2 out of 5

With the previous collection covering Lovecraft, we now switch to Robert Chambers’ King in Yellow for inspiration, featuring an unnamed detective covering a string of suicides connected to a particular symbol, which he further discovers may be linked to an unnamed play which is said to make its viewers go crazy…

Expanding the format of the shorts from the linked trade, which inserts an outside character into a mythos, and narrates from their point of view, ‘…Secrets’ is a solid idea, allowing more room to build the mood, and make the story more Taghan’s own as opposed to an addition to the source text. It’s hard not to think of Providence and that cycle of stories, unfortunately; this is not that, but the top down concept feels similar, and Moore put such a stamp on it that it’s hard not to have it in mind. Setting that aside, though, the main thing that prevents this book from taking off is that it is ridiculously talky. This is a book that happens to have pictures. Taghan’s inner monologue is both a bit too chatty – lots of “somethin”s and “workin”s – and also too formal, not allowing the artwork to pick up any beats, and rather repetitive to boot, trying to channel a detective’s roving mind but just spitting out explanations of things we just did on the previous page. Furthermore, while the opening couple of pages does the job of giving us a bloody death scene up front – some shock visuals – the ending is a lump. Pacing in comics is tough to master, and it may seem cheap, but you do need something to encourage your reader to go to the next issue… and here, the issue essentially just ends. I think the plotting and concept are very sound, and in a vacuum, the monologue works, but the book would absolutely benefit from peeling back and trying to find a balance between talking and letting the art tell some story.

What kept me turning pages: artist Christian DiBari, and colorist Simon Gough. I would say DiBari’s style isn’t normally one I would go for – it’s pretty loose, heavily inked, and not too detailed – but the artist just nails mood. This book is, essentially, 95% shots of a detective walking around, and DiBari makes it tense. Gough’s colors work into this perfectly, giving further depth to Christian’s panels and keeping everything pretty light and visual, without disturbing that undercurrent of creepiness. Definitely a pair / an artist to keep an eye on.