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connorrooke's review
1.0
A book where the main character's hard drinking, drug use, and swearing try to take the place of personality and fail miserably. Don't bother with this. It sucks.
sincrusade's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
rmgebhardt's review
3.0
Half of this omnibus is great supernatural noir... the other half is barely readable. It's strange, but when Niles is writing and Templesmith is doing the art the stories seemed eerie, menacing, and sardonically dark. When Jones is doing the art, however, it gets cartoon-ish (the art AND the writing) and cliched. I'm not sure if Niles was attempting to write to the artist's styles, but going forward he should only write Cal MacDonald stories if Ben Templesmith is doing the art.
trike's review
3.0
Darkly irreverent and ever so grim, the Cal McDonald stories are supernatural noir at its noirest. Which is totally a word. Very bloody and sometimes funny, at the end of the day this is pretty dark stuff, bordering on the nihilistic.
panthor's review
3.0
The rating is mainly for the artwork in the first half, which was cool but sometimes confusing. The stories were so-so. At some points I couldn't believe that vampires, werewolves and ghouls could be so boring.
realbooks4ever's review
4.0
Dark Horse Digital Comics had a Criminal Macabre bundle (issues #1-5) on sale and it sounded like the perfect story; a strung-out ex-cop fights ex-humans in the sewers underneath Los Angeles. I loved it! This first story arc is a great beginning that introduces the world of Cal McDonald. I’m sure I’ll like the following stories as well. The Volume 1 Omnibus only has issues #1-3, but this review also covers Issues #4 and #5 which appear in Volume 2.
Personally, I usually feel like I could scream if I hear about yet another book with ‘zombies’, but this book is different. No real zombies. Ghouls, yes. Werewolves, yes. Vampires, yes. Ghouls are in between life and death – they aren’t alive so they don’t need to aggressively attack things (e.g. humans) for food but they aren’t completely dead either. They walk around looking, well, ghoulie. The main theme is not how werewolves and vampires are attacking people, it’s about Cal’s discovery that both kinds of monsters are actually grouping together and organizing the conquest of humans. He must stop them.
Cal’s sidekick is Mo’Lock, a ghoul. Mo’Lock makes a few ghoul jokes, but my favorite character is the armless ghoul Tabitha. She makes a very brief appearance but has the best line of all. I won’t spoil it for you.
Ben Templesmith’s artistic interpretation is a messy shadowy environment, perfect for creatures to come leaping and snarling out of the dark. It seems to get messier as the story moves from Issue #1 through Issue #5.
Communication is brief between the characters but that’s to be expected in a noir story. The characters are believable unless you don’t believe in ghouls. Don’t you?! As previously stated, Cal is an ex-cop, thrown off the force due to drugs and alcohol, which he still consumes in mass quantities. He’s currently hunting down vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night, to save Los Angeles from their mayhem. His friend on the force, Detective Lt. Brueger, doesn’t have much personality; she mostly serves as another sidekick.
One thing that stood out wonderfully for me is the way Templesmith’s art portrays violence. Sure there’s blood, but in the scattered way the artwork is done it isn’t realistically gruesome like Frank Quitely’s work in We3 (which was a big detraction from enjoying that title). I really don’t want to see every piece of gristle.
I’d definitely recommend this book. Fun ghouls, talking heads, and an ex-cop who doesn’t care if you don’t like him; what’s not to love?
Personally, I usually feel like I could scream if I hear about yet another book with ‘zombies’, but this book is different. No real zombies. Ghouls, yes. Werewolves, yes. Vampires, yes. Ghouls are in between life and death – they aren’t alive so they don’t need to aggressively attack things (e.g. humans) for food but they aren’t completely dead either. They walk around looking, well, ghoulie. The main theme is not how werewolves and vampires are attacking people, it’s about Cal’s discovery that both kinds of monsters are actually grouping together and organizing the conquest of humans. He must stop them.
Cal’s sidekick is Mo’Lock, a ghoul. Mo’Lock makes a few ghoul jokes, but my favorite character is the armless ghoul Tabitha. She makes a very brief appearance but has the best line of all. I won’t spoil it for you.
Ben Templesmith’s artistic interpretation is a messy shadowy environment, perfect for creatures to come leaping and snarling out of the dark. It seems to get messier as the story moves from Issue #1 through Issue #5.
Communication is brief between the characters but that’s to be expected in a noir story. The characters are believable unless you don’t believe in ghouls. Don’t you?! As previously stated, Cal is an ex-cop, thrown off the force due to drugs and alcohol, which he still consumes in mass quantities. He’s currently hunting down vampires, werewolves, and things that go bump in the night, to save Los Angeles from their mayhem. His friend on the force, Detective Lt. Brueger, doesn’t have much personality; she mostly serves as another sidekick.
One thing that stood out wonderfully for me is the way Templesmith’s art portrays violence. Sure there’s blood, but in the scattered way the artwork is done it isn’t realistically gruesome like Frank Quitely’s work in We3 (which was a big detraction from enjoying that title). I really don’t want to see every piece of gristle.
I’d definitely recommend this book. Fun ghouls, talking heads, and an ex-cop who doesn’t care if you don’t like him; what’s not to love?
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