Let’s talk about Joe Golem #2. I found myself sort of impressed with the first issue. It was kind of spooky, had some interesting elements, and a film noir vibe, but if you had told me that the second issue would scare the crap out of me, I wouldn’t have believed you. There is a sequence in the second issue that sent chills up my spine and made me gasp out loud. It is difficult to frighten me and even more difficult to do so in a comic book, but Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden, and company have made me feel like a kid on a staircase leading into a dark basement.

The funny thing is, it’s issue two and I don’t know much about any of the characters. (That might be because there are previous storylines in different comics.) Joe Golem is a Detective that investigates paranormal crimes. He has a partner. He has a lover. He lives in a home with a creepy old man that watches his every move. He’s trying to figure out a murder case involving really weird circumstances, as I’m sure you’d expect. In this case the murderer has literal universes of stars in their eyes. It doesn’t seem to matter how well we know the main characters, because different characters are introduced in this second issue that have more of a working dynamic within the story than our main characters so far. All you have to know entering this issue is that something bad is about to go down, and two detectives are heading to that locale already (even though I don’t remember why they are exactly).

I really, really like the noir-inspired art from Patric Reynolds and Dave Stewart. It’s probably 80% of the reason why this comic freaked the heck out of me. It’s really unfortunate that I wasn’t a fan of the dialogue or story. Honestly though, it doesn’t change the outcome. In a strange way, it may even elevate those scarier moments. All I know is I want to get my hands on issue three, because the cliffhanger was riveting. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for occult-inspired lore.