Matt Lowder Reviews COUNT CROWLEY, VOLUMES ONE & TWO

Guest columnist Matt Lowder reviews Count Crowley Volumes 1 and 2 (Dark Horse Comics, 2020 and 2022) by David Dastmalchian.  Overall Rating: Four out of a possible Five Stars.  

A love letter to 1980's horror kitsch, County Crowley: Reluctant Monster Hunter #1 is the Lois Lane/Jessica Jones mashup that you didn't know you needed." - - - Newsarama

Actor David Dastmalchian has turned in memorable performances in many comic book films – including The Dark Knight, the Ant-Man films and the most incredible Polka Dot Man in The Suicide Squad – but he’s also a long time comics reader. He even hosted a horror awards show for Shudder, and has other IMDB credits. It wasn’t until this year I realized these were all the same dude!

So this begins as many horror books do, as a horror tale set in the '80s. It stars Jerri Bartman, a struggling alcoholic and TV journalist in her Midwest hometown who gets booted from news coverage due to behavior and embarrassingly has to takeover as a midnight monster movie host for her podunk TV station manager and brother. The comic drips authentic self-hate and apathy. But we’re cheering for her to climb out of it, and she’s not unlikeable, thank God. Pencils and inks are really confident, with excellent use of space and dynamic compositions, and creative angles. Colors improve in Volume 2.  Both books are surprisingly witty and funny.

COUNTY CROWLEY, VOLUME 1: RELUCTANT MIDNIGHT MONSTER HUNTER by David Dastmalchian and Lukas Ketner (Dark Horse, June 2020) Trade paperback, 104 pages

The first mini-series, Count Crowley: "Reluctant" Midnight Monster, chronicled Jerri’s ongoing struggles with alcohol dependence – and her discovery that monsters are real. She's pulled reluctantly into it as the title suggests, and takes no shit from an old geezer monster hunter who doubts women can do what he's done. She's firey as F*** after that.

 Jerri quickly learns that there is more to horror hosting than just introducing bad B-movies. Her first night in the costume of her missing predecessor, Count Crowley, finds her face to face with a living, breathing . . . werewolf. She wasn't that drunk, right? The werewolf art is fantastic. 

COUNT CROWLEY, VOULME 2: AMATEUR MIDNIGHT MONSTER HUNTER by David Dastmalchian and Lukas Ketner (Dark Horse, October 2022) Trade paperback, 104 pages.

 In the sequel Jerri continues her path to redemption and successful A.A. meetings, and discovers that vampires are stalking her small hometown. 

     It's been a hell of a week for Jerri Bartman. She lost her job, crashed her car, took the only gig available hosting the midnight monster show, and, oh yeah, dismembered a zombie. No big deal. Now, to protect the people she loves, she's going to have to take a crash course in monster hunting. And quickly--a vengeful vampire just booked a first-class flight into town. Some major story points are revealed, but not enough for a four-issue arc.

     My big beef with this series is they are woefully too short. Each of these SUPER FUN arcs should have been six issues and I feel like, especially with this year's 2022 effort, almost zero story beats are resolved after a fun reveal in the final page. Dastmalchian needs to pump out another arc and fast. It was much too brisk in the plot department, though the world building and character stuff has me hooked. I was really cranky these were so short, but in the most complimentary way! Action and mythology is strong.

      I recently re-read these as a single eight-issue arc and my opinion and rating of them improved. This will be a great 16-issue hardback in a few years if he closes this comic out with two more strong volumes. Let's Go!