5 out of 5

See, we know the Mignolaverse and its architects can rock out some of the best short comic book tales, and I do love that they way they’d designed (most of) their world it allows for one-shots like ‘The Widow and the Tank’ that function on their own or as part of a tapestry.  (Yes, the reservations in my compliment are due to the 2013/14 decision to head into the ongoing direction with BPRD, although I still enjoy that series.)

Two complete tales in one comic book.  Two complete tales.  Some people can’t write an effective five issue arc, much less a one-shot… and much less a one-shot of two stories that still somehow contain full dialogue and characters.  Both halves here are essentially ‘Balty hunts the monster’ bits, but they’re by no means just mirrors of each other.  Mignola and Golden stress the ruthlessness of Baltimore in both stories, but each finds a slightly different emotional application of it.  In ‘The Widow,’ Baltimore patiently allows a woman to come to terms with her ‘turned’ husband while not delaying in meting out some needed vampire justice.  In ‘The Tank,’ Balt agrees to hunt down a local predator – and although things are not as they initially seem, there’s still only one real conclusion to matters for our lead.  Stenbeck’s art peaks here, fully embracing the Mignola ‘framing’ of action with inbetween panels and figuring out how to get his figures to fill up the panels without crowding them.  And Stewart’s subtle nursing of highlights and blends in Baltimore’s gray world is stunning, the popping reds and yellows as impressive as his use of every shade of gray and green possible.

Most importantly, as my criticism of ‘The Play’ details, this still feels like its a purposeful book.  Yes: these are just monstrous distractions, but they help to give us more of a sense of how Baltimore functions, and he is the lead, after all.  Comicy awesomeness.