The Golem Walks Among Us #2

The Golem Walks Among Us #2

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden

Illustrated by Peter Bergting

Coloured by Michelle Madsen

Lettered by Clem Robins

Brought to a small fishing village to fight a cult, Josef the Golem finds himself face-to-face with one of his oldest enemies from centuries of fighting witches. And when the fight comes to a head, the ultimate question will be whether fighting witches or saving humanity is really at the heart of the Golem's purpose.

I am a huge fan of Josef’s and I love that we are getting to see him in another adventure this time set earlier in his life. With this one complete I am hoping that the boys have another one up their sleeve for sometime next year. This is one of the best character finds he’s right up there with Canto in my opinion of most influential new characters in the past decade at least. And to see him doing what he was created to do and even expand upon that to a degree is exceptionally well rendered. I love that we’re flitting around between the past and WWII for this one as well as there is something about the occult and mysticism that naturally lends itself to these time periods.

I am really enjoying the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter and it brings their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story it manages to envelope you and expand this world.

I appreciate how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. How we see the layers open up the avenues to be explored and how they add so much depth, dimension and complexity to the story. Just watching Josef grow and evolve and not stop fighting when he easily could give up and his dogged determination is phenomenal to see. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is achieved incredibly well.

I am absolutely loving the interiors here. The linework here is utterly fabulous and how we see the varying weights and techniques that we see being utilised to create the detail within the work. That we see the backgrounds utilised as we do makes me a happy camper because they enhance and expand the moments so nicely. They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work even under such darker, lighting wise, colours is exceptionally well done. The depth and dimension that the colour adds and even more so when it’s nighttime and there are darker depths of colour that need to be utilised makes it even more impressive.

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This world they’ve created here and it fits into the expanded universe of Hellboy and even The House of Lost Horizons allows for some really amazing opportunities in storytelling. There are so few boundaries and the unlimited potential of what’s available is what makes Josef such an exciting character to see at various points in his life. This has some incredibly intense writing and exceptional characterisation wrapped up in some amazingly suited interiors.