In the fourth book in the Reckless series from Image, writer Ed Brubaker projects another tale with a film-noir bent.
Ethan Reckless is restless, and out of town. Meanwhile, his movie projectionist Anna is approached to help solve the mystery of a haunted house. A former B-Movie ’scream queen’ is sensing havoc in the attic, and something wicked coming out of the basement. Who knows, is the Scream Queen running on all eight cylinders, or just smoking too much? Anyway, Anna goes for it, doing investigative sleuthing around the old Beverly Hills mansion. Swimming pools, dead movie stars, that sort of thing. And immediately wades into danger.
Brubaker tells this one with his trademark aplomb, but perhaps The Ghost In You comes up a bit light. It’s certainly brighter in visual tone, due to triangular-shaped areas of colour by Jacob Phillips tending more toward sun-washed surroundings. Oh, there is the usual ‘creeping around my back stairs’, and ‘don’t go in the basement’, the sooty treads of dread. But Anna is sporting mauve hair, and the sun is beaming down on the California town. It is a powerful visual telling, though, with strong linear art by Sean Phillips. The lifelike poses, the aged in the sun faces, the dark shadows of our discontent. But the conversations are a bit lighter, the punches few and further between. The telegraphed bad guys are evident, or at least we know who to squint pie-eyed at.
Overall, I’m being picky, aren’t I? As if I am at the Olympics, and the perfect score is flawed by a minor infraction. This really is another excellent read in the Reckless series. We have it so lucky as readers. ‘The Ghost In You-going’ is good, the risks are real, the underbelly is smoldering with unrequited torment, and all is swell in the darkened alley of comic book reading.
Image Comics, The Ghost In You, Hardcover $24.99 for 152 pages, Mature content.
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