Gordon Rennie - Caballistics, Inc.

[andydecker]

Caballistics, Inc. by Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon (Rebellion, 2019, 336 pages)

Originally published in the pages of 2000 AD from 2002 to 2007, Caballistics, Inc. was created by British writer Gordon Rennie who had already done a lot of comics, writing for Judge Dread and Rogue Trooper, but also his own projects like Glimmer Rats.

Caballistics is a straight horror comic. Basically it is a homage to horror fiction in all media, putting all the different tropes together, from Lovecraft and Alistair Crowley to Dr Who and Quatermass, while building its own story. In this it is like Kim Newman's Anno Dracula (or Alan Moore, if you think comics.) And it does this exceedingly well; it is a lot of fun to spot all the easter eggs, but the pulpish story is solid too.

The stors is about Department Q, a Ministry of Defence department originally created in the 1940s to combat Nazi occult warfare, which is privatised in 2004 by the British government. The Department including the last personal, Dr Jonathan Brand and his assistant Jennifer Simmons, is bought by Ethan Kostabi, a reclusive multi-millionaire 1970s pop star. Kostabi creates a a new private ghost-busting outfit, to be known as Caballistics, Inc.. Then he brings freelance occult investigators Hannah Chapter and Lawrence Verse, a gun wielding pair of ghost-hunters, on board. And the mysterious and evil Solomon Ravne, who has his own sinister plans.

The black and white art by Dom Reardon is maybe not for everyone, he delivers the story and does great atmosphere, but background or lavish details take a back-seat. But if this doesn't bother you, it is a very well done series.





The stories build an ongoing narrative, which years later spawned two sequels.

The series ended rather abrupt. Rebellion commissioned two novels for their novel range, but didn't bother to include the creator. And he left. "But then those [adjective deleted] novels appeared by someone who wasn't me, which rather put me off the whole endeavour. Someone had pissed in my happy little paddling pool, putting me off from dipping my toes into it much more", Rennie wrote in his introduction to this new and complete edition which includes the (kind of) epilogue which was published 12 years after the series ambiguous end.