3 out of 5

Man, godamn first isues, lemme tell ya.  Like, in a review – let me tell you about it.

My cautious approach to new series purchases is borne of first-issue-fear: that it’s comparatively easy to deliver a killer opening vs. carrying that same intrigue across the rest of the series.  Latest example?  Gravediggers Union.  While the first issue didn’t exactly blow me away, the low rent ghostbusters “union” we were introduced to had a very lived-in feel; instead of trying to world-build all over the place, writer Wes Craig dropped a vague cold open with some strange details and then switched to zombie-killing action featuring our lead GDU team, nailing thr blue collar “just another day” vibe of the whole ordeal via very natural character dialogue and interaction.  The setup of their looking into worsening ghosty occurrences, despite their bosses’ wishes, wasn’t the freshest idea on the block, but Craig’s voice made it interesting and intriguing enough to see where it went in issue 2.

…After another nifty cold open, though, it effectively goes nowhere.  The issue is split between two flat conversations dealing with separate plot threads which will no doubt intertwine, and as I flipped from page to page, I kept asking myself: what is the point of this panel or page except as a static placeholder for exposition?  I was unable to find any other answer.

You can say the character voices remain strong, but they’re painted atop a flat canvas; all the life was sucked out.

The art, I must admit, had me on guard from the start.  Craig actually handles those mentioned openings, and those look great: very streamlined, James Harren kind of stuff.  But the rest of the chores are handled by Toby Cypress, whose base art is a Guy Davis looking scrunchy style, not bad – though he’s got nothing on Davis’ sense of framing or action, especially as displayed during those boring-as-heck dialogue scenes – but on top of that, Cypress layers on a lot of obnoxious digital noise.  And I hate that kind of stuff, the extra stylization.  Sure, preference, but I’ve noticed a lot of guys who have some really notable affect early on in their career later end up ditching it.  That might still be observer bias on my behalf, but… well, my bias, my review.

Which, in this case, is overall a negative one, but I’m allowing for that I’m jumping ship before things can really get going, and there’s definite promise in GDU’s characters, if writer Craig can script it out more smoothly.  If you don’t mind the second issue pause – presuming it picks up thereafter – and you like your art with extra, uh, stuff, then maybe this is more your cup of tea.