As my mini-rant does suggest, Ragemoor has an old school sensibility and style to it. It is also the product of long time collaborators Jan Strnad and Richard Corben. It’s obvious just from reading this that the years of work that they’ve done together is both obvious and that they’ve hashed out a quality style of working together.
Strnad has created a story here that feels familiar in it’s tone and set up but eventually forces you to abandon any ideas of where it’s going. This is an unpredictable comic, and it goes to places that you’re not going to see coming and quite possible will screw with your head in many ways. He also plays with many conventions of old school horror in interesting ways. Not only the setting and the story but the characters. At first they might seem like simple caricatures of what one should expect from a character of that nature but eventually your expectations are superseded by what they’re actually like.
Corben is on fire in this book. He helps to cultivate the chilling and mysterious atmosphere of this comic and it almost more so becomes the reason that you’re turning the page instead of the story. I won’t spoil anything for you, but the really weird things that happen in this book are some of the most bizarre occurrences that I’ve seen (and if I’m saying it’s bizarre you can take that to the bank). One thing that Corben really excels at in the comic is playing with atmosphere. Be it a dimly lit chamber, outside in a rain storm, a tomb, or an execution pillar thousands of years ago, he’s created each to feel like it’s own place. At no time does the art feel rushed or jammed together, it’s quite beautiful.
I’m both sad and happy that Ragemoor is a mini-series. I like that the creators have an ending in sight and have story beats leading up to it, but at the same time I want to see this pair continue to do work together (which after years of collaboration, why wouldn’t they?).
Ragemoor is perfect for anyone looking to pick up a good comic, be it horror, indie, for the art, for the story, it doesn’t matter. This is a great comic and if you like this style there is no reason for you not to pick it up. If you don’t know if you’ll like it, now is a good a time as any to try.
