WEDNESDAY SPOTLIGHT - CRIMINAL MACABRE – STEVE NILES
Day 3. After 30 Days of Night, Steve Niles had an itch he needed to scratch. That itch had a name, and it was Cal McDonald, and ever since then, Steve has been itching Cal like a bad case of chicken pox. Guy needs to see a doctor, right? Nope.
Criminal Macabre features Cal McDonald in a series of supernatural detective stories, trying to figure out why every ghoul, ghost, vampire, and evil monster wants to mess around with humanity. It’s a hard job, and Cal appears to struggle throughout, handling a nice drug addiction, countless beatings, and defining the term “alcoholic” to new heights. Or maybe depths? I don’t know. What I do know is Steve Niles has a muse, and Cal McDonald is his name. Welcome to Criminal Macabre.
CRIMINAL MACABRE: THE COMPLETE CAL MCDONALD STORIES
By Steve Niles
Dark Horse
A book without pictures! Wow, it’s been awhile. I’ve been so buried in comic books lately that I find it kind of nice to just read on through a book. Thing is, I forgot how long it takes me to read a book these days with all of life’s interruptions. Luckily for me, Steve Niles is the writer, and I enjoy his work with supernatural detective, Cal McDonald. In addition, Steve can go nuts here in this format as it’s all on him to bring Cal and The Dark Horse “Monster Squad” to life. Formatted in two main stories and several shorts, Criminal Macabre: The Complete Cal McDonald Stories is well… just that. Wow. I feel like Austin Powers now. In the first story, Savage Membrane, we get the whole story on Cal McDonald and how he became a detective that pursues cases normal police won’t touch. These are the usual werewolf, vampire, and other monsters of the night cases, you know, the usual. With the help of his best friend and ghoul, Mo’Lock, he is attached to a case that has the cops baffled. So with previous experience on a similar case, he goes about solving it the way he always solves cases: find a lead, get the crap beat out of him, drink, get the crap beat out of him some more, pop some pills, joke with Mo’Lock, and then get the crap really beaten out of him, and end with a drink. Or sleep. Steve Niles has a sick pleasure in torturing Cal McDonald, but that’s why the reader keeps coming back for me. Cal has become humanity’s rock, and when he gets back up, so do we. I actually enjoy Cal McDonald in this format moreso than the comic book format because Niles really does have a nice voice in scene descriptions. Though gritty and at times grotesque, it’s not overly done or too simple either. It’s the voice of a detective. Details and facts, with a bit of playtime added. The short stories chronicle some of the events seen in the graphic novels put out by Dark Horse, kind of filling in spots and adding more detail to characters like the werewolf Grimshaw and Lt. Brueger. I could get used to this format with Cal McDonald. The reader certainly gets inside his head a little more, and it’s entertaining experience, not to mention safe as he takes the punches while you laugh or cringe a little. But then I would probably miss the art. There’s no pleasing me sometimes, but I have to say, Niles has done so with Criminal Macabre: The Complete Cal McDonald Stories. A perfect combination of horror and film noir that bites down hard on the tongue and tantalizes the imagination with beer bottles, monsters, and a guy just looking for trouble.
GRADE: A-
CRIMINAL MACABRE: A CAL MCDONALD MYSTERY
Dark Horse Comics
Written by Steve Niles Art by Ben Templesmith
I remember buying this first issue when it came out awhile back, excited that I had a new character to invest in that messed around with the supernatural, but also, I hadn’t read 30 Days of Night then, and wanted to learn all about this Steve Niles guy from a starting point. On top of that, Ben Templesmith was onboard for the birth of Cal McDonald, so I felt like I was hopping on a new rollercoaster at Six Flags. The first issue was a decent read, but maybe I was expecting too much because I never picked up the second issue until I did this review of the series. Those years in between, I didn’t wonder too much about Cal McDonald until Niles teamed up with Kyle Hotz for Criminal Macabre: Feat of Clay. Then I was like, “Hey, I remember this guy. Why did I stop reading this?” Truth be told, this series introducing Cal McDonald was exactly what my first impression told me: it’s a long stretch. Doing this review, I struggled reading moreso than I did with the other Criminal Macabre books. On the surface, it appears Niles was dipping his toes into the Pacific Ocean and not the neighbor’s swimming pool. For the first three issues of this series, Cal asks about a million questions with no answers. All I could do is scratch my head and glue my ass to the chair to keep reading. Sure enough, halfway through issue four, we’re finally getting somewhere. Answers are coming out, and the pacing is picked up faster than Vin Diesel in a supped-up Dodge Charger. But it was tough getting there. Really tough. I know Niles was creating the Cal McDonald world, and it really wasn’t his entire fault as Ben Templesmith’s art was really hard to follow at times. It was more shady and scribbly as usual, and some panels could not even be interpreted. In other words, I read the words, but the picture said something different or nothing at all. It was strange because Niles and Templesmith didn’t seem to have this kind of trouble on 30 Days of Night. Maybe it was nerves. Not sure. But this is a tough one to get through, and if I hadn’t read any of the other Cal McDonald comics, it might have been even more difficult. But it’s a beginning, and sometimes, the feet have to get wet before they get planted. In this case, Cal has certainly found his way from here.
GRADE: C+
CRIMINAL MACABRE: FEAT OF CLAY
Dark Horse Comics
Written by Steve Niles Art by Kyle Hotz
So you want a beating like no other, huh? Well ask Cal McDonald who gives the best beating there is, and he’ll say it comes from the legendary mercenary of mud, the Jewish terminator known as The Golem. Steve Niles dives into this one-issue special featuring a pretty wicked-looking Golem monster by artist Kyle Hotz, and exposes Cal to a new kind of feeling… in his ribcage. When vengeance is brought upon a child molester, Cal is brought in to investigate how to stop a Golem that has just lost its master after suffering a heart attack. With Mo’Lock creeping around in the shadows, Cal is forced to do what he always does: go head-on against the monstrosity and stop his clock with some good old fashioned tongue lashing. Yeah, that never works, thus the incredible beating Cal receives from The Golem. This was a good read, and especially for one issue, but then it begs the question: Why can’t this be an ongoing series? I see this being like an issue five or something in a regular series, creating a nice transition between story arcs, and it does for the next series, Two Red Eyes, but still… I think it’s better to keep the numbers going. Other than that, this book deserves more attention because it’s fun, quick, and painless… for the reader that is. For Cal, it’s just another beating on the job.
GRADE: B+
CRIMINAL MACABRE: TWO RED EYES – Issues 1-4
Dark Horse Comics
Written by Steve Niles Art by Kyle Hotz
CRIMINAL MACABRE: MY DEMON BABY – Issues 1-3
Dark Horse Comics
Written by Steve Niles Art by Nick Stakal
If you’re tired of losing in life, then do what Bocha does: Make a baby for Satan to inhabit. If you’re winning, then just ignore that first sentence. Steve Niles continues his Criminal Macabre comic book series with Mo’Lock-like publisher, Dark Horse Comics, and bringing on new artist, Nick Stakal for some stylish fun. Cal is still reeling from Two Red Eyes as his girl is now a runaway vampire and his werewolf buddy is no longer there for a game of Russian roulette. Life appears to be worthless, so bring back the drugs. Fortunately for Cal, his best friend slash ghoul, Mo’Lock, has had enough. No more drugs for the detective. You’re hear for a reason, and your job is to keep on ticking. Hey, that’s funny. Somebody should give Cal the nickname “Timex” because man he just keeps on ticking. Actually, now that I remember, I think he does have that nickname. Anyway, the “demon baby” is born and Cal is on the move, but the Catholic Church has other plans for Cal and the baby. Send in the last Knight of Templar to kill everything in its path, and you have a nice little tension in the story. Unfortunately for me, I’m missing issue four and I’m left with a cliffhanger like no other as Mo’Lock appears to be down for the count, getting cut in half by the crazy knight. This series is a big transition from the previous, as Nick Stakal’s art is very different from Kyle Hotz, so it’s like a new suit. It’s nice, looks good, but you have to give it a little time to get used to it. Niles continues to bludgeon Cal to death with anyone that has a sword, fist, or tongue. This is a good series so far, as one issue remains to be reviewed, but it takes time to get used to the new look. I like Nick’s work, so it shouldn’t take too long. Let’s see what the demon baby has to say about it!
GRADE: B CONTINUE READING? Well, yeah! Without Mo’Lock, Cal doesn’t stand much a chance against the crazy knight.
Check out more Criminal Macabre tales at Dark Horse Comics!
www.darkhorse.com
Tomorrow Day 4: Thursday Thirst - Steve Niles Books
Day 1: Quickie Interview With Steve Niles
Day 2: 30 Days of Night DVD
Read all Mike Fish’s Articles in his Archives
