Tales From the Outerverse

You’d think he’d be satisfied with having just one fictional universe all to himself.  Yet here we are with “Tales From the Outerverse,” a collection of stories set in the shared realms of “Baltimore” and “Joe Golem,” co-created by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.  These stories were meant to add characters to and flesh out existing parts of the “Outerverse” starting with “Cojacaru the Skinner.”  She once worked with the golem, Josef, to fight against the threat presented by witches.  That was hundreds of years ago and now she’s been called back again on the eve of WWII to fight against the Hexenkorps – Nazi Witches!  Next is “Imogen of the Wyrding Way” as a woman uses her knowledge of the mystic arts to help a young man find his family after they’ve been taken by a group of hungry mountain trolls.  Last up is “The Golem Walks Among Us” where Josef is summoned to stop a baby-sacrificing cult of fishermen, only to find an old enemy awaiting him.

You can always count on Mignola to deliver some weird comics of a certain level of quality, and his work with Golden here is still perfectly readable.  It’s just that the threats presented here, the aforementioned Nazi Witches, along with the feral witches, trolls, and magic-wielding fishermen, feel kind of run-of-the mill compared to what we’ve seen from both creators in the past.  Worse still is that the storytelling here also feels by-the-numbers in light of the creators’ previous and better work.  Only the indomitable will displayed by Josef makes an impression as his expressions and actions tell you that he ran out of showing mercy towards his opponents a few centuries back.  Artist Peter Bergting helps sell this and there’s a roughness to his art that’s appealing here with all of the grisly and grubby supernatural threats on display.  These “Tales From the Outerverse” aren’t bad, but I wouldn’t say they’re good enough to make me anticipate further expansions of the Outerverse in the future.