Mort Cinder by Alberto BrecciaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Antiquarian Ezra Wilson meets Mort Cinder, a man who cannot be permanently killed!
This was on my radar for a while despite me not knowing what it was about. In an effort to get hired into a high paying position as a comic book pundit, I try to read a wide variety of stuff. Anyway, the Fantagraphics Halloween sale happened and holy fuck!
This is simply the greatest comic most of us have never hear of. The writing is a collection of horror and adventure tales starring Mort Cinder. Sometimes, he mostly narrates. Poor Ezra Wilson is the frequently the point of view character, a portly man too old for adventures. The two men encounter all sorts of supernatural and historical curiosities. The writing feels pulpy, sometimes Lovecraftian, but not in a hokey way.
The art is by far the star of the show. Holy shit. It's not a style you see every day. Breccia used charcoal, ink newsprint, even paste, to depict the moody scenes. I don't know if Frank Miller ever cites Breccia as an influence on Sin City but he should be writing the Breccia family some fat checks. The heavy use of black and negative space is impressive in a comic day. It must have seemed like a whole other animal when it was first published in 1962.
I can't recommend this enough to comics fans wanting to give comics from other countries a shot. Five out of five leaden eyed men.
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