Imogen of the Wyrding Way

Imogen of the Wyrding Way

Dark Horse Comics 2021

Written by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden

Illustrated by Peter Bergting

Coloured by Michelle Madsen

Lettered by Clem Robins

While on a job in Denmark with her fellow Wyrders, Imogen hears some odd news: hundreds of refugees fleeing the spread of Nazism are traveling into the nearby forest, and never returning. Helping a young man find his refugee family will bring Imogen face-to-face with some of the worst that war can inflict upon those in need—and make her ask the difficult question of what she's really fighting for. Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, the writing team behind Baltimore and other Outerverse titles, spotlight the witch Imogen in this exciting one-shot.

Well now this took me by surprise and in such a magnificent way to boot. What this really does for me is make me want to see more. A one-shot just isn’t enough for us to see Imogen in action, she’s such an amazing character and we only get a glimpse of what she’s capable of and what she’s about. The Outerverse is a great place and I’m hoping that we’re going to be seeing a lot more stories set in it because World War II and the supernatural go hand-in-hand and if this is any indication of what we can expect than sign me up cause i’m ready for this and more.

I love 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 is great thanks to the dialogue, the character interaction and how they act and react tot he situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story along with the twists & turns along the way we’re treated to one heck of a great look at Imogen and what she’s capable of.

I’m impressed with the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, evolve and grow. It is in these bits that the majority of the characterisation takes place and whether it revolves around her now or her past it either works with the main arc or simply swirls around it, either way it adds extra depth and complexity to the story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is nicely achieved.

The interiors here are absolutely lovely. The linework is fantastic and how the varying weights and techniques are utilised to create the detail work that we see is sensationally rendered. We do see a fair amount of backgrounds being utilised throughout the book enhancing the moments as well as bringing us the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope of the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a marvellously talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is gorgeous. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a stellar eye for how colour works. The snow for example or Imogen’s magic really make the moments pop.

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I have the utmost respect for anyone who is able to tell a complete one and done story in a single issue. Yes it’s made to fit and yes we could’ve used a larger page count but overall the story doesn’t suffer one iota. I love this aspect of this world and how diverse the characters are and what they can do being portrayed. Of course with some incredibly talented men writing this stellar story with a great premise and beautiful interiors doesn’t hurt either. If you are looking for a book to get introduced to the Outerverse than you really ought to pick this up, you won’t be sorry you did.