Publisher: Dynamite
Writers: Jim Butcher and Mark Powers
Artist: Carlos Gomez
Release Date: 11th February, 2015

Having given us a sortie into the middle of the Dresden story with the rather tasty, Lovercraftian “War Cry”, we now get the follow-up. To bring you up to speed, there’s a whole lot of books (15 so far), a dire TV series, an excellent RPG, and somewhat hit and miss comics (more hit, to be fair). We’re still in the middle of the war that floats around books 8-12, and so now we find ourselves heading towards “Small Favor”.

I’m going to repeat myself – sorry – but to summarise: the Dresden books are Urban Fantasy: hardboiled noir, Harry’s the only wizard in the Chicago phone book (no love potions or bottomless wallets). The magic is well thought-out (difficult, complex, and obeys a certain sort of logic), the setting rich in references to myth, legend, and geek culture. Without going into too much backstory/fanboy obsession, the series is set in the middle of the White Council’s (“good” wizards) ongoing war with the Red Court of vampires: there are 3 bloodlines of vampires, with the Hispanic Red Court the most visible – they can masquerade as human, they feed on blood, they are monstrous bat-like skin sacks; and, they turn humans most regularly, as well as using them as slaves. We also get the White Court (psychic vampires) this time around, which is always fun.

Once again, the difficulty is accessibility: do you need to know the books, at all or in their entirety or anywhere in between, to get this comic? This time, there’s no slightly laboured exposition a la War Cry; it’s kinda taken as a given that this is playing to the fan. This is not a comic for the newbie, or someone who’s just dropped off the back of a #SaveConstantine thread. That being said, it’s a tremendous read; in fact, it’s a comic that is very much for the non-comic, novel reader. Structurally the pacing is utterly atypical, and this feels like a chapter rather than an issue – I was worried about a contrived cliffhanger, and it dodges that expertly. Instead, this is a very well executed piece of writing, that really will engage the book-nosing, comic-eschewing reader. And the art is there too: Gomez “gets” the characters dead-on (Molly, his apprentice, is not quite as I imagined, and yet, perfect), and once again, works for my litmus test: the non-comic fan that is my wife, who is reading “Small Favor” just now; she leant over my shoulder and said, “Hey, you’re reading Dresden? I take it that’s Gard and Marcone. Nice axe.”

“Down Town” is pure, unadulterated Dresden, and this is unapologetically the beginnings of a great graphic novel. And who knows, maybe someone who’s a total non-fan can prove me wrong, and love this too; I hope so.

Rating: 4/5 because I’m splitting the difference between a 3 and 5.

The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
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