Ghost Projekt #5

Written by Joe Harris
Art by Steve Rolston

While this is easily the most perplexing issue of this mini-series, Harris and Rolston bring their post-Soviet bio-warfare supernatural story to a fitting close.

This series began as a very conventional story about an American chemical weapons inspector working in Russia when there is a theft of some strange canisters, and as it continued, became more and more a horror thriller.

In this issue, Harris brings together all of his various plots, but ends up choosing to end the series with a few new surprises, and an ambiguous ending (which steals a little from Raiders of the Lost Ark).  Rolston has provided this title with some great art throughout, and I enjoyed the characterizations.  This is worth picking up in trade.

Ghost Projekt #3

Written by Joe Harris
Art by Steve Rolston

This slightly odd post-Soviet supernatural bioweapons story is moving along very nicely.  This time around, we learn a lot more about Konstantin, who has been set up as the villain of the story, and we learn a little more about the Militsiya inspector who has been assigned to work with Will.

I like how so many seemingly disparate threads - the Mongols, the hypnotism using folk dolls - are starting to come together to give the narrative structure.  This is a very well paced comic.

The story has been pretty cool, but it is frequently upstaged by Rolston's wonderful pencils.  He should be doing a lot more comics work, and would do wonderfully on an off-beat superhero title (something like Birds of Prey I think).

One Bad Day

by Steve Rolston

This is a fun little book from the artist on The Escapists and Queen & Country. Rolston tells the story of Marie, a typical downtown Toronto 20-something, who is out with her best friend when she happens to see an old friend from high school. As he crosses the street to greet her, he is hit by a car, and badly injured.

Marie and friend take him to the hospital, and then later discover that they are being followed by some creepy bald guy that looks like Mr. X. From there, Marie's life is turned upside down, as people with guns start chasing her, and a whole lot of bad things begin to happen (including having to go to a party for her cousin from Scarborough).

This is an enjoyable and quick read. Rolston's art is as great as usual, and the choice to use pale green ink instead of black gives the book a unique look. I'm predisposed to like it because it's a very Toronto piece of work, but I would like to see more from Rolston in this vein.

Queen and Country Definitive Edition Volume 3

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Steve Rolston, Mike Norton, and Chris Samnee

I want to start by saying how much I like these Definitive Editions that Oni is publishing. They are very well-made, and look very handsome on the bookcase.

I really don't know why I didn't do a better job of picking up Queen & Country as it came out - I think its sporadic publication schedule kept me away from it, which I regret, except that I now own these three (soon to be four) beautiful editions.

This one contains Queen & Country at its best, and also deals with the biggest problem I have with the series, all in one book.

To start, the prologue for Operation Saddlebags, wherein Chace takes a few days off to meet up with her mother, has to be the absolute best issue in the series. Rucka has nailed Chace as a character since the first issue, but this one really helps to explain why she's as tough as she is. It's a terrific character study, and very well illustrated by original Q&C artist Steve Rolston.

The remaining chapters of Saddlebag, drawn by Mike Norton, tell the story of Chace's first mission as Minder One, which she screws up. All the usual elements of suspense are in play, and the story is gripping.

Now we come to my complaint, which is a common one from what I've read. Between Operation: Saddlebags and Operation: Red Panda (which closes the series), there is a novel, which I've neither ever seen or read. Now, I'd be okay with that if, like in most suspense novels, nothing happens to change the status quo, but instead, we see a huge pile of changes in Chace when we get her back in comic form. Personally, I think that her relationship with Wallace reads a little falsely - if there were hints of this coming, I missed them (maybe I need to reread the earlier editions). Regardless, a page of text to summarise the novel might have helped a lot. Instead, as you read through Red Panda, you have try to figure out what happened as you go.

Other than that problem, Red Panda is a great story, illustrated by the more than capable Chris Samnee. In many ways, this story is the most suspenseful to date, because of the fact that it ends off the comic series, meaning that anything can happen. Until you learn that there's another novel....

After this, the book is padded with the scripts for the entire first arc of the series. Personally, I found more than one issue's worth to be a little boring, and so I only read the marginalia provided by Rucka. But if you like that sort of thing, I'm sure this is right up your alley.