Review – Ash & Thorn #4 (Ahoy Comics)

Publisher: Ahoy Comics
Writer: Mariah McCourt
Artist: Soo Lee
Colourist: Pippa Bowland
Lettering: Rob Steen
Release Date: 19th August 2020

Peruvia has gone completely to the dark side and is off to join the forces of evil, leaving Lottie, Sarah and Pickle in charge of saving the world. And with the fate of mankind resting on the quality of the next batch of Battle Scones, we may be in trouble.

Peruvia has failed the test spectacularly, and all the power that she’s gained has sent her just a little bit crazy, to the point where the phrase getting into bed with the enemy (from what I can tell) may not just be a figure of speech. Lottie is still standing however, and appears to be at that ‘strapping a flamethrower to a plasma rifle’ stage in the proceedings. Oh, and much to everyone’s surprise, Sarah has gotten really good at spells, really quickly. Even the naked blue fairy seems to be coming round to the idea that helping out is a better alternative than unending suffering and oblivion.

Okay, I take it all back. I hereby retract every single doubt and concern I had in my review of the previous issue. This issue is fantastic and, for me, is the best issue in the series so far. In my defence I would add though that my concerns with the last issue were solely based around concern for characters I’ve become invested in. So far, this series has had some very good writing and this latest chapter in particular just takes that extra step up and really gives us a story that is a lot of fun and has some great twists. To my shame I’ve not read any of Mariah McCourt’s other work, but on the strength of this series so far I’m definitely looking to remedy that as quickly as possible.

The artwork in this latest issue also seems to have taken a step up. I’m always going to be drawn to the Lovecraftian, and some of Soo Lee’s creature design is most definitely that! Considering that this is on the more light-hearted side of Lovecraftian Horror, there are some very well thought out and interesting images in this issue, and I would definitely like to see her take on some of the darker and more esoteric realms of the genre.

Apologies for this being a relatively short review this month, there is so much I want to tell you about but I can’t without really spoiling the issue for you. Safe to say that this is series that, if you haven’t already picked it up, you really need to!

Rating: 4/5.

[PREVIEW ARTWORK – CLICK TO ENLARGE]