Review – Alabaster: The Good, The Bad, and The Bird #2 (of 5) (Dark Horse)

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Writer: Caitlín R Kiernan
Artist: Darren Warren Johnson
Release Date: 13th January, 2016

As ever the cover art of Alabaster: The Good, the Bad and the Bird is beautiful: Greg Ruth presents an almost mythical scene in a blend of pale pastels, in which Maisie waits in a graveyard, overseen by a classical angel statue that seems to be part of the rolling clouds. This simple image sets the subject and tone of the issue perfectly: Maisie mourns her legendary lost lover Dancy Flammarion, the albino girl who slayed monsters at the behest of a creature claiming to be a Seraph before her untimely death at Maisie’s hands.

Maisie has thus literally surrounded herself by death, waiting in graveyards and preying on the recently bereaved by claiming to be a spiritual medium. Despite insisting to Bird, her only friend, that it’s been over a year since Dancy died and that she needs to move on, Maisie admits that she is still having nightmares about the night Dancy died. Maisie’s choice to scrape a living under the guise of communicating between the living and the dead is therefore emblematic of her state of mind. This is highlighted by Darren Warren Johnson’s artwork, which captures the swampy, dense and gothic Georgia in dark panels complemented perfectly by Carlos Badilla’s dark, earthy tones.

The religious and existential elements set out in the first issue of this mini-series are sustained in this episode, in the appearance of the titular Bird. From the initial cover art, in which Bird is seen poised on the shoulder of the angel statue, he acts not only as a guardian for Maisie but also weighs in on her decisions and feelings – particularly in regards to her guilty conscience in killing Dancy – in a strange reflection of Dancy’s unquestioning resolve to do the Seraph’s bidding, which raises some interesting questions about religion and devotion.

The introductory issue to this mini-series was a wonderful return, and the dichotomy of Dancy’s dimensional white void and shattered mind against the dark dealings on Earth was a captivating blend. The absence of Dancy is very much felt in this instalment, exacerbated by Maisie’s mourning. Dancy’s existential, poetic phrases from writer Caitlín R Kiernan in the previous issue are missing, as are the jarring palettes to colour each dimension. This instalment really does feel like a bridge between Dancy’s death and return and offers little answers in the way of questions posed in the initial issue.

Hunter and Carson, the masked women seeking an object belonging to Dancy, which was paid for with a bound human captive whose resolution is not disclosed, are revealed to be a pair of twisted twins. Their mysterious quest and its relationship to Dancy is again hinted at but this second issue very much Maisie’s story; the twins are visited by creatures from Maisie’s past and it is clear that the hunters have now become the hunted.

Overall, it is always a privilege to become lost in the wonderfully unique and mythical world of Dancy Flammarion – it’s just more magical when she’s in it.

Rating: 3/5.

PREVIEW ARTWORK
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