| Fort:
Prophet of the Unexplained
We can
thank Alan Moore for the recent genre trend that has been
making the late 19th/early 20th Century one of the more popular
time periods for comics to be set in. It began with League
of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From this excellent work
was spawned many less than excellent imitations (and one just-shy-of-abysmal
movie), in hopes of catching some of that Victorian fervor
and concurrently grabbing sales. Mythstalkers, JLA:
Age of Wonder, Necronauts and several other
titles began to crop up, from various companies.
Dark
Horse’s foray into the fin de siecle was something
of a similar idea, but Fort:
Prophet of the Unexplained features several aspects
that set it apart from most of the pretenders who attempted
to ride Moore’s success, and manages to stand fairly
well on its own as a comic.
The
story follows the exploits of actual paranormal investigator
Charles Fort: world traveling New York denizen, Bronx native
and adventurous librarian. Fort was a published author of
fiction, as well as several books of non-fiction that detailed
his investigation into the paranormal and the possibility
of non-human life. For more on the man try The
Charles Fort Institute. For more on the myth, continue
reading.
Our
tale follows Fort as he investigates a series of disappearances
of New York City businessmen. Upon finding a fifth man torn
to bits and pieces, Fort takes a sample of odd biological
matter and finds that it replicates at an accelerated rate.
Believing some unnatural creature is responsible, Fort goes
hunting. What he finds is more assembly-required bodies
and a creature unlike anything seen before by man. Barely
escaping with his life and desperate for answers, Fort turns
to the sky…and sees something fall out of it.
Fort
makes contact with an extraterrestrial with a connection
to the beasty killing NYC entrepreneurs and together they
must stop the monster before it kills again, or manages
to reproduce.
It’s
not so much a period piece like LXG, but a good
science fiction tale set in turn-of-the-century New York.
The dialogue is basically modern and author Peter Lenkov
seems to shy away from getting too trapped in dialectal
and minute historical detail. But there is some historical
name dropping: H.P. Lovecraft makes a rather obvious appearance
as a child inspired by Fort’s ventures into the unimaginable,
while then Governor Teddy Roosevelt and J.D. Rockefeller
have small parts to play. While the lack of deep historical
reference helps the reader focus on the sci-fi aspect and
follow the story closer, it lacks the fun the reader experiences
when trying to decipher some of the more obscure references
that can be found. Books like Planetary, LXG and
some of the more self-referential superhero material will
drop allusions and characters that are fun to look up on
the internet and this book just hands history to you. It
doesn’t detract from the overall story, but that kind
of research shows in a work and can elevate it to a higher
lever of greatness.
There’s also little characterization
for Fort, but that may be a product of his actual character.
The real Charles Fort was an eccentric and obsessive in
his research into the unknown, and Lenkov seems to convey
that by not delving too deeply into Fort’s motivations
or fears. Instead, Lenkov focuses on the drive the character
has to discover, to learn, and to know what the world doesn’t
want to know. Fort is completely accepting of his alien
partner in the hunt for the creature, with little effort,
but that was the kind of man Fort was and the kind of character
Lenkov describes. In addition, the odd dynamic between the
alien and Fort seems natural: an outcast willing to look
at the world in an odd way, and an alien unfamiliar with
the strange world before him. At times, their relationship
borders on buddy-cop cliché, minus sarcasm, but never
fully goes their and that aspect adds a bit more depth to
the work.
The artwork is great and is some of the
best black and white ink work I’ve ever seen. Fazer
Irving handles all the art duties, and his style of inking
is incredibly energetic. While he has a good grasp of negative
space, which anyone working on black and white books should,
Irving has a unique, almost windswept inking style. Instead
of using gray tones to shade in areas of varying light,
he uses rows of lines and their thickness to shade. The
several renditions of the Statue of Liberty are gorgeous
and his penchant for line use makes all of his lighting
effects appear lively. Character movement is often accompanied
by speed lines, but not like those of manga. Instead, Irving
incorporates his speed lines into the background of the
scene, making everything appear natural and flowing with
the script. Irving is one of the best inkers I’ve
ever come across.
All
in all, it is an interesting read. With good science fiction
elements to drive the story, the small amount of historical
reference anchors the story to a time and place, but doesn’t
trap it in too much time period detail. History buffs need
not buy for referencing fun, but buy for the story. You
can’t go wrong with a comic priced at $9.95, or a
comic where a librarian gets to kick a some alien ass.
Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained
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