Review – He Who Fights With Monsters #1

Review – He Who Fights With Monsters #1

Writer: Francesco Artibani

Artist: Werther Dell’edera

Publisher: Ablaze

Release Date: September 22, 2021

Issue #1

On All Hallows’ Eve, a community struggles under the boot of the Nazi war machine when supernatural forces come to play a part in the conflict! From the artist of the bestselling Something is Killing the Children comes a Halloween tale that will send shivers up your spine…

It’s World War 2 and the struggle between good and evil is in full force. In Prague, the great Bohemian city is being oppressed by the Nazi occupation and the population lives in terror, while the resistance forces try to organize themselves in the shadows. It is an almost impossible task. With the ruthless SS tightening their grip on every street and neighbourhood with overwhelming might, only one hope feeds the struggle. A crazy hope, which rests on the fragile foundations of an ancient, monstrous legend…

Writer: Francesco Artibani

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby becomes a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The action starts with a group of locals attacking some Germans and treating them as they were treated. A Russian officer steps in to stop a young German girl from being attacked and is invited by an elderly puppeteer to hear a story of what happened three years earlier.

Flashback and Dr Kladech is stopped by German troops on his way home, they accept his story and allow him to leave. His is in fact Radek Molnar, a Jewish doctor helping a group hide under the city from the Nazis. He sues papers forged by one of his groups and smuggles in food, medicine and treats for them.

One of his patients, Professor Kaufmann, is close to death and Radek sits with him to help. He tells Radek of the tale of the Golem a mythical creature created to help the Jewish community hundreds of years ago. Will using the monster help those fleeing from the Nazis?

Artibani script is both slow but controlled, ratcheting up the tension on each page and forcing the reader to beg for more when it ends on a cliffhanger.

Artist: Werther Dell’edera

The artwork is very reminiscent but different enough from the work of Mike Mignola, who has previously used both European folklore and WWII to play with the Golem myth. The majority of the issue takes place at night or underground and muted colours increase the sense of foreboding as the slow script accelerates.

Overall Thoughts

I greedily finished this comic in ten minutes and had to pace myself to re-read slowly for this review. It will be interesting to see how Nietzsche’s quote embeds within the story as the Jewish community fight back against the Germans, how will they protect their humanity?

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