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Rat God (Trade Paperback)

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    Ian Jane
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  • Rat God (Trade Paperback)



    Rat God (Trade Paperback)
    Released by: Dark Horse Comics
    Released on: October 14th, 2015.
    Written And Illustrated by: Richard Corben
    Purchase From Amazon

    Written, illustrated and colored by the great Richard Corben (with some help on the coloring from Beth Corben Reed), Rat God #1 is the beginning of a new series in which Corben draws deep from the well of Lovecraft while working some interesting native American folklore into his story as well.

    When the story begins, a native 'faltered' at the sight of a leering 'unearthly visage!' Achak and his sister, Kito, are on the run, moving through the forest as quickly as they're able. They are fleeing both the Cthanhluk and the Tlingit, knowing that both will kill them. The head south when those they spy head north, figuring south is the way to safety but once they're out in the woods, Achak knows that bad spirits have followed them. They spot what they believe to be a helpful forest spirit, hoping it will aid them in their escape, but Achak tells his sister that what they see if actually Wu-Ji, the vulture. Not a good omen, and neither is the totem made of corpses that they stumble upon.

    Night falls and they make it until sunrise the next morning. As the break to eat some berries, Achak's chest is pierced by an arrow - someone is attacking and he tells Kito to flee and meet him at the river in three days. Achak battles those that were following them and things get bloody. Three day later, Kito shows up at the river. Her brother is not there but she meets a Caucasian in a car who is as surprised to see her as she is to see him. She disappears and he figures it was a figment of his imagination, particularly once he meets a man named Chuk who knows the driver from Arkham. He knows this man is Clark Elwood, Kito's friend, and he tells Clark that he's her brother.

    They stop for gas and ask the old man at the station for directions to Lame Dog, and once they leave Chuk asks Clark why he was rude to the old Indian man. Clark plays the Aryan card, at which point Chuk has had enough and he gets out of the car. Clark stops, they fight, and Chuk makes off with his car. He starts the long walk ahead of him, snow starts to fall and through a flashback we learn how he met Kito when he was a student at Miskatonic University. As he strolls down memory lane and simultaneously through the woods, he loses track of things and finds himself in a perilous situation…

    Clark wandersthrough the snowy woods alone, injured from the attack that closed off the first issue. As he tries to take shelter from the cold which hunched under a tree, we flashback to his days at Arkham. Here we see he and Kito getting to know one another and enjoying life together. Through this sequence, we flashback again to Kito's home town of Lame Dog, which she describes as 'a collection of dilapidated, dried-out, rotting shacks.' It was once an Indian settlement but the arrival of prospectors changed all of that. When the boom years of the gold rush came to an end, the town fell on hard times but a few of the settlers stuck around and mingled with the Indians.

    One of these men was Zedon Peck, and he'd soon come to lead the tribe after which Lame Dog became a home not to Indians or prospectors but a 'mongrel hybrid that shunned any further outside contact.' After their lunch Kito goes to run errands. Clark follows her and finds that she's allowing herself to be used as an example in a class on evolution at the local university. She spies him and when he leaves, chases after him, still naked. Clark, upset and offended by her actions, leaves her. He later regrets his actions and heads to her house to apologize, learning the hard way that it's in a bad part of town. He gets assaulted and the flashback ends. He wakes up in the care of Achak, the care previously stolen from him stored safely outside the trailer. After a quick meal, Clark takes the car to Lame Dog, or what's left of it. He takes lodging in a big old house but when he asks about Kito, he's told to be gone by dark and to steer clear of the cemetery…

    Clark is recuperating from the events that took place in the second issue. He wakes up, his injuries bandaged, in a decaying old building 'dreaming of horrible things.' He wakes up, startled by the presence of Gharlena strutting about wearing nothing but a smile - she reminds him again NOT to go to the graveyard.

    So of course, what does Clark do? He dresses, hops out the window, and heads straight to the graveyard. Here he spies someone lingering outside dressed in a cloak and he can't help but notice that for a small town, the Lame Dog Cemetery is quite large. As Clark explores further he finds mummified corpses aplenty and then hides to watch a procession of cloaked cultists lead by a person in a rat mask in some sort of occult ceremony in which a young boy, naked and drugged, is sacrificed to some sort of dark god. This is followed by a second sacrifice and then a third - the third victim? Kito! When Clark realizes this he can't help but try to rescue her, and try he does. A big fight ensues and the identity of the cult leader is revealed but Clark is outnumbered and once the cultists overcome him, they force him to come face to face with their Rat God!

    But does it really happen that way? Clark dreams… of horrible things.

    When the forth issue begins, Clark Elwood finds himself engaged in mortal combat with the denizens of the small town that lays claim to Lame Dog Cemetery. Things get bloody but eventually Elwood emerges victorious… or so it seems.

    After the battle he meets 'one of Lame Dog's belligerent aristocrats' - a strange looking man in a dapper purple suit - Peck. There is someone behind him covered in a bed sheet. As Elwood and the 'man' talk, a rat emerges from an open window. Elwood makes short work of it and is then asked by his unwelcome guest to kill Zachariah Peck, his patriarch. He refuses, insisting he's a non-violent person, but Elwood's actions speak louder than his words. Regardless, he insists… until the identity of the 'thing' under the bed sheet is revealed. This is enough to coerce Elwood into doing what has been asked of him.

    The next morning Clark sits on the porch to await further instructions. Gharlena approaches him and shows him her naked body but he's not interested. She runs off in a huff and Peck, again in his purple suit, arrives in Clark's car. He tells Clark to attend the costume party that will be happening later that night, and so he does just that. His arrival sees the natives go into a strange dance routine after which he's given a tour of the mansion and shown the significance of some of its paintings.

    The final issue of Richard Corben's Rat God brings everything full circle. Clark Elwood is in the strange and ancient town of Lame Dog for one purpose and one purpose only - to rescue Kito, the woman he loves. Caught red handed at the masquerade party, Clark is in trouble, in fact he's about to be executed. He's bound and dragged down into a burial chamber where the 'rodent lord' of the town will be hungry for a snack. Damon is tied up and about to be sacrificed along with Clark, at the hands of his own father. Things do not look good.

    The two men are left in their cell to await the inevitable arrival of the Rat God, and soon enough, it arrives, just as hungry as their captors promised it would be. Clark watches as Damon is eaten alive, but is freed by an accomplice before he meets the same fate. He's rushed to an escape passage and urged to find Kito, but it won't be easy. The townsfolk and the Rat God itself are lurking nearby. He finds her, but will they make it out alive?

    Of course, we won't spoil the big finish here and there's quite a bit more to it than just Clark and Kito trying to escape Lame Dog.

    From the familiar one-eyed, cloaked narrator to the story of survival, down to the art style and the completely unnecessary (but no less awesome for it) nudity, Rat God #1 is pretty much classic Corben. A classic tale of dark gods and monsters told with the flamboyant style you'd expect from Corben at his best, Rat God comes to an impressive and unpredictable conclusion in this last chapter. By giving the story a period setting and working in elements of classic pulp style adventure stories, Corben gives us more than just blood and guts. Here he crafts a story firmly rooted in elements of both Lovecraft and Howard, and it works remarkably well. Not only that, but it suits his artistic style perfectly. Corben's anatomy tends to be exaggerated more often than not but in this world, where anything can and will happen, it never feels out of place.

    Fans of Corben's underground work and his work for the classic Warren magazines like Creepy and Eerie ought to eat this stuff right up. It fits in perfectly with a lot of that material. It's got an edge to it, never taking things so far as to feel inappropriate for the story but it definitely keeps things suspenseful. You know certain characters are probably going to die, as there's a certain inevitability to these things, but exactly how and for what reasons? You probably won't see that coming.

    This series has been great right from the first issue. Corben kept the quality of the artwork up to his typically high standards and gave us a story every bit its equal. Here's hoping we see more projects like this from Corben and Dark Horse (who seem to treat the man right) in the not too distant future.

    In addition to reprinting each and every issue that made up the complete mini-series, this collection edition also includes a few pages of black and white pencil sketches that Corben did as prep work for the series. These sketches are presented along with a few notes from the man himself. Also included here is a brief three panel strip that he did for the 2014 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival's program.


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