Back Issues: "Criminal Macabre: A Cal MacDonald Mystery"

- by Ninja Ross, 22 October 2014

While Cal MacDonald first appeared in “Fly in My Eye: Daughters of Fly In My Eye” from Arcane Comix in 1990, it wasn’t until 2003 that Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith teamed up to bring us the first Cal MacDonald mystery under the “Criminal Macabre” banner.

Cal is a pill-popping, chain smoking, hard-drinking, beaten up ex-cop who hunts every kind of monster you can think of. To aid him in his glorious quest is a ghoul (literally) by the name of Mo’Lock.

Cal has appeared several times prior to this miniseries and following the original appearance in “Fly in My Eye: Daughters of Fly In My Eye”, but as far as I’m concerned, this is where he became such an incredibly interesting character. Everything that came before this is, of course, well worth your time (especially the prose stuff), but I think this was a real stepping stone for Niles and MacDonald.

We enter the story with Cal trying his best to convince some L.A.P.D detectives that monsters are real AND killing people. It doesn’t really seem to be going well for the first couple of pages.

We flash back to Cal taking on an “open and shut case of vampirism.” In the world of Criminal Macabre, that means blasting a blood sucker’s head off. In this universe, monsters can be killed just like any human. You just need a few extra bullets, is all.

After running into his target, Cal follows the vampire back to his lair, where he finds several different monsters hanging around discussing plans and what have you. The monsters of this world tend to stick to their own kind, often coming to blows with other species. This, naturally, ends up in a fight, leaving Cal clueless as to what’s going on.

Party crashing.

It’s actually a pretty slow start, compared with how hectic things get as the story progresses. But Niles keeps the pacing even, making sure to give us plenty of great character moments and the chance to explore the world of Cal Macdonald. It’s pretty clear that Niles is heavily inspired by the classic monster horror movies and he breathes some new life into these classics.

I AM THE LORE!

Further down the line, however, Niles brings back the old versions of these monsters, forcing Cal to use the older, better known methods of killing these creatures. The stakes and silver bullets and so on. It’s a fantastic mix of new ideas and old classics, but it doesn’t feel forced in anyway. Niles isn’t shouting “look at me, I’m referencing stuff you know”. He’s writing about what he loves and putting a vast amount of cool, interesting ideas into the mix.

Also, Ben Templesmith’s doing the pretty pictures! Folks, I love Templesmith’s art more than should be allowed. He has a style that plenty have imitated but never recreated. It’s dark, gritty yet full of life and imagination. He draws broody, quiet moments with ease, giving everything a fantastic feel but his action sequences are full of fun, blood and craziness. 

Some sexy action.

What we got here is one of the greatest horror artists working with one of the greatest horror writers to hit the industry in a long time. And the result here on Criminal Macabre is a fun, blood-filled monster story with an intriguing, flawed but likeable hero.

Buy this book, ya crowders!


You heard the man! Criminal Macabre will make your life better, and it's a real good October read. Are you a fan of the series? Sound off in the comments!

Tagged: comics, Back Issues.

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