From Aspen Comics, Chap Taylor, Peter Johnson and Michael Ryan.

Tom, our hero from last issue, is in the hospital watching his life crash down.  He’s been shot in the head, he’s about to be exposed as a bad cop, and to top it all off he saw a ghost which must mean he is losing his mind.  In comes Peter Hopkins with his card “Witchfinder General”.  He offers Tom a way out, and that way is far far  removed from any path Tom knew of before.

The Haunted City starts to get some tenants.  Catherine Grey the warrior nun, the aforementioned Peter and whatever this group is, the group that knows and patrols the paranormal.  This group that is dragging Tom into the Morrigan case.

The Morrigan usually goes for adults, but kids bodies are being found, and in some strange places.  One is found below the New York underground in a place that should be nothing but solid rock.  Instead there is a dark lifeless expansive cavity in the Earth.  A child believes themselves to be the center of the universe, and this one must have felt like that until death.  Its a horrifying site to see what has happened to this kid.

I have to point out, the art on this kid is heart stopping.  The pose, the eyes, the detail (look at the feet!).  It is as close to death as one can come on the printed page.

I’m still floored by the concept and how it feels small yet large at the same time, much like the City does.  Tom is wanted by the Witchfinder group, the cops, the criminals, and if he’s already this wanted by issue 1 you know there are some higher beings making a play for him as well.  Its a story that in a year, two years, will be so immense that we’ll all be stunned by how it began so simply.