Writer / Penciller / Colour Artist: / Letterer: Tyler Crook / Design: Patrick Satterfield / Digital Art Technician: Joey Weaver / Editors: Daniel Chabon, Chuck Howitt-Lease, Misha Gehr / TP / Collects: The Lonesome Hunters: The Wolf Child #1-#4 / Dark Horse Comics
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Review by: Paul Dunne
19th December 2024 (Released: 28 February 2024)
The Pitch: From Russ Manning Award-winning and Eisner-nominated Harrow County co-creator Tyler Crook comes this supernatural fantasy about loss, power, and destiny. Monster hunters Howard and Lupe are on their way to get rid of the powerful sword, but car trouble leaves them stranded in a small town that is being terrorized by a magical wolf and a mysterious child in a wolf mask. While waiting for car repairs, Lupe befriends the child and she and Howard are drawn into a war between the townspeople and the deadly beasts.
Lonesome Hunters, in case you missed it, was one of the best books of 2023. It arrived on the scene with an excellent pedigree (the publisher of Hellboy, the artist of Harrow County), and more than lived up to those antecedents. It had a beautiful atmosphere and mood, and a curious story, steeped in backwoods, down-home magic. But here, the spectre of death lingers. And the beasts are making themselves known...
As you may remember if you caught that first volume, Howard and Lupe are our heroes. You just wouldn't know it from the life they're living. On the run with a magical sword, hidden in a matchbox, they hope from motel to motel - or at least they do if their car is working. We catch them mid-breakdown, with their captured magpie in tow. Lupe shows her compassion early, releasing the magpie and giving him half a locket - treasure - in the hope that he'll become a friend. In the woods near their now useless car, Lupe spots a small child in a wolf mask and so begins the next phase of their journey.
'Journey' is a loose term of course. They're stuck right where they are. Instead, it's a journey of discovery about themselves and what lies in the heartlands. Their own and America's. On the amusing, heartwarming end of the scale, Howard watches the anime that Lupe is obsessed with, and so much fun comes from watching an elderly man grapple with modern entertainment. And of thereby, with modern myth. For Lupe, the journey is wider in scope and darker in pitch as she learns more about Howard, his past and the sword they're on their way to destroy. Like all people, Lupe is trying to use the future to make sense of her past. But some mysteries don't want to be solved. The myth is real here and Howard knows where it has to end. Others in the book undertake journeys, too. The Church that Howard checks in with sends three 'Missionaries' to find him and bring back the sword. Within themselves, they also take journeys. And perhaps theirs will end at the limits of their morals. Ultimately, the question I found myself asking is 'Does the weapon do the damage, or does the person that wields it?'.
All that may sound vague, but I'm trying to leave you unspoiled as possible. This may seem redundant for a book that arrived nearly a year ago, but it's best to be careful. There's a timelessness to Crook's work (despite Lupe pestering Howard for a cell phone) that makes you feel you can drop in on it at any time. So that's what I did. Never too late, eh? There's a fable-esque quality to the book, something that judging by this second volume, will only become more prominent in the book to come. His art is beautiful, bringing with it the textured look of old paints and the alchemy of someone who really knows how to colour and make the world both real and imaginary all at once. One feels Crook is taking fictions he loves, especially the religion based, or anti-religious books such as Pullman's Dark Materials stories, or to a certain degree The Box of Delights by John Masefield, fusing elements and making something new. In that sense, he's speaking the same speech they did with a new voice, saying that the best hope for moving away from restrictive doctrines of the past is via new generations. The children carry the torch that lights the way. In that sense, I hope for more of these. I love Howard and Luoe and will follow them anywhere, on any journey.
