3 out of 5

Baltimore: guest starring Baltimore.  ‘The Play’ is Mignola and Golden’s excuse to get some Poe on, as we visit a town full of Haigus-led creepos who are putting on a Poe-inspired play (or I assume, as the editor lets us know some lines are from ‘The Conqueror Worm’), mixed up with mystical temptresses, a scary red skeleton, and the head of Mr. Edgar Allan in a jar.  Meanwhile, the first and last pages feature our lead character.

It’s not that the story is bad, it just feels completely besides the point.  I frequently reference Preacher as a prime example of how to explore characters, and the lesson again applies here: in that book, Starr is seen as the main baddie, at least until his bosses can be established, and then only after a significant amount of screentime as the baddie does Ennis give us a few glimpses exploring what else happens in that dude’s life.  He earns our attention, in other words.  You should rarely do this with the main bad guy, unless your story is really some Michael Mann tragic heroes and villains thing, as the risk of humanizing the villain can put a hold on the sense of danger or threat, which is important in tales of this nature.  Now Haigus theoretically works for the Red King, and I suppose it’s possible Mignola and Golden ‘earned’ this issue with the Baltimore book, but I sorta doubt it.  The character is incredibly one note.  He’s a vamp; he’s evil; he wants blood.  Setting him as part of the case in ‘The Play’ thus just seems like an excuse for some cool art (Mr. Red Skeleton) and getting out some Poe quirks.  I would’ve preferred Balty passing through the town and getting tangled up with events, as that’s normally the series’ m.o.  Fantastic Stenbeck work and a solid story, just a ho-hum addition to the overall narrative.