Witch Doctor: Malpractice #3 – Review

By: Brandon Seifert (writer), Lukas Ketner (art), Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: Dr. Morrow goes to confront the villains who infected him with a horrible disease.

Review (with trivial SPOILERS): Again, this is another wonderful issue of this series.  Witch Doctor is funny, snappy and expertly illustrated.  There’s really nothing to not love about this title.  If it came out 12 times per year, you’d see it on a lot of people’s “Best ongoing comic” lists.

Witch Doctor: Malpractice #2 – Review

By: Brandon Siefert (writer/letters), Lukas Ketner (art), Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: Dr. Morrow has been infected by a deadly parasite that necessitates some calls for magical help.

Quick review: Usually when I review Witch Doctor, I wax poetic – or try to – about the stunning artwork of Lukas Ketner.  We’ll get into some of the artwork below, but it would be unfair to not give a mention to the clever and fun story that is being written by Brandon Siefert.  There are a lot of parallels to other popular franchises like House, Harry Potter, Ghostbusters and Hellraiser.  I’m sure there are some cynical people out there who disparage anything as being a “knock-off” of some other franchise, but that really isn’t fair as there really aren’t any novel ideas and it all comes down to how well the creators execute of their story of choice.

Witch Doctor: Resuscitation One-Shot – Review

By: Brandon Siefert (writer & letters), Lukas Ketner (art), Andy Troy (colors) & Sina Grace (editor)

The Story: Our titular Witch Doctor runs into a necromancer on a case that has ties to an urban myth about waking up in a tub full of ice.

Five Things: 

1. LOVE these characters! – In 5 short issues (4-issue miniseries, plus this one-shot), this creative team has really made me LOVE these characters.  Dr. Vincent Morrow has this great, hurried swagger where he knows just what the problem is but doesn’t want to suffer any fools along the way.  He’s kinda like a comic version of House without the limp.  Then there is the weirdness of Penny, who looks like the scrawny, heroin addict with stringy hair and a hoodie. But she’s hosting a demon and literally eats monsters for sustenance.  Finally we have Gast, who is the everyman helper and brute force for the team.  It helps to have one “normal” member of the team for the reader to identify with and help us see just how strange their world really is.

2. Art is very Wrightson-esque. – I look at Ketner’s art and it reminds me instantly of Bernie Wrightson.  Hopefully you can appreciate what high praise that is because Wrightson is one of the absolute masters of comic art.  Other times, he reminds me of Tony Harris (again, high praise).  He uses this fine line and pours incredible amounts of detail into his panels.  Unlike a lot of artists whose work gets worse the more detail they add, Ketner’s work get’s better.  This is one of the best looking books that Image is publishing right now (colors too).

3. Whacky paranormal stuff galore. [SPOILER ALERT] – There are all kinds of fun things in here if you like the paranormal.  For starters, it begins with a guy finding himself in a tub full of ice with an incision in his side (Yay!  Urban Myths!).  Only, as it turned out, no one stole his kidneys. The necromancer has put IN the kidney of old Egyptian pharaoh in hopes of bringing him back.  And the necromancer has a familiar that is based on her own stillborn child.  And there’s all the insanity with Penny and her extensible, poison injecting fingers.  It’s just a riot of the wacky and weird.

Witchdoctor #3 – Review

By: Brandon Siefert (writer & letterer), Lukas Ketner (art), Sunny Gho & Andy Troy (colors) & Sina Grace (editor)

The Story: The world around Dr. Morrow begins to come into focus as his gang raids an lair of aquatic beasties.

Review: This is a pretty hot comic.  The first thing that lunges out at me is the incredible art that Lukas Ketner is doing.  Maybe it’s because of the monsters in the series, but it really reminds me of Bernie Wrightson and anytime someone compares your art to Wrightson’s….you’re doing something right.  There’s nothing not to love about this linework from the intricate brushwork to the really cool monster designs.  It’s very nicely colored too.

Actually, that creature design is so important to this issue that it’s hard to confine its discussion to “the art” (as in “I liked the art.  I also liked the story.”).  In one particular sequence, there’s this comatose aquatic monster strapped to the table.  Big, nasty, toothy bastard with fins all over him.  Of course….he busts loose, but before he can do anything he is taken down by one of the main characters: Penny.  We don’t get to see the actual take down, but when we flip the page, Penny has this huge monster in her arms and is eating it .  The visual on Penny is just priceless.  She’s a scrawny 14-ish-year old girl who is possessed by a demon who compels her to eat monsters.  Except that the demon is manifesting through her mouth and she has these weird appendages protruding from her mouth to bite the aquatic dude.  It sounds nasty as I’m typing it, and it is nasty to look at on the page, but it’s pretty rare to get visuals these days that impress in this way.