HARRIS O’MALLEY, ARTIST…

…Joins Harris O’Malley, writer, on BENEATH THE CRACKS: THE BRIDE, and writer Jens Altmann on BERSERKER: THE WILD HUNT #1-3, both available from Studio Underhill.

BERSERKER is a five-issue mini-series in progress. The story centers on the old Celtic myth of a huntsman who seeks human prey, and Altmann throws a new twist into the mix by setting the tale in modern day. The Huntsman’s targets are those who have lost the will or desire to live, but when the being’s ancient enemy is able to save the life of one of the near-dead, a new sort of modern Viking is created.

I’m a sucker for bringing legend into a modern milieu, so I found myself buying into the story with relative ease, particularly with the Huntsman’s work being investigated as the work of a serial killer. But O’Malley’s work tends to be a little inconsistent, and backgrounds are sometimes non-existent. He does well with character scenes, but the inconsistency is most apparent during action sequences, leaving them lacking in fluidity.

His sparse and spare panel work is much more successful in THE BRIDE, another neo-modern take on an old story. This time, however, it’s the “Bride Of Frankenstein.” O’Malley’s take follows the Bride, set free during a raid in which her Dr. Frankenstein is arrested as a serial killer, on an odyssey through the city as she deals with the remnants of memory belonging to the souls who make up her body. It’s a cold, harsh take that gives us a Bride at the mercy of chickenhawks and pimps in the big city. THE BRIDE is an effectively rendered tragedy of a soul who never wanted to die, and who never wanted to live.

Looking at THE BRIDE in particular, there is definite evidence that O’Malley is slowly grasping the basics of storytelling, and I think with experience, he’ll grow and become more effective at page layout, backgrounds, and portraying motion and action.

/Mason