Dave Kelly and Lara Antal’s The Night Watchman returns to present another supernatural caper in Tales of The Night Watchman Presents: It Came from the Gowanus Canal. Kelly pairs, once again, with artist Molly Ostertag (who illustrated the excellent vampire yarn, Tales of The Night Watchman Presents: The Night Collector), and the result is another excellent and creepy chapter in Night Watchman lore.
MINOR SPOILERS BELOW
Tales of The Night Watchman Presents: It Came from the Gowanus Canal is another one-shot featuring the mysterious hero known as The Night Watchman. Along with his loyal friends, barista Nora and rebellious and conspiracy-obsessed teen Serena, our lead, Charlie (and his alter-ego, The Night Watchman) take on Kelly’s twist on the classic horror monstrosity known as The Golem. Kelly adds a noir-flavored, gangster story twist to his script that works perfectly with the book’s theme of how revenge can breed destruction and reveals another handful of clues to The Night Watchmen’s mysterious origin.
I don’t know if Kelly is taking a more horror/sci-fi influenced direction with his standaloneissues in the Tales of The Night Watchman Presents . . . one-shot series, but whatever is happening is certainly working in spades. Between It Came from the Gowanus Canal and the superb The Night Collector, it feels like the creative forces behind the Tales of The Night Watchman universe have found their stride with confidence. Kelly, Antal, and Ostertag are also building a layered universe full of dark and creepy adventure that feels like a mix of Hellboy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files.
Ostertag is just as excellent and graceful as her impressive work in The Night Collector and really enhances and elevates Kelly’s already top-notch script. Ostertag’s style has “flairs” of similarities to the clean, simple, and impactful artwork of Mike Mignola and Tim Sale, but definitely emerges as something all her own in the final product. There’s an especially chill-inducing underwater scene in It Came From the Gowanus Canal that Ostertag just knocks out of the park when it comes to the visuals.
FINAL VERDICT: Any of the books from the Tales of The Night Watchman series, including Tales of The Night Watchman Presents: It Came from the Gowanus Canal, will be a solid buy for fans of dark superheroes, supernatural horror, and exciting indie comics. If you’re a fan of books like Hellboy, BPRD, Buffy, or Angel & Faith, I would definitely recommend trying out an issue or two of Tales of The Night Watchman.
You can find out more about Tales of The Night Watchman Presents: It Came from the Gowanus Canal, as well as purchase copies, at the official So What? Press website or on Facebook.
Also, be sure to check out my previous reviews from the Tales of The Night Watchman series:
‘Tales of the Night Watchman #1:’ Comic Book Review
That’s all for now, comic book sniffers. A parting bit of advice: Beware the Ninjews.
’Till the end of the world,
Bryant the Comic Book Slayer
@ComicBookSlayer
