Dark Horse Presents #34

Published by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: Feb. 19, 2014
Writer: various
Artist: various
Cover: Michael Wm. Kaluta
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Dark Horse's long-running anthology series is in its second volume and delivers a variety of stories and serials in a mixed genre bag: fantasy, mystery, crime drama, sci-fi, horror, superhero…just about anything. A host of talent creating a myriad of stories is what DH Presents is all about. As always, every issue contains a number of stories already in progress, a couple of story conclusions, and also some serials just starting out. Michael Wm. Kaluta's intricate cover houses the pages of issue #34, and Geof Darrow contributes some spot illustrations as well as the back cover.

• “The Deleted Chapter 3” by Brendan McCarthy and Darrin Grimwood. The gang continue on in the sim world, Dante confronts is father, and they make it through the third level of a virtual video game, only to find more opposition. This is a very colorful story (it's the borders which are pretty neat), but not very engaging. You might dig it if you like hi-tech tales.
• “S.H.O.O.T. First: Bett and Byron Chapter 1” by Justin Aclin and Nicolas Daniel Selma. Ten years ago. A team of highly trained agents make up the Secular Humanist Occult Obliteration Taskforce, or S.H.O.O.T. for short, and they end up in the Everglades in pursuit of an “outside actor”. That's code for a supernatural creature. Today it's a beast that feeds off people's religious faith. Tight story, nice art, and monsters…looks promising.
• “Cruel Biology Chapter 2” by Christopher Sebela and Brian Churilla. A bleeding island native dies due to some sort of liquid that was dumped on him, and the three loser soldiers - Zimmerman, Curtis, and the narrator O'Brien - need to figure out what to do to contain the sickness the liquid has created that is starting to affect the rest of natives. Maybe even the three of them as well. A bloody mess to behold is the native running through the pages as he drowns in his own blood. If the art was a little less cartoonish, that might be a more disturbing moment.
• “Mister X: Frozen Assets Chapter 2” by Dean Motter. Honeycutt the repo man needs to thaw out the head of Mr. Goldfarb, but there is a bit of a dilemma: they need the right blood to do it. Someone they both know steps forward and donates her blood, but at what price? This one hasn't quite started to make sense, but it's getting there.
• “Nexus: Into the Past Chapter 9” by Mike Baron and Steve Rude. The conclusion to a story that started quite some time back wraps up a story I didn't read. I'm waiting for the collected single book.

• “Mr. Monster Vs. The Brain Bats of Venus! Chapter 2” by Michael T. Gilbert. It looked like the end for Mr. Monster last time, but Doc Steel, a mechanical version of Mr. Monster, was actually posing as Mr. Monster to fool the Brain Bats. After some long explanation and a battle of minds, Mr. Monster gains an unlikely ally and prepare for the final battle. The colors on this one really pop and those brain Bats are just nasty.
• “Davey Jones and the Mystery of the Monocle Men Chapter 1” by Dennis Culver. Weird men who have on single monocled eye have been kidnapping people and have taken the grandfather of two children. Acting on a story he told them about Davey Jones coming from the ocean to save him due to Gramps sending him a message in a bottle, the two youths write the guy at the bottom of the sea a letter for help. Help comes to them and kicks butt. It's too early to tell, what this one's all about, but Culver's think-lined art and Sloane Leong's colors make for a great looking page.
• “Across the Channel” by Kel McDonald and Kate Ashwin. This is a self-contained story about some 18th Century men planning to be the first to balloon across the English Channel. It just doesn't amount to a whole lot, to be honest.
• “The Many Murders of Miss Cranbourne: The Library in the Body Chapter 3” by Rich Johnson and Simon Rohrmuller. The murder mystery concludes, but did the Inspector arrest the wrong person? Miss Cranbourne doesn't think so, but Lady Frobisher doesn't seem to agree. Someone else must have murdered her cheating husband and her maid/his mistress. Heavy on talking, light on action, the story has the feel of a Murder She Wrote episode.
• “Integer City Chapter 5” by Jamie S. Rich and Brent Schoonover. Jonny Kilmeister's attempt to save a girl results in his being captured by the cult that has her. Tied up to be sacrificed, Katze comes to his rescue, allowing him to rescue Nathalie. She doesn't want to leave, and the conjuring of a demon named Tekthulu makes things tough on Jonny. This supernatural, gumshoe dime novel has a lot of appeal and here's to hoping for a mini-series, as the next chapter is the conclusion.

Although there is always a story mid-way or ending in just about every issue of Dark Horse Presents, there's never a bad jumping on point. This issue in particular has most of its stories in the earlier chapters and is a really good point to jump in. The comic is enjoyable throughout and contains some attractive artwork. One of the great things about DHP is the mishmash of different genres. Superheroes aren't you bag? Don't read that one. Murder mysteries bore you? Skip it. But once you get hooked into a story, this book delivers on a consistent level.