5 out of 5

Therrrre’s Balty.  The progress from ‘Plague Ships’ to ‘Bells,’ in both art and writing, is astounding.  ‘Plague’ was still a great intro, but it stumbles to try and blend recap with a new story, getting to its content a bit too late into the series and herky-jerking between monster moments and talking head flashbacks that are all fun, but disparate.  But the back story is out of the way, now.  Balty tracks down Haigus to a church protected by some new creepos, meeting vampire-believer (and ex-journalist) Simon Hodge along the way, who becomes the entertaining jittery sidekick to juxtapose Balt’s dour single-mindedness.  Meanwhile, Judge Duvic is already into full crazy and brutal mode, the story flip-flopping between his ever closer approach to Lord Baltimore and the quest to destroy Haigus.  The stilted action Stenbeck used in the first series has been done away with by being more confident in his panel timing, more certain of his figures – Baltimore feels like a fully realized person now and not just a generalized sketch of an anti-hero.  Similarly, though Dave Stewart is obviously an experienced colorist, he must follow the lead of the art and story, and with the improved sense of momentum and focus of series two, the murky colors come with a better sense of balance and believability.  ‘Plauge’ often just looked bland and blocky; Stewart has fun with ‘Curse Bells’ shadows and flames, the setting allowing us to step away from the rain- and sea-drenched pages of the first series.

So this is the vampire hunter I really started to love.  It makes sense the Balty would come to life for the middle chunk of his tale, ‘The Curse Bells’ kicking off a streak of badass stories with a single-vision badass with a wooden leg doing badass things 2, 4 or 5 issues at a time.