Inspector Harker, the copper with the heart of granite, has been around for over a decade but the recent collections from Time Bomb Comics have given Roger Gibson and Vincent Danks’ hard-boiled hero a new lease of life. The Black Hound sees Harker, DS Critchley and acid-tonged pathologist Griffen in Dracula’s old stomping ground of Whitby.

Publisher: Time Bomb Comics
Writer: Roger Gibson
Artist: Vincent Danks
Price: TBC from the Time Bomb Comics Store

The story begins with Harker on holiday at the seaside, more interested in long walks, strong drinks and fish suppers than fighting crime but, as is the nature of things, his rest and relaxation doesn’t last for long. Soon there’s a double homicide, a dead celebrity and more than a few passing references to Whitby’s supernatural residents, including the hound of the title. Despite his initial protestations, Harker soon finds himself up to his neck in trouble, even ending up as a suspect himself.

As the author of Gravestown (again with Vincent Danks on art duties) and a writer on the Torchwood comic strip, Gibson is no stranger to writing about grizzly murders, jaded cops and things lurking in the shadows. Harker is a great character, a crumpled and cynical detective who’d happily share a drink with Columbo or Frost. Gibson knows this genre well and is more than aware of when he’s stepping close to cliché. Harker seems generally aggrieved when he finds himself involved in a case where a crime writer is killed during murder mystery weekend, grumbling “That only happens on the telly. Mystery novelists getting bumped off, my arse.” As such, Gibson has his cake and eats it, pointing out the absurdities of the conventions of detective fiction whilst also relishing them. Harker is unashamedly unreconstructed and really comes to life when the bodies start to pile up so that he can indulge in plenty of “Fast cars and lots of shouting. Proper police work”.

Vincent Danks’ work is some of his strongest here. His clear lines, realism and eye for detail put me in mind of Hellblazer and The Road to Perdition’s Richard Piers Rayner. Although Danks will be familiar to many as a Doctor Who comic artist, he’s just as comfortable illustrating stories set in more grounded settings. Whitby feels real here and the setting is very important to both the plot and the overall atmosphere of the book. The characters’ faces are expressive and emotive with The Black Hound feeling as much like a film or a television drama as a comic. Andrew Richmond’s colour really pop here. For a series that originally started in black and white, Richmond’s colours add a real depth to the artwork.

This first part of Harker: The Black Hound provides a welcome change of pace from the majority of comics on the market at the moment. There are no cyborgs, no barbarians, no spandex-clad dark avengers. Instead there’s an inventive, crisply scripted, strikingly illustrated, often very funny thriller that ends with you wanting more. And that’s good enough for me. If this case is ‘proper police work’ in Harker’s words, then these are ‘proper comics’ in ours!