Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
Texarcanum #1
Writer: Christopher Monfette
Artist: Miguel Martos
Color Artist: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Michael Heisler
Editor: Rose Weitz
I knew nothing about this title going into it and absolutely, completely, adoringly, loved every single panel and word balloon. Holy shit was this a fun ride.
Dark Horse's Texarcanum was a book that sparked my interest a few months back just by reading the solicit text from Diamond Comics, back when Diamond Comics released advance solicits and back when Diamond Comics was actually a thing. All I had to go on was this text:
America is a melting pot for the supernatural. Ghosts and gods, angels and demons, horror stories and tall-tales, they’ve traveled from across the globe to collide in the rural Heartland… and cowboy arcanist Avery Belle has spent a very long lifetime amongst them. Horror noir meets Elmore Leonard in the mystic Mid-West.
And I, like many of us, I suppose, like myths and legends, folk horror and the intersection between old monsters and modern living. I read American Gods and watched most of the TV series. So I added Texarcanum to my pull list based on that copy alone. Didn't read a sample, didn't see any art. Just intrigued enough to take a gamble. And take it from me, this one's a keeper. I'm beside myself that it's only four issues.
The book opens with some juicy backstory. As young America begins expanding west, in the form of settlers in covered wagons, it's offered a deal by a mysterious man in black. Go no further, and your fledgling nation will be safe. Continue on and subject yourselves to the supernatural whims and attacks of those-who-were-here-before. America keeps moving west, and a history of mayhem ensues.
Avery Belle is just one of those people who can read the situation and diagnose a cure, whether that cure is exorcism or combat. After a ridiculous exorcism of a trailer park, he's called to Texarcana, where the Ten Plagues of the Bible are being reenacted in a little town called Odette. Locusts and boils progress to self-mutilation (to relieve the pressure of a stomach full of rattlesnakes) and an entire hospital ward chanting in tongues and levitating above their beds. And once Belle figures out what's going on, it just leads to exciting confrontations and a bigger conspiracy to suss out.
This one is a hit straight out of the gate. I know I dithered a bit on some of the books I've read for this column, but it outshines more or less all of the books I've read from Marvel this year. Texarcanum is clever, well-read, and very creative. There's so much weirdness packed into this floppy issue, that I didn't feel like anything dragged. If anything, this could be expanded to TV easily so scenes could go on a little longer. It's a little heavy on dialogue, but it's all infused with great character that rings throughout every interaction.
Monfette is kind of an unknown quantity in comics, I've seen him do Clive Barker's Hellraiser for BOOM, but nothing else. He's got a bit of a pedigree though, as a producer on Picard and 9-1-1, so he knows a bit of the biz already. PLEASE let him be developing this for TV.
Miguel Martos's art is surprisingly detailed for as much that has to go into this book. Again, it's enthusiastically creative: backstory told in polaroids, or within the slashes left behind in a claw attack. As far as I can tell, he hasn't done any other big publisher stuff, but his work on Texarcanum is evocative of Ramon Villalobos, and that's a great thing.
I love stories where something sinister is creeping below the surface of small-town America and Texarcanum isn't just "there's a killer clown that's been haunting this town in Maine for centuries", it's "there's all kinds of shit that can plague us at any time, and anywhere, and it's up to the pros to sort it all out". We see cattle mutilations, haunted scarecrows, wendigos, and a goddamn exorcism of a trailer park using a lasso. This is Preacher done up in four issues, American Gods where there's no gods, just the little collateral damage that comes with them. MAKE THIS AN ONGOING SERIES, DARK HORSE.
I have to give it to Dark Horse as a publisher, too. They've stepped down their publication schedule of late, but what they are choosing to release has been top-tier work. I remember moving to NYC in 2003 and probably getting most of Dark Horse's new releases every month. Now there are weeks when they don't have anything new on shelves. A strategic approach to releasing phenomenal work has only shown a spotlight on publishers that just crank out tons of new titles every month with a moderate control on quality. Texarcanum is that high point that I can point to and say, "There. That's what comics should be. Smart, funny, creative, and good."
Art: 5/5
Story twists: 5/5
The only book this month with an exorcism of a trailer park: 5/5
Sinister intrigue: 5/5
Final score: Colonizers: 0, Native myths: 10
Verdict: Run, don't walk, to the store to get on board with this. More attention to this book will give Dark Horse the signal to order more.
