Witch Doctor #1

Written by Brandon Seifert
Art by Lukas Ketner

I wasn't originally going to give this series a try, mostly because the cover to this first issue didn't appeal to me, but after reading the preview zero issue in last month's issue of Walking Dead, I changed my mind.

Witch Doctor is a mash-up of Dr. Strange, Jeff Parker's Mysterius the Unfathomable, and the TV show House, M.D.  Doctor Morrow is Earth's Witch Doctor; the person charged with defending humanity from supernatural diseases and infections.  In the preview issue, he explored the medical origins of vampirism, discovering that vampires are just aggressive parasitoids that inhabit their victims.

In this issue, Dr. Morrow confronts a rare and complicated case of parasitic diabolis, which in layman's terms, is demonic possession.  Dr. Morrow has a bleak and ineffective bedside manner, as evidenced by the way in which, in outlining his course of treatment, he ends up chasing away the parents of his patient.

This is a pretty creative and unique comic.  It's clear that Siefert has spent more time thinking about the medical implications of the supernatural, and everything in this comic, while completely fantastical, has an internal logic behind it that makes things credible.  His work on developing these characters is strong too.

Ketner's art reminds me a little of Neal Adams, and he's clearly having a blast designing the strange apparatus and devices that Morrow uses.  I'm definitely on board with this series now.