Anyone who has read comics for more than a year can tell you that the name Vertigo is synonymous with quality.  Despite Marvel’s many attempts at an adult line of comics, they have never been able to crawl out from under the shadow of DC’s mature brand.  And in all likelihood, they never will.  Vertigo is, if you’ll pardon the pun, a juggernaut.

Part of that strength is their willingness to take chances on new types of story-telling.  Such is the case with Ian Rankin’s Dark Entries.  D.E. is the second release in the new Vertigo Crime line.  Vertigo Crime books are digest format, black and white graphic novels.  Underneath gorgeous hardcovers are old fashioned pulp novels.

D.E. has the distinction of being the first to feature a familiar character to comic fans: John Constantine.

Despite the fact that it’s labeled a crime story and titled like homo-erotic fiction, Dark Entries is actually a fairly straight horror comic.  The premise is that English television producers have come up with their own spooky version of Big Brother.  Contestants are locked inside a fake haunted house where they have to face their deepest fears and find the hidden treasure.  But then weird things start happening.  The house appear to truly be haunted and the contestants start suffering from memory loss.   The producers hire Constantine to sort things out.  Without cigarettes and locked in a house with a bunch of pains in the arse, Constantine quickly realizes he shouldn’t have taken the money.

According to the tag lines on the cover, writer Ian Rankin is a famous crime fiction writer in the UK.  If he ever runs out of ideas in that genre, he could always try his hand at horror, as Dark Entries is fairly gripping.   The book reminds me in many ways of old episodes of The Twilight Zone and John Ritter’s horror/ comedy Stay Tuned from the 80s.

I’ve never really been one to read Hellblazer, so I can’t say if Rankin’s portrayal of John works, but the story itself is strong.  While I enjoyed Brian Azzarello’s Filthy Rich, Dark Entries was a much stronger product all told.  Filthy Rich is much more indicative of what the series is going for, but D.E. ends up making you care more. Typically, not everyone makes it out of the house (spoiler: Constantine doesn’t die- shocker) and, having just read it, I’m a little sad.

Dark Entries scores a 7.5 out of ten.  The art is decent.  Great story. Points for suspense and lack of predictability. For more information about Vertigo Crime, ask the folks down at BSI.

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