“Joe Golem,
Occult Detective” is a Dark Horse comic book series written by Mike Mignola and
Christopher Golden with art by Patric Reynolds and colors by Dave Stewart with cover
art by Dave Palumbo. The comic book is a
five issue miniseries broken up into two story arcs. The first story arc titled “The Rat Catcher”
is told in three parts and the second story arc titled “The Sunken Dead” is told
in two parts.
The comic book,
which launched in 2015, was not the first time that Golden and Mignola
collaborated on a story. The Joe Golem
comic book was preceded by a short story called “Joe Golem and The Copper Girl”
followed by an illustrated novel called “Joe Golem and The Drowning City” both
published in 2012. Golden and Mignola
also collaborated on writing the Lord Baltimore series also published by Dark
Horse that began with an illustrated novel in 2007. Mike Mignola of course, is most famously known
for creating the comic book series Hellboy and all its related spin-offs
including Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson and B.R.P.D. among others.
“Joe Golem,
Occult Detective” is a comic book that can be read as a stand-alone series and
you do not need to read its preceding short story and illustrated novel to
enjoy the story. I have not read the two
preceding stories and was able to enjoy the story without feeling lost.
The comic
book, which takes place in 1965, tells the story of Simon Church and his
partner Joe Golem who are two private detectives who solve cases with occult
and supernatural undertones. Simon and
Joe live in an alternative version of lower Manhattan, which has mostly been
submerged underwater due to a cataclysmic earthquake that caused rising sea
levels and submerged portions of New York City under 30 feet of water. As a result, portions of Manhattan have
turned into Venice-like neighborhoods with water canals traveled via water
taxis.
Joe who has
the outward physical appearance of a normal human male is unaware that he really
is a golem. A golem in Jewish mysticism
and folklore is an anthropomorphic creature fashioned from clay and/or stone
that is brought to life through magic. Simon,
who is aware of Joe’s true nature, prevents him from remembering his past by
giving him a memory-inhibiting potion, which he tells Joe, is for helping him
with his nightmares.
The authors
use Joe’s nightmares to slowly unfold his past as a golem. We learn that Joe was created by a Christian
monk, in Croatia during the 15th century in order to protect his
village from demonic-like witches who were slaughtering the villagers. This brings to mind the story in Jewish
folklore of a 16th century Prague Rabbi who creates a golem to
protect the Prague ghetto from anti-Semitic attacks. Joe, a simple-minded creature, was controlled
by his creator Brother Goran and proved to be an effective weapon in the fight
against the evil witches. However, we
also learn that Brother Goran used forbidden occult magic that he stole from
his Order to create the golem. I don’t
want to tell any more of the story as I want people to read the comic and still
be able to enjoy it.
The comic series,
which as of this writing is five issues long, is a delightful combination of
pulp detective story-telling flavored with steampunk, occult and horror
elements. Joe is a hardboiled detective
in the tradition of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. He’s a brave and morally upright “man” who is
devoted to his job and to his partner Simon Church. Simon, on the other hand, is an elderly Nero
Wolfe-type detective who the story intimates might be quite ancient. He is a magician who apparently has kept
himself alive with a clockwork heart using what he calls biomechanics magic. There is a scene in issue #5 that indicates
that his magic might be of a Germanic origin.
The series
dabbles in magic, which seems to be steeped in western esotericism and while
you see Simon Church speak a few incantations in Latin and German and see him
mix potions, we do not yet have an explanation of the universe’s magical system
and how it works. It would be great to
see a good development of the biomechanical magic used by Simon Church and of
the other occult elements of the series.
The comic also
relies on the same tired tropes of witches as evil creatures that are out to
eliminate and/or enslave mankind although they do balance it a little with one
of the monks mentioning witches who are earth worshippers and herbalists, which
are distinguished from their evil counterparts.
The art by
Patric Reynolds does an excellent job of depicting the grimy, decaying and
horrific atmosphere of the submerged city and effectively conveys the moods of
the characters and the pathos that seems to permeate some of them.
If you are
a fan of occult detective stories and of horror in general, I definitely
recommend this series especially since the ending of the last issue indicates
that there is a larger underlying menace lurking in the shadows that promises
to enrich the story. If you are a fan of
occult pulp stories be sure to check out our episode review of the Showtime
series Penny Dreadful, which you can find here.
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