The Night Eaters Book 2: Her Little Reapers
Marjorie Liu, writer; Sana Takeda, illustrator
Abrams ComicArts, 2023
This is the second volume in the graphic novel horror trilogy The Night Eaters by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (the creative team behind the New York Times bestselling series Monstress). It has been four months since the night of gore, chaos, and the failed demonic summoning that revealed the Ting twins’ unusual family background: they aren’t human, and they have supernatural powers. Since then, Milly and Billy have tried to explore their new powers, but their parents, Ipo and Keon, haven’t been much help. Despite the lack of explanations, one thing is abundantly clear: The Ting family is part of a much larger supernatural world, and something in that world is seriously wrong. That supernatural world is essentially a mystery to the twins and readers alike. Several classes of beings are revealed (along with titles for many), but the relationships are never explicitly explained; they are just seen in action. And there is a lot of action. Both the twins and their parents frequently become embroiled with other supernatural beings, so there is much more fighting and gore than in the first book. Takeda gets to draw plenty of ghosts, plus a new supernatural cast. The details of the action may not always be clear, but the visuals are always striking.
Soul Plumber
Concept by Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski & Ben Kissel; Marcus Parks & Henry Zebrowski writers; John McCrea & P.J. Holden, artists; Mike Spicer, colorist; Becca Carey, letterer
DC Horror, 2022
The protagonist is a real loser: Edgar Wiggins, disgraced former seminary school student. He still wears a priest’s collar, and really believes in God. He also believes that he has been called to work at the convenience store Qum And Go. After attending a seminar hosted in a hotel conference room by a mysterious group called the Soul Plumbers, he discovers what he thinks is the secret to delivering souls from the thrall of Satan. But after stealing the blueprints and building the machine himself (out of whatever he can afford from his salary as a gas station attendant) Edgar misses the demon and instead pulls out an inter-dimensional alien with dire consequences for all of mankind. Things only get weirder, grosser, and more biblical from there, with a big emphasis on gross. The story has a real 2000 AD vibe, like Tank Girl without the apocalypse (not yet, anyway). There is plenty of bloody violence and heresy, although it is hard to imagine that anyone even slightly religious would read this. So the anti-religious tone is “preaching to the choir,” so to speak. It is impressive that DC would publish something so far out of their usual line, but it is too bad that the resulting comic is so underwhelming.
Mr. Vertigo 
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