5 out of 5

Sure, we can criticize it for not really doing much with its characters besides announcing them, or perhaps for deflating a bit at its climax, or even the OMG-this-is-such-a-cool-idea-no-wait-its-been-done-like-a-million-times-already Doyle / Houdini mash-up, but none of that seems to matter when wrangled by the Rennie bot.  This is a 2000 AD strip, after all: The blessed home for condensed super-ideas, and so Rennie makes that constraint work for him, jumping in head first – Houdini’s breath-holding experiments bring him to death’s edge… And death holds on, crawling its way into the world! – and then just barrels forth with its pulpy pulpy pulped premise, to all of our joy.  (ALL OF IT, DAMN YOU.)

Lovecraft and A.C.Doyle each receive their own harbinger doom variant, and join Houdini – dang, don’t forget Charles Fort, wilin’ out and reminding everyone this is all completely plausible – on an adventure to head back to dream land and save the world from the oncoming evil.

I’ve enjoyed Frazier Irving’s color work on books like Seven Soldiers, but I don’t know that I’ve seen him in black and white before.  I would’ve supposed his drossy, swervy black lines wouldn’t translate too well (that it would be too murky), but it ends up being the perfect balance of a sense of comic motion plus the sketch-heavy stills vibe of classic Eerie / Creepy stuff; he proves a master at balancing negative space in his panels and directing the eye around the page, and his use of PhotoShop elements in dreamland ends up being a stunningly spooky realization of the scene.

Between the two, Rennie and Irving just seemed to know exactly what they wanted for the book and then executed it especially paced for the 10-thrill or so length.  Even the ending, which ducks out of a grand showdown, rights itself with effective codas for Houdini and Lovecraft.

This collection of the series is my first trade published by “Magic,” an Italian company, and it’s certainly an interesting format.  The width is about normal but the height is oversized – like a European album – but the page resizing (from 2000 ADs magazine size) doesn’t seem odd at all.  The cover stock is thick with page mark flaps, and Irving’s art and the lettering are fantastically reproduced.  A great rundown on Irving’s process, as detailed through art, is included, as well as two hilarious in-universe creator bios.

Ordered direct from Rebellion and worth every penny.