< comics/x >
JACK SKULL
By Mark Stinson
($3.00 from Mark Stinson / PO Box 28204 / Gladstone, MO / 64188 USA. Web:
voidpulp.com.
E-mail)
Review by Matt Dembicki
Death as a skeleton is nothing new. Neither is death assuming human form to visit someone whose time is due. But Mark Stinson adds an interesting twist in
Jack Skull by having Death ponder his job and his decision to accept it. He then goes about his business, collecting the souls of people who are about to die.
The art is admirably done with just enough greytones to give the work some body. The book is split into three short chapters. Some of the art in the first chapter was a bit gruesome for me, which made me wonder whether the next chapters also would be gratuitously gory (Gore lovers out there will relish it!). I'm glad I read on because the gem is the last chapter. Titled "I’ll Show You the Way, My Friend," Death (Jack Skull) visits an old man sitting on a bench. The man tells Skull that he’s been expecting him and is content to leave this life and move on. He only asks that Skull tells him how he died before he goes, and Skull obliges. The old man then says a few touching words about being old.
The last page of the book posts photos of Stinson’s father, who passed away last year. The resemblance of Stinson's dad to the old man in the story is obvious, and it’s no coincidence that the old man's son is named Mark. Stinson does a nice job reflecting on the death of his father using the comics medium.
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