4 out of 5

Ah, I remember the good ol’ days when I bought the first Monsterology issues from this new Renegade Press joint and, not recognizing the name Gordon Rennie, assumed that he must be a newcomer.  “Wow,” thinks good ol’ days me, “this Rennie guy writes some pretty interesting stuff for a newbie.  I’ll have to see what else he’s done…” …which led me to 2000 AD, and then the mind-blowing realization that Rennie has been kicking ass for quite some time.  So I approached volume 2 (released, I believe, as digital issues and then collected in print) with both the excitement of wanting to return to this much-less-mythology-and-depression ridden B.P.R.D., and with a bit more Rennie reading under my belt, now confident that most things with his name on it are going to bear a bare minimum level of quality.

Sabbaticals is on par with the first, which is to say: it’s mighty impressive.  The “monsterology” team – which, yes, I reduced to a B.P.R.D. knock-off, and which they are in that they’re a mixed-bag team of monsters, magicians and humans who investigate oddities – or teams, rather, are all off on their own pursuits after the last series, hence the subtitle, and Rennie shares his impressive ability of wending fun pulp concepts through his own creativity, giving us Nazi dinosaurs and time traveling ghost houses and peaceful yeti.  While, overall, the spotlight is effectively shone where it needs to, there’s the returning imbalance of how the story’s split amongst the characters: really, Sabbaticals only focuses on two main stories – Nazis and yetis – with the magic and ghosts bit coming in feeling like a subplot, and the mystery of Professor de Tovar given an incredibly short shrift down to a few pages.  Reminders of the Lamont Institute (something a of a rival research facility, larger antagonists in volume 1) and taskmaster Professor Booker happen and seem rather perfunctory, but we can excuse those as postscript for the Lamonts and setup for – hopefully – more Monsterology with Booker.

The art team knocks it out of the park, with PJ Holden’s stiff, sort of Guy Davis / Scott Kollins-like flatness proving itself as something special whenever you get to a splash page or dynamic action panel where you can really appreciate Holden’s use of direction and detailing, but he’s backed up by a team of colorists that deliver mood perfectly across all the mixed environments – snowy mountains, Hell, ravaged jungles – and letter Jim Campbell, who wields Rennie’s occasionally wordy script perfectly through the various fonts and voices of the characters.

Like Atomic Robo, Monsterology is an ideal blend of the Hellboy in-house mythology concept with fun, intelligence and action.  Whereas the Robo team brings pseudo-science to the table, Rennie straddles the huge world of strange science, and avoids all the Lovecraft trappings that Mignola and all of his inspirations get hooked on.  And in so doing, has kicked off a super appealing team book that I hope continues to find a home in print.