Van Helsing in Beast of Exmoor

Van Helsing in Beast of Exmoor

Zenescope Entertainment 2021

Written by Brian Hawkins

Illustrated by Allan Otero

Coloured by Walter Pereyra & Maxflan Arauio

Lettered by Taylor Esposito of Ghost Glyph Studios

In the moorlands, across the field of Exmoor, in the United Kingdom a beast of once thought lore has resurfaced and is wreaking havoc on local denizens. The Royal Marines have been called in to dispatch the ravaging cryptid but even the highly trained soldiers are no match for the elusive and ferocious beast, which leaves one, Liesel Van Helsing, a very legend herself, vampire slayer and monster hunter the only hope left to capture this Beast of Exmoor, and bring an end to the carnage.

This story needs at least another oversized issue. The way this one ends just screams it isn’t over and there’s another chapter in the moorlands that needs to be told. I do like the idea of the Folger family having secrets and that Liesel can sense something about them is off like the son wielding a sword as if he’s incompetent but maybe just maybe he’s a lot smarter than he comes across. With Rick along for this one it is interesting to see the dynamic between the couple playing out within these pages and though he claims he will always be there can we really depend on that when he’s around her madness for long?

I am very much enjoying 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 exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how they act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a marvellous job in bringing their personalities to the forefront. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story we are completely engaged and invested in the story.

I like how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge and grow. The layers open up avenues to be explored and some are while others aren’t at least for now anyway. What these avenues do is allow for some amazing depth, dimension and complexity to be seen in the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are sensational. The creativity and imagination that we see is fantastic and the Beast itself is utterly amazing and instantly recognisable for what it is and it’s just hella ferocious. The linework that we see is fantastic and how the varying weights and techniques are utilised to create the detail work that we see throughout is extremely well rendered. How we see the composition within the panels brings 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 an extremely talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a great understanding of how colour works.

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We need these stories to go back to being limited series runs because these one-shots just aren’t doing it for us readers anymore. All it does is wet the appetite for more and a four issue run allows for more time to tell a more complete story and bring us one of the most interesting legacy characters in comics today. This is incredibly well written with superb characterisation and delightful interiors make this as much fun as it is.