Baltimore: The Plague Ships #3

Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Art by Ben Stenbeck

When this title started, I was impressed by the art and the strong storytelling, but I was pretty lost as to the character of Lord Baltimore, mostly because I'd never read the novel where he debuted.

Over the last two issues of this comic, the authors have filled in most of the important information about his character, and this issue contains a revelation about the genesis of the plague that has swept the world, effectively ending the Great War.

At first, I assumed that this comic would have Baltimore in conflict just with vampires, but Mignola and Golden are giving us a much wider range of creature than that.  This issue has strange floating jelly fish which are reminiscent of the War of the World Martian ships, as well as zombie-like creatures and creepy purple fungus.

Stenbeck's really hitting it out of the park with this title.  The scenes set amid wrecked submarines are seriously foreboding.  If you are not a reader of Mignola's other titles, this is a nice introduction to his aesthetic, as Baltimore is not a part of that shared universe.