Pulp action and two fisted professors against the strange and eldritch forces from beyond!

The Pitch – “Investigating the four corners of the world, one monster at a time.”

Several teams of experts in the occult, weird science, and marital arts investigating the strange and monstrous around the world. They make their base of operations at Dunsany College, a nice nod to Lord Dunsany, a writer of significant importance to H.P. Lovecraft and other early horror and fantasy writers, and the whole thing is chock full with nods like that in style and substance to such Yog-sothery without getting too deep into horror.

I jumped in at volume #2 – Sabbaticals, which follows the teams on a number of quests:

  • Team Carnacki – Investigating a phantom house that slips through time
  • Team Challenger – Taking a field trip with students to South America and stumbling upon results of experiments started in the last days of WWII
  • Professor Sonami – Returning to Nepal with his ward to reveal her mysterious past.
  • Professor De Tovar – Taking a personal journey into the subterranean depths, pursuing his own dark quest
  • Professor Booker – Exploring another dimension

The Creators

  • Gordon Rennie – Writer, best known for his work with 2000AD, Judge Dredd, and Warhammer Fantasy.
  • P. J. Holden – Artist, whose work has been featured in the pages of Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, and Warhammer Fantasy.
  • Steven Denton – Digital Colorist, who manages to keep things pulpy without getting too muddy and dark.
  • Jim Campbell – Eisener nominated Letterer, who does an admirable job of capturing whispers and other verbal variations.

There was a lot going on with all the side quests. I’m interested enough to back track volume #1 and see where this all started. It falls clearly into the same category as Atomic Robo, Hellboy & BPRD, and even the darker Injection. It’s two fisted action of guns and martial arts, delving into the weirdness of forgotten humanoids and writhing abominations, and the secrets the world keeps just below the surface.

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Published by B.A. Tosczak