Soul Plumber #3

Soul Plumber #3

DC Horror 2021

Written by Marcus Parks & Henry Zebrowski

Illustrated by PJ Holden & John McCrea

Coloured by Mike Spicer

Lettered by Becca Carey

Blorp, a strange creature with an unsettling affinity for the human race, has been unleashed upon an unsuspecting world. Now, doing its best to fit in amongst mankind-by assembling a human body for itself-this invader from beyond the veil has one mission…but what is it? And how can Edgar and his nose-less pal Elk put a stop to it?

Now I know this is supposed to be a horror title but for me it’s pure comedic gold. I can see this being in the vein of Shaun of the Dead which is just a dark comedy set in a zombie apocalypse. Just so you all know where I am coming from here. Also I love that Elk has no nose and never thought to get Rhinoplasty to fix it, even if it makes him look like he’s suffering from advanced syphilis. Regardless of how you see this I think it’s bloody brilliant and I haven’t had the opportunity to belly laugh this hard in a long time and boy does it feel good to do so. Edgar’s wishy washy personality and how the circumstances keep happening to cause death and destruction around him is flawlessly done.

I am absolutely loving the way that we see this being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances does a magnificent job in continuing to flesh out their ever changing and evolving personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more engaged in the book the reader becomes.

I am a huge fan of the way that we see this being structured as well as how we see the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that we see these layers open up new avenues to be explored. We’ve got Edgar, Elk and their new pal, Blorp, Edgar’s Coworker and even Father Vasilly; all these aspects add such depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably handled.

I think the interiors here are perfectly bespoke to the story, it’s as if Garbage Pail Kids and Mad Magazine had a baby and this is it, visually speaking of course. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create the detail within the work is utterly incredible. Backgrounds are being used perfectly throughout the book as they enhance and expand the moments while also working within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling, or eyes plural even. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a marvellous eye for how colour works.

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I love this book. It is fun, quirky, offbeat and totally outside anything close to being within the norm. The ending threw me for a loop and it’s a two-part ending by the way which is pretty brilliant in and of itself because it not only expands the story but throws a massive monkey wrench into things while also providing a cliffhanger. Yeah it does all that and more. The writing is phenomenal and the characterisation is so exceptionally well rendered while the interiors bring it all to life with such aplomb. If you aren’t reading this, yet, you really need to but wear a diaper cause you might laugh so hard you pee!