“Sherlock Holmes and Kolchak the Night Stalker: Cry of Thunder” (three issues, 2008, collected in 2010) includes the Tombstone Thunderbird myth – remarkably underused in fresh storytelling – and respectable characterization of Holmes, Dr. Watson and Carl Kolchak.
Almost incomprehensible
What it lacks is a comprehensible plot from writer (and Moonstone editor) Joe Gentile. I read it twice for the sake of fairness and still found it unnecessarily complex yet underdeveloped in terms of logic and character motivation. In Holmes’ time, a gang of violent revolutionaries in England wants to acquire a photograph of the Tombstone Thunderbird (Old West gunslingers posing next to a huge bird they’ve supposedly shot down).
Kolchak is reading about this in an old handwritten manuscript addressed to him, across the boundaries of time. The revolutionaries’ crimes end up being irrelevant to the Thunderbird story.
“Sherlock Holmes and Kolchak the Night Stalker: Cry of Thunder” (2008)
Three-issue series
Writer: Joe Gentile
Artists: Andy Bennett, Carlos Magno
Colorists: Ken Wolak, Patrick J. Williams, Dave Bryant, Mark Collins
But their exploits – along with Holmes’ efforts to prove they are murderers (rather than his client, who sits in prison) — are the whole focus of the first half of the story. When the Kolchakian element of the story – the Thunderbird myth – comes in, it’s like an afterthought.
The best part of “Cry of Thunder” is the writing of Kolchak. The manuscript is delivered to him by Brandy Lexton, a hardboiled femme fatale. Gentile does good work with Kolchak’s narration: “She was invading my personal space … I liked it, though.” He’s not as good with spoken dialog, which is too rambling, often including sentences that start with “But” and then have another “but” midway.
Kolchak the ladies’ man
This comic reminds me that there are two Kolchak personality types: One is a suave ladies’ man (as seen in the “Night Stalker” movie), the other is a bumbling reporter (I picture all the TV scenes of him being way too close to police shootouts). I hold both Kolchaks in my mind, but don’t quite reconcile them.
“Cry of Thunder” features the cool Kolchak, who hits it off with Brandy. The art by Andy Bennett and Carlos Magno is acceptable in terms of likenesses and the portrayal of different times and places. I like how active Kolchak’s L.A. newsroom is; I can sense Kolchak’s brain juggling Vincenzo’s demands, the mysterious manuscript and Brandy’s appeal.
But it’s weak in terms of drawing Brandy as strikingly beautiful and sexy. That’s necessary here because that’s what draws Kolchak to her. There’s an automatic mystery behind this manuscript, and the fact that Brandy’s family has handed down the document makes her mildly mysterious by association. But ultimately that amounts to nothing, therefore there’s nothing to Brandy beyond her sex appeal.
A tenuous connection
I don’t know much about Holmes and Watson beyond the broad beats, and Gentile captures those in a generic way. Holmes is cold and calculating (but a good guy deep down); Watson displays outward empathy, especially toward beautiful women.
Come to think of it, Kolchak is kind of a blend of Holmes and Watson. “Cry of Thunder” doesn’t explore this, though; indeed, the connection between the timeframes and people is tenuous. The metaphysical mechanics are vaguely explained in one panel: Thunderbirds live outside of time and space, and the Tombstone bird has linked Holmes and Kolchak.
Perhaps Gentile realized he didn’t execute this comic’s concept as well as he could have, because four years later he wrote the slightly retitled “Sherlock Holmes and Kolchak: Cry for Thunder” as a prose novel.
I haven’t read it, and I’m not likely to unless I can find it in a library or for cheap. After reading the horribly copy-edited illustrated novel “The Lovecraftian Horror,” I’m cautious about Moonstone novels. The comics aren’t as bad, although you’ll notice typos and wrongly used words in “Cry of Thunder.” Unfortunately, that’s the least of its problems.
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