Grimjack: The Manx Cat

It’s the stuff dreams are made of.  Almost literally in the case of the title object here.  This latest installment in the adventures of John Gaunt, a.k.a. GrimJack, has him tracking down a rare statue with mysterious powers.  The problem for him is that not only does its current owner have it under lock and key and heavily armed guard, but a number of other parties are out to secure it for their own interests.  Unfortunately for John, he finds out that there’s much more to this statue than meets the eye and the fate of the pan-dimensional nexus of Cynosure rests on his finding a way to make sure this statue keeps sleeping the big sleep.

While the plot isn’t the most original thing in the world, the story works thanks to the details.  Cynosure’s biggest asset as a storytelling device, and one that writer John Ostrander usually exploits to its fullest extent in these stories, is that it can be used to tell any kind of story in any genre — usually multiple genres at once.  So even though the story is clearly influenced by the film noirs of the 30’s and 40’s, it also involves magical breaking and entering tools, robots, talking animals, shapeshifters, chaos gods and soul transfers through time and space.  It all could’ve degenerated into nonsense or ridiculousness, but Ostrander follows the rules he lays down for his mixing of genres with a welcome dash of humor and it winds up working more often than not.  Artist Tim Truman demonstrates once again that he’s the definitive “GrimJack” artist, as he makes all of this look good and even plausible.  That said, the CG in his art is distracting at times.  The end result is satisfyingly weird and sure to please longtime fans; but, if you’re not familiar with the series I’d recommend picking up the “GrimJack Omnibus” or the even better “Killer Instinct” mini-series for a detailed look at the sordid origin and history of John Gaunt.