Baltimore vol. 6: The Cult of the Red King

There are two complementary story threads here, both dealing with the titular organization.  Over sea and ice, Baltimore and his group of followers travel to St. Petersburg to find a coven of witches with ties to the Red King.  What they find is a city enslaved by fear and magic that has already managed to sink its tendrils into one of Baltimore’s oldest friends.  Meanwhile, a continent away in Rome, writer Simon Hodge and his companions are pursuing their own leads into the history of the Cult of the Red King.  This leads them to Carthage, a city haunted by vile wraiths at night, and thoroughly infested by the cult.  What follows is a decent helping of supernatural action and weirdness as both groups pursue their quests for answers through blood, fire, and, of course, tragedy.  The best thing about this volume is that new artist Peter Bergting is jelling much better with writers Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.  His work feels more atmospheric here and it’s clear that the writers trust him more, to the point where they feel less compelled to have characters describe the setting through dialogue.  I still miss original artist Ben Stenbeck, but Bergting’s work indicates that the changeover will work out alright in the end.

That said, while Mignola and Golden’s dialogue may be less expository here, they still manage several ham-fisted moments of foreshadowing regarding Baltimore’s driven mindset and his relationship with his old friend Thomas.  The bits with Thomas come off as particularly obvious on a re-read, and it makes you wonder why these experienced writers wouldn’t think we’d pick up on that.  Then again, at least Thomas gets a bit of development here as most of the cast is simply left to hover around Baltimore or follow through the clockwork machinations of the plot.  I get that the Red King is a big enough threat that the title character is going to need some help in bringing him down.  Yet at this point the expanded cast mostly feels like a distraction from showing us Baltimore at his badass best.  Mignola and Golden either need to start fleshing out this entourage, or continue killing them off so the series can start focusing on its tormented yet unstoppable main character yet again.