Reading comic book ‘Joe Golem: Occult Detective’ in one omnibus
Joe Golem is an occult detective—and so much more.
“What I love about Joe is that he’s a character full of hope and good will, in spite of whatever grimness or sadness might burden him.”
For fans of supernatural detective stories, the comic book collection Joe Golem: Occult Detective Omnibus features a mash-up with a hardboiled detective dealing with some very dark supernatural problems that threaten the world. The comic book was published as several mini-series, all part of one big picture. Joe is an occult detective in a flooded New York City during the 1960s and ’70s.
Co-created by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden, the Joe Golem: Occult Detective comic books share a heartfelt and harrowing saga that combines hardboiled detective and emotional drama with of magic and mystery. “A noir-esque detective book, fueled by alternate history and their usual twist of the macabre.” (Comic Crusaders).
Official description:
In an alternate, half-submerged version of Manhattan, Joe Golem uncovers the truth behind strange and occult happenings that threaten the city's inhabitants. But perhaps the biggest mystery of all is his own past. Fight demonic rats, pursue forbidden knowledge, and much more as Joe and his compatriots tackle the supernatural together.
Mignola and Golden started building the Joe Golem epic with the promotional short story, “Joe Golem and the Copper Girl,” and the illustrated novel Joe Golem and the Drowning City: An Illustrated Novel. They followed with a series of comic book mini-series.
“Creepy and sad may be two of the defining characteristics of this series,” Golden told Multiversity Comics. “But what I love about Joe is that he’s a character full of hope and good will, in spite of whatever grimness or sadness might burden him.”
Golden said that Joe Golem—despite his mystic and low origins—is a person of great empathy. “And yet… there’s a disconnect inside Joe that makes him constantly unsettled, forever troubled. He’s trying to solve other people’s problems partly because he can never seem to solve his own.”
Joe Golem: Occult Detective Omnibus (Dark Horse Books)
The epic book Joe Golem: Occult Detective Omnibus pulls together four trade collections of the Joe Golem comic books into one edition. Over more than 500 pages, the big book also shares sketches and behind-the-scenes details from the artists.
“I grew up on horror and its still nearest to my heart, but I also have a deep, abiding love for noir, particularly on film,” Golden told Conskipper. “Bogart and Robert Mitchum and other hard-nosed private eyes are big influences on my view of Joe. I think I described him once as a boxer who’d had his nose broken too many times.”
Also helping create the Joe Golem omnibus edition were artists Peter Bergting and Patric Reynolds, colorists Dave Stewart and Michelle Madsen, and cover artist David Palumbo.
Buy Joe Golem: Occult Detective Omnibus
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More about the creators
Mike Mignola is a legendary comic book writer and artist most-known as the creator of supernatural investigator Hellboy, plus BPRD and other supernatural projects for media publisher Dark Horse. Hellboy, of course, jumped out of comic books to also star in movies and novels as well. Mignola’s other work includes working with DC Comics on Cosmic Odyssey (an epic event involving some of their cosmic characters) and Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, (which imagined an 1880s version of Batman dealing with Jack the Ripper), and helping as an artist with movies like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), and Guillermo del Toro’s movies Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004), and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).
Christopher Golden is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of novels including Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, and Red Hands. He’s also written for dozens of projects connected to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies including Seize the Night, The New Dead, and The Monster’s Corner, among others. He has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, a BBC radio play, the online animated series Ghosts of Albion (with Amber Benson), and a network television pilot. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. Find more Christopher Golden online at his official website.
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For fans of supernatural detective stories, the comic book collection Joe Golem: Occult Detective Omnibus features a mash-up with a hardboiled detective dealing with some very dark supernatural problems that threaten the world.