4 out of 5

I wish Nate Cosby would write more.  I started following Jai Nitz and Cosby somewhat around the same time, both due to original material.  ‘The Dream Thief,’ in Nitz’s case, and ‘Cow Boy’ in Cosby’s case.  So only through the coincidence of timing did I sort of lump them together.  However, the next project’s they both worked on were for Dynamite… and though Vampirella isn’t the same type of licensed property as Grimm (Nitz), again, the timing sort of made me lump the mini-series together, as both writers were going from creator-owned to previously-established.  The Grimm mini was pretty tragic.  You could argue that Vampi, existing initially as a comic, has more of a ‘grounding’ in that world, but the Grimm universe is absolutely limber enough to allow for something silly at the very least, but the script that I read felt sloppy, and poorly edited, and was – worst of the worst – uninteresting.  Excusing possible editorial interference or what-ever, it was hard to find a single page or panel that worked.

On the flipside, ‘Southern Gothic’ takes a character I couldn’t give a damn about (and won’t, after this mini) and within a few pages makes her and her travails told within its pages.  And worth my time and comic money.  Even writers whom I’ve worshiped at various points have flubbed books, so I’m not going to stand and proclaim that a good writer turns all to gold (or a bad one all to shit); however, you do get the occasional magic of a Steve Gerber – someone who’s able to make their ideas shine through and shape a book, regardless of the publisher or property.  Again, doesn’t mean everything’s a work of art, per se, but if I don’t feel guilty bagging and boarding it, then certainly you’ve done your job.

(…All without really saying much about the comic.  Good job, me.)

‘Southern Gothic’ has a bit of a red herring kicking around throughout – an infected demon-inflicted wound in Vampi’s side which won’t heal – but Cosby, penciler José Luís and even cover artist Johnny Desjardins don’t forget about it, ever, and you could read it as a ‘superficial’ comment on Vampirella’s relationship with Jacob, the ex-lover who calls our lead to Mississippi for a favor in solving the murder of… the woman he now loves.  Whoops.  It’s possible that this ‘mark’ and its relevance in V’s career could be more meaningful for longtime readers; I obviously have no clue.  But though its a detail that’s not allowed to vanish – Luís would constantly surprise me by remembering to (perhaps in conjunction with the script) have Vampi clutch her wound-side throughout – Cosby also does us the favor of not rubbing it in our face.  So if there is historical significance – cool.  The fans get it.  To me it comes across as a superficial and unobtrusive, but at least consistent, detail, and over all that’s acceptable.

I wish Cosby would write more because he’s a good writer.  In Cow Boy, and his one-shot ‘Buddy Cops,’ he’s proven to have a flexible grasp of dialogue pacing (simplified for CB, rapid-fire for BC), which makes or breaks comics.  The whole thing is pacing.  Vampi impressed me because he’s using a popular tactic here – the self-aware, flippant narrative boxes – that I’ve seen other writers (Keatinge, Kot) trying to use because modern humor is self-aware and flippant… and then failingat it because it’s generally tacked on to a book where it doesn’t fit the vibe.  But it matches Vampirella.  Luck of the draw, or good decision on behalf of the writer?  As Cosby’s day-job seems mostly to be an editor, I’m leaning toward the latter.  V’s been through all this demon nonsense before, so as she’s drawn deeper into the ridiculousness of Jacob’s issue due to conflicting obligations, it follows that she’d be flippant about the whole thing.  And it helps us as readers to keep the crazy ass demon fights in context.  It wraps up a bit too quickly, but that’s hard to work around when you’re dealing with a limited series.  So we’re getting the minus star from these very slight nits with the narrative.

Art-wise, Cosby’s intelligent script is matched by Luís’ pencils, which are fleshed out by Nelson Pereira’s inks and some amazing color work by Inlight Studios.  I generally feel like Dynamite books look rather flat.  Luís doesn’t do much for his backgrounds but his foregrounds and page design are laid out really well – I always felt like the character’s emotions were in tune with the situation and was always able to fully picture the spaces in which everything was taking place.  And then those touches, similar to the scar – showing us V’s wings fading out, or remembering to keep a character putting around in-panel if they were there a moment before.  Pereira’s inking gives the art just the right amount of depth, and the colors are just perfectly graded… fades used as backgrounds normally feel like a rush job, but Inlight chose perfectly complimentary and varying colors and different levels of fades / mottling effects that, again, seemed properly in sync with the going-ons.  I’m never quite sure where sound effects lie – with the letterer or the artist (or both) – I’m not really sold on the pun-ny sound effects (they were amusing the first book I noticed them – Van Lente’s Hercules run – but since then they just feel like an overused gag), and they’re the only aspect of the art (this time the style of lettering for the effects, not the ‘sound’ itself) that didn’t always seem to fit.  However, the actually lettering was great – perfect justification for pacing, and I dig that our letterer, Marshall Dillon, was constantly using different font sizes for emphasis.  We love our bold and italics, but its fun to see the physical representation of tone manipulated in this fashion.

That’s like ninety billion more words than I intended to write.  Muwahh, my fans.  The cure to getting me to write with more brevity is to buy me socks.  Don’t ask why – IT JUST FUCKING WORKS.