Ex Occultus: Seal of Salomon

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Ex Occultus: Seal of Salomon
By Patrick Bérubé
April 5, 2010 - 06:30

Saint-James Comics
Writer(s): Robert James Russell
Penciller(s): James Emmett
Inker(s): James Emmet
Letterer(s): James Emmett
Cover Artist(s): J.R. Fleming
$2.99 US

Sofia Bulgaria 1874, King Salomon's heir hires Mr. Francis Wakefield and his associate Hollander to retrieve a an ancient family heirloom. The Seal of Salomon, a ring making the wearer able to communicate with devils, is in the possession of an antiquarian. There should be no problem retrieving it since the ring is useless without a copy of the Black Pullet, a book explaining the mysteries of the artifact. However, when the said antiquarian starts raising crows, souls and undeads our two investigators find themselves trapped in a larger story than anticipated.

I have to admit that I did not quite know what to expect when I first opened Ex Occultus: Seal of Salomon. Would it be an adventure comic book, a mystery comic book or something more Lovecraftian? Well, now I can say that it relies on the three genres to build an engaging story. Even if relatively simple, it is still complex enough that I found myself wanting more and that's why I went to Saint-James' Web site (www.whoissaintjames.com) to read Web comics about the character's other adventures. I also recommend that you also do that if you plan or reading this issue of Ex Occultus because even if it is self-contained there is definitely more going on that just what happen in these 24 pages.

The art is probably not this one-shot's strongest point. There are some odd facial expressions, the perspective is sometimes a bit off and the background does not have much detail. However, for some odd reasons I still enjoyed it. I feel that it served the story right and that James Emmett has a lot of potential. Some of the redeeming quality his art has is that he tries very hard to use different points of view for his panels and he renders some of the dialogue scene dynamic by doing so. He also tries different page layouts which help convey a sense of action. I do feel that as an artist, he still has not reached maturity yet and it will be interesting to see what he can come up with in the coming years.

I enjoyed this Ex Occultus one-shot far more than I expected. If you are a fan of supernatural stories or old school adventure I think you should have a look at this series. You can buy directly from the publisher's Web site (www.whoissaintjames.com) or from Indy Planet (www.indyplanet.com/).

Rating: 7.5/10

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