The Creators – Tyler Crook – Writer, Artist, Letters

The Players – Howard, Lupe

The Story – Howard has a magic sword that he has never used, fear being the main reason. He might have to use it now.

The Take – Tyler Crook has been making quite a name for himself over the last few years with his exceptional artistry on books like Harrow County and playing in the world of Black Hammer and in The Lonesome Hunters he flies solo to deliver his own take on horror and the result is fantastic. The first issue, while not all that scary at first, gives readers all the background they need to know about protagonist Howard, of how he got dragged into a world he wanted no part of thanks to his dad and his coming into a magic sword. Now, many years later he meets a girl named Lupe and finds that he might have to finally wield the weapon that was bestowed upon him when he was but a young man. Crook hooks the reader in immediately and wastes no time with his narrative, introducing readers to a world where demons exist and one where certain groups of men rose up to fight them. As such, Howard knows a thing or two and when confronted with them now, in the present at his advanced age, he finds that those skills are going to come in handy. The artwork, like everything Crook has done previous to this, looks incredible whether it be demonic in nature or simply the sadness in an old man’s eyes. There is a question that needs to be answered, that being about the first demon in the book and whether or not it survived the fire and if that same demon has now come back to gain its revenge in some way upon Howard or if this is some new presence simply out to cause mischief. Such as it is, The Lonesome Hunters is off to a great start, a first issue that sets everything up and leaves enough on the table so that readers will want to come back for more. The title might be one about demons and those who fight them, but it is also one about ghosts, specifically those of the past and it should be a lot of fun to see just how it all comes together and how it is that Howard will confront them all.

Worth It? – Yes.