is the only thing that makes all the talky moments tolerable.  Of course there isn't enough of Bob The Skull for my tastes but there rarely is. 



The artwork by Mark Powers is still top notch, though.  The character designs are unique and memorable, with Dresden looking pretty much as I've always pictured him based on the descriptions in the books.  Heck, I've got a clear picture of what a ghoul looks like for the first time ever! 

Still, I think I'll wait for the trade to collect the rest of this series.  The pacing is a little slow for what I consider acceptable in a monthly comic.  It's well worth picking up if you're a Harry Dresden fan who can't wait for the finished tale but it's just not my cup of tea. 

Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin #1 - A Review

I've been a big fan of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher for a few years now.  Despite this, I haven't been that fond of the various adaptations of the series.  It's not that they're bad.  Well, not always.  The audio books voiced by John Glover and James Marsters are quite good, but I prefer the voices of the characters I hear in my head.  By the same token, the Dresden Files graphic novels have been decent enough (I liked the character designs in Fool Moon, though I found the proportions of some of the characters was out of whack) but they don't always jibe with the way I envision the action.  The new Dresden Files comic series - Ghoul Goblin - is unlikely to change my feelings anytime soon but I must say that it is a worthy addition to the Dresden canon. 


This opening chapter is vintage Dresden.  This should be no surprise since Jim Butcher had a hand in the writing along with Mark Powers.  I'm not sure of Powers wrote the script based on Butcher's idea of if Butcher had a direct hand in writing the dialogue, but this story feels like a Dresden Files story should. 

This adventure is set between Fool Moon and Grave Peril.  After an opening encounter with some kind of monster that looks like it came from The Black Lagoon, private detective/professional wizard Harry Dresden returns to the office to find a small-town sheriff waiting for him.  Seems his town's had a rash of strange deaths, all centering around one family whose history is full of similar tragic deaths.  Intrigued and in desperate need of work since he's not on speaking terms with his usual police contacts at the moment, Harry agrees to journey to Missouri with his research assistant Bob (a snarky spirit of knowledge, who lives in a skull Harry owns) in tow. 


The artwork by Joseph Cooper is a definite step-up from what we saw in Fool Moon.  Cooper's Harry Dresden looks something like Jim Butcher's original description of Harry as "Peter Parker, but taller".  Actually, there are some points where he looks like a surly David Tennant, which might prove an interesting casting choice if one were to attempt to bring Dresden to the screen again.  Cooper also manages a few subtle nods to the series mythology in the background, showing Harry looking nervously at the mirror in his hotel room while having a conversation with Bob (Wizards don't like mirrors - they become doorways too easily) and showing Harry making an effort to keep away from the electrical lights his presence tends to short out.

If you're a Jim Butcher fan, this is definitely worth a read.  You might also check it out if you're a comic lover who likes modern magical stories or urban fantasies.  Heck, Spider-Man fans might enjoy this series as a "What If?" tale about a world where Peter Parker became his world's equivalent of Doctor Strange.