Haunted City (Aspen – Taylor / Johnson / Ryan / Shannon / Sotelo)

In the corners of our minds, we find ourselves asking…who protects us from the unknown?

Time is running out for Detective Tom Whalen. He’s got NYPD Internal Affairs breathing down his neck, Korean drug dealers chasing him across the streets of Manhattan, and a lunatic Albanian crime boss wanting him dead. His only chance for salvation: a Priest who comes to him offering him a chance to work on his team. But, Whalen soon discovers that this is a very special team: it’s a secret unit within the NYPD that has existed for centuries. A unit as old as New York itself, sworn to protect the city from monsters and myths, the terrors and nightmares that exist in the darkest shadows and corners of the great metropolis.

Meanwhile, ten year-old Deshawn Carver seeks escape from school bullies and his abusive home life in the form of an ancient-looking figurine he carries as a totem. When the figurine suddenly comes to life as a terrifying and beautiful Celtic demon goddess, his fate is changed forever. Until a group of city workers find his dead body in a centuries-old tunnel 700 feet below the city streets, an impossible mystery for Tom and his new cohorts begins…

Teaming up with producer and director McG’s Wonderland Sound and Vision, Aspen Comics brings to you this all-new story that’s set to take comics and Hollywood by storm!

HAUNTED CITY #1 is in stores October 12th, 2011

Just in time for Halloween, Haunted City finds it’s way to your local independently-owned comic comic shop and onto your pull list!  Authors Chap Taylor and Peter Taylor mix together the perfect cocktail of gritty crime story and kick-ass ghost story.  After a series of poor and dangerous choices – Tom Whalen, a tainted, faulted cop is at the end of his rope and is given the opportunity to fight the real bad guys in NY – ghosts, demons and monsters!  This main arc is pretty well done and told through a hard-boiled narrative.  If it was all by itself, it would impress readers, but alongside this main “newest kid on the team who has to learn the ropes” are a few tasty side stories that I know will come back to impress me, and perhaps bite Tom Whalen.

The art team, headed by Michael Ryan creates a surprising detailed and colorful framework for such a grainy and wonderfully dark tale.

I know this doesn’t come out for a few weeks, but I can’t wait until November for issue #2 – and you will kick yourself if you don’t pick-up this ish!

The Bottom Line: In a pop landscape where every comic company (and network for that matter) has some sort of supernatural drama series, the raw characterizations, the delicious noir narration and original story infrastructure help Haunted City rise gargoyles and skyscrapers above the rest!

Issue Grade: Sleek and Scary A