Deacon Jaxx Homeless Nekromancer starting with the services of the titular character being sought by a couple of brothers who have stolen from some very bad people and seek his protection. From that starting point the book goes on to depict demon cyborgs, horrors from the beyond, and mad scientists.
There is certainly a lot on show across the book’s 36 pages, and that is to the book’s detriment. There is just too much going on despite the book’s relatively short length. About a third of the way through a slew of characters show up without any real explanation as to who they are or how they know Deacon Jaxx. The villain of the piece is more easily understandable thanks to a reliance on the classic archetype of the mad scientist, but a lot of his interaction with the protagonist is based on their interactions with each other that supposedly took place before the events of the comic.
The main character, Deacon Jaxx, is irreverent and to the point. He is a good example of a sarcastic hero but like the rest of the book not enough about him is ever really gone into. The lack of information isn’t itself a bad thing, but the writing seems to think that we should know more about him than we do.
This is a shame because individual elements do showcase this book’s potential. Deacon Jaxx is the perfect choice of character to headline a book set in a world this strange. His annoyed commentary on the other characters gives the reader some clues about the world and disguises the exposition so that it doesn’t feel like exposition. The book’s various elements (sci-fi, cosmic horror, magic) may not get the explanations they need but the book does a great job of blending them into a single aesthetic.
Deacon Jaxx Homeless Nekromancer does have its good points. The art style is bold, the ideas are imaginative, and it does give a glimpse at a world which would be fun to return to in subsequent comics. The key flaw holding the book back is that there just isn’t enough room for any of its story elements to develop or shine. Had the same story beats been told across a few more issues this could have been a bizarrely fun story, instead it just comes across as cluttered and in need of fine tuning.
DEACON JAXX HOMELESS NEKROMANCER / WRITER: JASON ZACHARY POTT / ARTIST: PAUL JOHNSON / PUBLISHER: NEÖTRASH COMIX/ RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
