AUTHOR & ARTIST: WILLIAM CRAWFORD HAZLE | PUBLISHER: TERRIER COMICS | FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
There exists a supernatural underworld of monsters and a scant few who stand guard against them. One of these is Ailsa Dark, who when not vamping it up as the host of an Elvira-like internet horror show, wages a one-woman war against the forces of darkness, protecting the citizens of Glasgow from forces they remain blissfully unaware of.
The story largely acts as an introduction to the city of urban horror, throwing character beats and exposition to build the world and let us begin to get to know its heroine. After investigating a werewolf kill Ailsa is drawn into a conspiracy to enact an ancient blood rite by a radical faction of the shapeshifters, and must do all she can to prevent chaos from erupting on the city streets. Meanwhile, a pair of cannibalistic ghouls reminiscent of the ilk of Sawney Bean watch Ailsa from bushes and rooftops while she deals with the lycanthropes, biding their time until the right moment to reveal themselves.
Ailsa herself is something of an enigma. Almost nothing of her past is revealed, leaving us to only speculate what experiences led to the creation of a woman unfazed by anything the world of the supernatural has to throw at her. There is nothing revealed of what first drove her to assume the role of the city’s nocturnal guardian, and her efficiency of operation and network of contacts suggests that she has been operating for quite some time.
Almost every panel is seriously word-heavy, either from lengthy dialogue or caption boxes containing internal thoughts and omniscient narration where every character, be they the story leads or incidental individuals, is prone to articulating their thoughts in lengthy and verbose litanies. Fortunately, the outsized A4 pages allow enough space to fit in the speech balloons without the dialogue dominating the panels and preventing key detail from being seen. And as for the artwork, its luscious luminescence belies the darkness and violence of the story. The images are thick with colour and bright with saturation and contrast. It’s especially striking during action beats, where blood and gore flare in crimson sprays.
The basic setup of the story is slightly subdued replication of the histrionics of the B-movies Ailsa screens in her day job, allowing for a swift pace that accelerates to a speed where we can go with the flow and leap into whatever each new scene has in store for us. With the comic ending on a double splash page that instantly emphasises how little it’s mucking about, we can certainly look forward to more of the same.
