4 out of 5

Ambitious!  And fun.  And impressive.  And… unfortunately never concluded.

Spook City, as far as I can tell, was Scott Chantler’s first written-and-drawn-by title, which was hinted to have some plans (via the editorial / letters page) at least out to a sixth issue… but only made it to issue #2, likely when publisher Mythic Comics disappeared.  Hard to say, since I can’t find much info about the publisher or the comics.

There’s definitely some youthful idealism in that backmatter, with Scott hoping for exciting discourse with readers, and forming a ‘database’ of addresses of those writing in so that some type of community could be formed, but the book itself is really a lot of fun, and a lot more plotted than I was assuming from a flipthrough.  The way Scott talks about the title, it was going to be something like a creature-of-the-issue format, with some residents of the city (a scientist, a talking monkey, a reincarnated Douglas Fairbanks, and our POV narrator, the group’s new accountant) ‘investigating’ paranormal claims for legitimacy, but right off the back Scott spins up ‘Hell in a Handbasket,’ which has three little imps trying to bring a larger demon into our reality.  There’s a surprising amount of fun action, and the characters come across as having personalities, but of course, there’s only so much room for this to get going before it ended.

Artwise, Chantler’s skills are already readily apparent: page layouts are exciting without being showy, and there’s a good sense of comedic timing.  …The dialogue, meanwhile, also bears the hallmarks of youth, with not-so-funny jokes and clunky exposition to move things along, but there’s an overall sense of buoyancy and joy to the writing that makes this not such a black mark.

Definitely an enjoyable read, whether you’re a Scott fan or not, but prepare to be disappointed that things end with a ‘to be continued…’