The British Paranormal Society: Time Out of Mind

Simon Bruttenholm and Honora Grant may have survived working with Sir Edward Grey in “Witchfinder vol. 5:  The Gates of Heaven,” but now they’re going to have to rely only on each other in this tale.  After one of Simon’s research partners goes missing, the two head to the village of Noxton to investigate as the man was said to be investigating the mystery behind its standing stones.  The villagers claim to not have heard of the man and are generally unwilling to help as they’re preparing for their local festival.  Simon and Honora aren’t about to be deterred by these things, though what they find may be beyond their organization’s purview of all things British and paranormal.

This volume had one real clever idea to it.  I won’t spoil it, except to say that two different strains of weirdness in the Mignolaverse are crossed here to modestly entertaining effect.  I’d be more excited about this except that writer Chris Roberson doesn’t really do much with this idea beyond getting some hand-wringing out of the locals.  The prolific Andrea Mutti is a solid addition to this particular fictional universe as he displays credible storytelling skills and an ability to depict a grounded aesthetic that clashes well with the story’s otherworldly aspects.

I’d be tempted to write this collection off as a well-meaning disappointment were it not for one thing:  Its cover price.  This slim collection of a four-issue miniseries will set you back $25 – which is just INSANE relative to its content and overall quality.  I let this sit on my shopping list until Amazon offered it at nearly half of its cover price and I still feel ripped off for what I paid.  It costs too much to be a Mignolaverse completist these days and if I read any more of these distaff stories, then it’ll be because I bought them through Dark Horse’s digital comics app – when they were on sale!