Review: Treat Yourself to a Little Nightmare Before Christmas, Ala Jason Dark!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 4, 2012
I must admit, I did not know much about Penny Dreadfuls until I discovered Guido Henkel was reviving the genre with his Jason Dark series. All I knew was that they were novellas that were being written around the turn of the previous century and sold for a penny. What I did not know is that they were serial stories and were the precursor to the modern day graphic novel.Given this information, I chose a Jason Dark Mysteries to read. I wanted to see if it brought back my childhood experiences with Creepy Comics and Terror Tales.I was happily surprised to find that Guido successfully paints scenarios and monsters inhabiting nineteenth century London with the language and tone I cultivated a fondness for during my horror comic phase as a young lad.DEMON'S NIGHT, A JASON DARK MYSTERY is an enjoyable ride through the historical prism of the Penny Dreadful.In Demon's Night, Guido sets the stage with the mysterious unloading of a ship during a fog soaked night, and an amorphous human-killing demon in search of an entity known initially as The Father.  After the demon devours the life force of a few innocent dockworkers, Jason Dark--a third generation ghost hunter--reads about the discovery a shriveled up corpse in the morning paper and decides to investigate.Dark's investigation ultimately leads him to rescue Siu Lin from the hands of a demon-possessed man in China Town. Dark wins his first confrontation but he has earned a mortal enemy. Unfortunately, Dark was too late to save Siu Lin's parents from the demon and Dark, along with his widowed sister-in-law Lady Wellesly, take Siu Lin in.As it turns out Siu Lin has knowledge of ghosts, which are culturally accepted in her native China. She quickly takes a liking to Dark and his ghost hunting career and the two of them embark on a search to hunt the demon down before it can unleash The Father into our world.If you enjoy the literary style of graphic novels with parallel action, quick turn of events, and the teasing of character, you'll enjoy the fast ride of the Jason Dark novellas--sans graphics of course.