By Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon

What to expect: demons, hauntings, shotguns, cynical asides, and a whole cryptful of cult/pop horror references.

Review by Alex Frith

Buy this book from Amazon

Caballistics, Inc is one of the most popular new series to appear in 2000 AD in recent years. Describing the set-up doesn’t really do justice to how original the strip feels, at least within the 2000 AD canon. For those who don’t know, the story involves a rag-tag collection of occult investigators who investigate (and then kick the stomm out of) the occult, whilst occasioanlly trying to work out what agenda their mysterious benefactor has. So far, so Ghostbusters/Hellboy. Or comparing it to 2000 AD series, it’s a tiny bit like Bix Barton (or, dare I say it, Bec & Kawl) played straight but with jokes. Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that, and as is often the case with a truly great series, this strip succeeds on the strength of its characters more than the situations they end up in.

Throughout ‘Going Underground’, Rennie and Reardon introduce us to the main players in drip-feed fashion, showing us what they’re like before delving into their pasts to explain a little about why they are like they all are. Professor Jonathan Brand is the most ‘normal’ of the group, a person who has studied the occult in theory but until now has had little experience in practice. This is in direct contrast to occult-weary and cynical duo Hannah Chapter and Lawrence Verse, who could clearly sustain their own spin-off series telling their early adventures if Rennie could be bothered. Then there’s Solomon Ravne, who is either a demon himself, or at the very least an ancient mage with some kind of demonic power – the mystery surrounding him is one of several that keep readers coming back for more. Hidden in the shadows is Ethan Kostabi, the rich recluse who is responsible for bringing the team together. Another ongoing mystery relates to who this man is and what his reasons are for wanting Caballistics, Inc. to exist. The final member of the team (for this volume, anyway) is Jenny Simmons, Brand’s research assistant and girlfriend. Who soon complicates things by becoming possessed by a demon – or maybe she has simply turned into this demon? Yet another fun little mystery.

The stories in this book are a mixture of throwing this team into various zombie/demon horde-filled situations and slowly learning more about who and why they are. Either on their own would become stale too quickly, but Rennie mixes the two together with great skill. And that’s not all! Rennie’s final piece of the puzzle is to flesh the series out by referencing a veritable encyclopaedia of horror iconography, from the novels of Poe and Lovecraft and Barker to the films of Hammer and Amicus, and of course horror comics such as the aforementioned Hellboy. If you’re a fan of horror fiction (and Fortean fact) you’ll find plenty to smirk at in each episode. To be honest, I’m not that big a fan of the genre myself, so I’m sure I’m missing out on all sorts of this meta-textual referencing, but it hasn’t diminished my enjoyment of this excellent series.

Lest we forget, 2000 AD is primarily an action comic, and Caballistics doesn’t disappoint on that front. There are demons popping up all over the place – on the Tube, in haunted mansions, in Abattoirs, in war zones. This mostly leads to bloodbaths involving guns, knives, crossbows and the occasional bit of magic. And of course a heavy, heavy dose of cynical dialogue to match every shot fired, as we’ve come to expect from Gordon ‘buckets of bile’ Rennie.

The final word on the series has to go to artist Dom Reardon, who apparently began the series as a replacement for the all-too-busy Frazer Irving. Reardon is one of those rare artists who makes it look as if he’s really not drawing much at all, but when you look at each panel it’s bursting with detail and atmosphere. The key word in this book is definitely ‘chiaroscuro’, to borrow the title of another 2000 AD horror series. There are heavy blacks, and heavy whites, and a whole lot of menace on every page. And there’s something special about Reardon’s drips of blood that make them all the more gory for being in black and white, rather than lurid or even tasteful red. A smattering of well-chosen, hand-drawn sound effects also add to the chills. You can clearly hear the ‘splatch’ as Verse dispatches a demon through the chest with a nearby gravestone. Make no mistake, this book is gruesome.

As well as the first four Cabs outings, this volume also gives us four covers (reprinted in black and white, which are interesting but not as powerful as the colour originals), and three pages of Reardon’s sketches. It’s nice to have these, but they feel like more of a token than a full-blown extra feature.

In all, recommended for fans of unselfconscious horror, and people prepared to hold out for more in the next volume, and, we all hope, another one to follow as soon as Rennie & Reardon have created the relevant stories! 

Buy this book from Amazon