Craig Daley's surreal murder mystery series never fails to be entertaining, the level of research that goes into them, along with truly surreal twists fuse together to create something very original in feel, and they are always set in Sheffield. The Butcher of Banner Cross is the first in the series to have the art done by someone else; Chatri Ahpornsiri in this case.
A woman on her way back from a pub after a night out is attacked and killed, her body mutilated; chopped into pieces, organs removed and the body neatly arranged in a matter of seconds. Baffled police call in a paranormal investigator known as Punchline. Working with a couple of dubious Detectives Punchline analyses the crime scene to try and find just who or what is responsible.
With a new artist comes a new art style. The usual primary colours and bizzaro look is replaced by pen and ink, all black and white that does suit the morbid tone well and it is good to see none of the background details is lost. Often Daley hides clues in the background so it is great to see this still occurring. I did get a bit confused a few times with which character was which but on the whole the art is simple and clear even if it no longer stands out from the crowd.
Not too much happens in this first issue, the character of Punchline is introduced, the crime scene of the second victim is analysed in extreme detail and discussions in great detail about ritualistic murders happen. Daley's comics always focus on the investigation so this is no big surprise and it is pleasing to see as usual a huge amount of research has been done.
I know there will be a good payoff, my theories are always wrong but it is fun to finally find out what has happened. The Butcher of Banner Cross can be purchased for download from a number of places including Amazon and DriveThruComics for the low price of £1.40. Excited for the next issues.
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