By Steve Niles, Christopher Mitten & various (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-631-0
As illustrated by Jim Whiting, Steve Niles’ Cal McDonald first appeared in 1990 as part of the line-up in controversial comics anthology Fly in My Eye: Daughters of Fly in My Eye.
The hardboiled detective/horror-hunter then enjoyed his own serial in Dark Horse Presents #102-105 (1996), starred in two prose novels (Savage Membrane and Guns, Drugs and Monsters) before returning to comics with Niles’ 30 Days of Night collaborator Ben Templesmith limning the eponymous Criminal Macabre miniseries.
That was followed by loads more comics by many other artists and even another novel…
What I’m saying is that this guy’s been around, but you can pick up any book and get on with the business of being spooked whilst vicariously crushing evil with no appreciable head-strain. Then, when you realise you like what you see, you can track down the graphic novels, the Casebooks and the Omnibus Editions to prolong and expand the eerily electric experience…
In this latest compilation – collecting 2014’s 4-issue miniseries Criminal Macabre: The Third Child – the world’s most uncompromising monster-killer is coming to terms with the most unpleasant of occurrences and not coping well.
Despite years fighting against and alongside all aspects of the uncanny and supernatural, Cal has been in a bit of a dark place ever since he lost a battle and returned as a full-blown example of the undead. Now, as he haunts the darkest corners of Los Angeles, more bad news comes his way…
Whilst McDonald’s mind goes back to 1975 and his first fateful encounter with a destroyer of innocence, elsewhere it begins, as it always does, with people dying…
When two grotesque and infernal infants hit the mean streets they casually sow blood and death in their wake, inspiring everyone they meet – even unrepentant and merciless members of the city’s vast supernatural fraternity – to go on uncontrolled killing sprees. The wee kiddies are searching for the last of their kind. When they locate “The Third Child†they will all unite to end the world in a storm of rabid, infectious, hate-filled aggression…
When McDonald’s associates – Mo’lock the ghoul, Brobdingnagian Adam and a cop named Wheatley – finally locate the self-pitying avenger they quickly realise that he’s succumbing to the darkest urges of his new condition, but have important news.
The devil-babies have stirred things up so much the entire community has united. Even the vampires and werewolves are honouring a truce until the Earth is rid of the infant invaders… but they need a leader…
Meanwhile the terror-toddlers’ search for the missing waif has uncovered a potential candidate. Cal’s greatest enemy Jason Hemlock has clawed his way out of Hell and proclaims himself the third part of the Armageddon triumvirate.
He’s lying, but as the bodies mount up anyway and LA burns, the increasingly out-of-control Cal is running out of options to stave off the end of everything. And then, just as the assembled legion of monsters decide it’s every freak for itself, a reunion with his long dead dad affords McDonald the clue he’s been desperately searching for.
Armed with the knowledge of who and what the missing third is, Cal is ready to save the world again but is quite unprepared for the incredible consequences and his next uncanny evolution at war’s end…
Lightning-paced, dryly funny and spectacularly violent, Niles’ sparse and Spartan tale races along, beautifully and forcefully realised by illustrator Christopher Mitten, who also supplies an extensive and enthralling Sketchbook section.
No-nonsense monster-mashing mayhem at its best.
Text and illustrations ™ and © 2014 Steve Niles. All rights reserved.