Review: Ichabod Azrael

Here is The Grievous Journey of ICHABOD AZRAEL (and the dead left in his wake)

I mentioned before that I'd had my eye on this one for a while. I was interested in this one not just because of the cool cover or because of the blurb which pointed to a conflict between mortals and the powers of Heaven and Hell, but also because of this little youtube video, which is part of the ABC's of 2000ad youtube series, where they go through their entire backcatalogue, giving 3 minutes of information about every individual title that has been printed in their publishing history;

Among other things; such as comparing it to Garth Ennis' Preacher (which I don't like all that much, but the idea at its core is still an interesting one and the tv-show is pretty damn entertaining), what in particular drew my attention was that it was going to be a metafictional tale; meaning that it would be aware of its own storytelling gimmicks or that it would play around with them, giving a self-aware look at its own goals and story, possibly while commenting on the medium of storytelling in, and of, comics in general.

Oh yes, and there would be demons. And angels. A hunt for God. And brutal violence and copious amounts of gory bloodshed. All while clothed in a western duster, and while wielding 2 demon-killing revolvers.

It was a really good tale, delivering on all my expectations. With old-fashioned tough-as-nails gunslingers, demonic and angelic mayhem, some reality hopping, occasional and frequently humorous sidekicks and in the last act; enough food for thought to keep you mulling for a while. The meta parts (both physical and fictional) of the comic were pretty inspired.

The metafictional parts in particular are done quite well. This is not a tale that would work outside of the medium of comics. Despite the book's abrupt end, because of its self awareness it ends up working.

It's worth noting that the story consists of three arcs and that the metafictional context only really starts to come to the fore in the last third. 

I suppose the art deserves a mention. the story switches, for reasons, between monochromatic art and colour and it does it to great effect. The art itself isn't something to write home about for the first two parts, but part three has alot more detail put in. It's always fun if the art is on an upward curve, isn't it?

The book comes with a pretty interesting introduction and an interview at the back with the comic's writer, but as the interview didn't actually add much to the reading experience and didn't have any information, besides the peripheral, on Ichabod Azrael itself I didn't appreciate it so much.

Apart from that, I enjoyed this one alot and I'd recommend it to people looking for mature and mythical storytelling with an emphasis on literary leanings.