Baltimore: The Plague Ships #4

Written by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden
Art by Ben Stenbeck

Mignola and Golden have taken an interesting approach to this comic.  Instead of starting the story with the character's beginnings, they have instead been portioning out Lord Baltimore's back story in small chunks, starting with the second issue.  I know this isn't necessarily a new technique, but I find that it is is a strange way of doing things with such a new character whose story has already been told in another medium (there is a novel), which I would presume most of the readership of this comic never read (like me).

It led to the first issue being confusing, although now I find the series to be much more compelling, as I feel more sure of the ground that we're on.

In this issue, Baltimore and Vanessa, his companion, are still stuck on the creepy island with a bunch of wrecked ships that we saw last month.  With no imminent rescue on the horizon, Baltimore continues to tell her his life story, this time talking about the events that took place when he returned home to his ancestral island.  The story is pretty predictable, but Mignola and Golden write it well, and Stenbeck's art is fantastic.