Joe Golem, Occult Detective: The Sunken Dead

[middenway]

I got to talk to Christopher Golden about Joe Golem and what's next.

[Joker]

Here's a preview. Out tomorrow. http://www.comicbookresources.com/co...k-horse-comics

I'm looking forward to it, but I don't think that preview is going to help sway the nay sayers.

[thwhtGuardian]

This was a better issue than the preceding story, Joe had something approaching a personality here and what we got of Church was better. It still feels a little hollow, but it's moving in the right direction.

[Joker]

We also took a boat ride through the city instead of instantly arriving somewhere. I liked the flashback here more than the previous. This was a different look back. All in all I thought this was an improvement in the areas people had problems with the initial 3 parter.

I really liked this, but I did like the last story, too. This was more fun to me.

Regarding this: http://www.multiversitycomics.com/reviews/joe-golem-4/ Mark, look at what Mirek and Argus Bostwick are both doing, and why, and outside reactions to that, and I think you'll see why the flashback is there. It's not identical, obviously, but it's intended to be a parallel.

[middenway]

Regarding this: http://www.multiversitycomics.com/reviews/joe-golem-4/ Mark, look at what Mirek and Argus Bostwick are both doing, and why, and outside reactions to that, and I think you'll see why the flashback is there. It's not identical, obviously, but it's intended to be a parallel.

Yeah, I got the parallel, but I didn't think it was strong enough to justify the inclusion. Also, I don't think the parallel added anything.

It seems when I was editing the review down I cut the paragraph about the parallel. As it is, I think I went on about it too long.

[thwhtGuardian]

We also took a boat ride through the city instead of instantly arriving somewhere. I liked the flashback here more than the previous. This was a different look back. All in all I thought this was an improvement in the areas people had problems with the initial 3 parter.

I really liked this, but I did like the last story, too. This was more fun to me.

Regarding this: http://www.multiversitycomics.com/reviews/joe-golem-4/ Mark, look at what Mirek and Argus Bostwick are both doing, and why, and outside reactions to that, and I think you'll see why the flashback is there. It's not identical, obviously, but it's intended to be a parallel.

That's definitely the intention, but I'm not sure it's strong enough to feel like a true part of the narrative. That's not to say I didn't like it, in fact I'd go so far as to say the world building and characterizations have been much stronger in the flash backs than they have in the main story almost to the point where I'd rather a whole book set in the past, which I think is what is frustrating about the book. I mean, Hellboy and Baltimore aside(which we know means these guys can create a definite mood), the richness of the flash backs illustrates what these guys are capable of and yet outside of the zombie reveal at the end of this story and the creature's lair in the last that kind of lived in detail has largely been absent. Heck even the boat ride, which was an improvement over the glimpses of the world we got in the last issue, felt too sanitized and idyllic, and it's not just the art Joe called the drowned streets canals which rather than make the setting feel incongruous with our own and mysterious gave it a sense of normalcy.

[Joker]

You guys are way too hard on this book...

[thwhtGuardian]

You guys are way too hard on this book...

I just want to be as good as the novel that preceded it and it isn't yet. The city should look like a darker version of New Orleans after Katrina rather than Venice on a slow day. The bridges should look make shift and ramshackle, not like they were built by the department of public works and have been diligently maintained through the years. The whole place should look like it smells musty and strongly of decay and yet everything looks new.

[middenway]

You guys are way too hard on this book...

Every time I get a new comic, I'm hoping to write a positive review. Those are easy and fun.

I hate writing a less than positive review. It's like pulling teeth. I always try to examine why I don't like things, rather than just saying that I don't like it.

I don't think I'm hard on the series, or at least, I'm not harder on this series than anything else I read. But I get where you're coming from. It sucks when you're enjoying a book but the forum is cold on it. If I'm not enjoying a book, I prefer not to say anything, because someone else out there is enjoying it and I don't want to diminish that. I don't get that option with my reviews though.

That said, I enjoyed writing my review for the next issue.

[Joker]

It's not ruining my enjoyment of it. My enjoyment doesn't hinge on what anyone else thought of it, just seems like it's being judged in a way other Mignola books aren't. Maybe I'm wrong.

[thwhtGuardian]

It's not ruining my enjoyment of it. My enjoyment doesn't hinge on what anyone else thought of it, just seems like it's being judged in a way other Mignola books aren't. Maybe I'm wrong.

I can't speak for everyone, but I hold all Mignola's books to a standard much higher than just about every other comic because I know he's just that good.

[Black Tear]

I can understand the desire to hold Mignola's work to a higher standard that other's (honestly nobody in the Big Two come close to what he's been doing) but I've thoroughly enjoyed Joe Golem. I'm coming into this series having not read the novel and I think they've done a great job filling a new reader in on this setting and who some of these people are. I agree that the city should look a little more down trodden during Joe's romantic boat ride, but I think it did a good job showing what kind of man Joe is - like who he could be if he was fully independent of Simon. Notice that when Simon does forcibly end the date, the setting changes to dank and dreary as the detective duo confront the story's antagonist. Perhaps the contrast in setting was intentional? It is a visual medium after all.

I dunno, I tend to read too much into things. I've enjoyed Joe because it's been a break from the massive, heavy feelings of BPRD and Abe.

[LobsterJohnson]

Finally got around to reading this. I think this was my favorite issue yet. The boat scene at the start was the weakest part of the issue, but I really enjoyed the rest of it. Joe and Mr. Church investigating an occult library, underwater zombies, Mr. Church's magic detecting device... I really liked this one!

[thwhtGuardian]

Finally got around to reading this. I think this was my favorite issue yet. The boat scene at the start was the weakest part of the issue, but I really enjoyed the rest of it. Joe and Mr. Church investigating an occult library, underwater zombies, Mr. Church's magic detecting device... I really liked this one!

It definitely got better as it went, and the newest issue was fairly good as well though the characters still feel a little flat.

[topfueluhl]

I've read part 1 of the Sunken Dead and I really liked it so far. I haven't read the novel though so maybe that is why. The Rat Catcher was the first Joe Golem story I ever read.