Harrow County Volume 3: Building Mythology

Hi, this is Pat Fraley, purveyor of Doc Doug

and Dellen Voices, and you're listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. Hello and welcome to

the Comic Concierge Podcast. The podcast believes

that comics are for everyone. The key is finding

the right one. This is one of my concierge episodes,

but it's a little bit different as we're continuing

our look at the series Howard County. And joining

me on this adventure is Matt Stewart. How's it

going, man? Doing quite well. Hopefully the third

time to charm on this one. Hopefully. Yes, we

we talked about volume one listening to the episodes

Yeah, we talked about volume one. We talked about

volume two now. We're going back to going through

volume three So it's been a fun little venture.

It's the first time the first time three time

guests So you got you can put that on your resume

next So what do I you know about the say can

I put that on my CD? Yeah to people and people

will be impressed like three time guests off

the comic con see it's like alright It's an L

host like they have like that lounge for like

if you host it seven times I may need to do something

like that but so I'd like to Steve Martin or

the Alex Baldwin of the comic concierge you are

you are so just get Tom Hayes get your Trump

impersonation and you'll be good Okay, I'll work

on it. I'm working on it right now. Yeah, yeah

But yeah, we've been enjoying having this conversation

So we're we're continuing with this series and

it's been going for quite some time now and we're

up to volume three And I think there's gonna

be a little bit of an interesting conversation

because it's much much different than the other

volumes in a lot of ways First and foremost,

you know, even with you know, the first issue

or the first part of this volume. We actually

get a new Artists or at least a film artist and

I was curious like opening this, you know, it

starts right away Did it seem different right

from the get -go knowing that this you know,

we've been with the same artists for eight issues

now But suddenly now you start a volume three.

We have a new person come in Yeah, I mean I loved

it and I took me a minute to like I know I'm

reading the same comic, but it was such a drastic

change from the art style, moving away from the

watercolor art tapestries that you're getting

from the original artist. I think this was a

female artist, too. It wasn't Hannah something.

The name escapes me right at the second, but

I was... pretty impressed by the art style. I

really, really liked it. It reminded me of more

of a less of a dark horse comic book and almost

more of like an image comic book. It came out

very glossy, very like this beautiful jumping

off the page, very HD as well. And it definitely

put me in a different mind frame. It wasn't as

kind of goth gothic scary, but I still loved

the way it looked. I thought it was kind of cool

to have somebody guest artist on it. So I thought

it was neat little addition. The guest artist

for the first issue or issue nine should say

was a Carlos Carlos speed McNeil who I'm not

super familiar with and I actually like like

you I thought their look is certainly different

than the the original art for it, but if it felt

It felt good. I thought the colors were pretty

strong, too And I think it made it actually worked

well for this story since so much of it actually

took place at night like this the stark blackness

I know that with with the coloring and there's

more of a I think a distinct line that she has

that I think made it stand out and especially

like I can't remember his name the no skin boy

how she draws him and it's fact that like yeah,

he's playing more of a pivotal role in this I

think the way she depicts him, he's got a little

bit more of a, he seems more of a complete person.

And I think that was important since he was really,

I mean, this first issue or issue, the first

beginning, he's really the main character or

the one we're focusing the most on. Yeah. It's

like a very strongly designed character. Like

in the other comic books or the other books or

the issues, I should say, it looks a little bit

like, because that watercolor, like kind of like,

you know, not through, I don't want to say thrown

together in a lot of way, but it seemed like

this very like Painterly, but this one's like

a full fully fleshed out like I feel like I see

more the of the sinew and the muscle the musculature

of the characters so it definitely has a more

striking a look to that character I guess you

can call it. I'm gonna call the Skin no skin

boy Caleb at this point because you kind of get

that a little bit of a pseudo revolution there

at the kind of end there, but I liked I also

like the fact that this kind of new volume picks

up in a completely different direction because

we've almost this is like the third arc of the

story, I guess you could say at this point and

I like that they're introducing another new character.

So you're just kind of creating this like rogues

gallery of characters that Emmy's gonna go against.

Potentially at some point, but I like the creepiness

of this character is kind of like the old hitchhiker

kind of remind me a little Christopher Lloyd

and a Little bit that kind of greasy stranger

type looks a little bit I don't know whether

it gets popped up in my head But I guess the

train and the long hair and the overcoat just

kind of gave me that Christopher Lloyd from Dennis

minutes It's funny because the person I thought

of which is probably even more random was the

the main villain in last action hero Oh, the

Ripper. Yeah. I don't know. I have no idea why

that came, but he had the long hair and the receding

hairline and he had a very creepy look to him.

It certainly is a really great introduction.

I love the first page. It's this midnight train

with glowing eyes hidden within it and then he

hops off of it. It's just a great introduction

just to know something is up with this guy within

only a few pages. Yeah, anybody snatches a bird

out of the sky and like he starts playing like

a harmonica with it almost it's just like super

weird and career ocarina whatever musical instrument

seems to be playing with this birdie just literally

took out of this guy and killed and so, you know,

definitely this guy is bad news and the way he's

kind of manipulating the Caleb throughout the

issue as well, too is also this guy's like definitely

a long -term player, he's not like another hainte

if you want to call him a hainte at this point.

I don't think he is, but you know, just another

big kind of like boss at this point. Yeah, he

seems partially a witch or I don't know, like

an evil Pied Piper or something of that nature.

He's like, he's certainly manipulating, you know,

Caleb as you mentioned and trying to really drive

a wedge between him, Emily, and it just, you

know, you don't clearly know what his motive

is. But I do like the fact, you know, where it

ends and just the, when you finally get the image

of Caleb putting his skin back on and just the

anger that's there. And then the final image

of just the handprint of blood. I don't know.

I thought it was a really strong first issue

or like opening to the arc. Although I was surprised

that like we didn't go back to it at all within

this volume. We just, we jumped into a completely

other story. Yeah, I mean I kind of like it reminds

me of them. We've mentioned this before I've

always been a big fan of spawn and things like

that Where you get this like arc that goes for

a little bit that it kind of deviates like it's

kind of goes in completely different direction

working on other characters and I think it's

important because you came out of two Reasonably

very strong arcs and now you have to really redevelop

like something that like Emily's gonna go against

at some point so you have to kind of it's a little

bit of a slower third volume in a lot of ways

because it's a lot of little small side stories

and just kind of character development as a whole

and I know people like long arcs and comic books

but I do like that this one it was concentrating

on Caleb in the new in the new kind of stranger

guy and then in the second one we got the whole

the whole witch coming through there knock another

new character which is good or bad and like you

had Those two issues kind of like, you know,

you had a beginning and kind of end a little

bit there. But then the fourth story, you basically

get a completely different thing and a new artist

as well, too. So you get a lot of new artistry

in these four issues. Yeah. And I guess like

the art in the fourth issue or the issue 12 by

Hannah Christensen, I thought I felt like art

itself was good, but it just felt kind of almost

out of place for this book in the sense of like

this had such a different. look to it even even

like the color palette it was it was like i was

looking at a completely different world and what

we had to this point and even emily was drawn

i felt like a little bit older it was hard to

get into that story as much like that art by

itself if you just gave me that book i thought

i would think it's fine it's suitable for the

story but for this it just seemed it has such

a distinct look to it that is so different than

everything that came before it it just seemed

a little bit out of out of place like i could

see this being a one shot but like with it You

know, we are telling a story here felt you know,

you know, it is itself an offshoot story That's

not what came before but it was a little bit.

It took a little bit to adjust to with that story

Yeah, I mean maybe they were doing I mean the

only the reason I can think maybe I mean I know

artists like to take off, you know, they'd like

to take breaks But I mean you did have the artist

run through no eight issues in a row of his art

style And you'll need the two issues on this

particular volume right now, but maybe it was

done a little bit on purpose to kind of Say like,

yeah, me is kind of like in a strange new place.

So you purposely kind of did a strange new art

style with it because she's not in Harrow County

in this one. She's in a completely different

like she's almost like a ghostbuster in this

in this fourth in this fourth issue in the volume.

So I mean, maybe I'm just being too kind or thinking

too much into it. I mean, that could be a reasonable

argument I could have for somebody who would

say like, oh, the art style's different. Well,

she's in a completely different kind of, she's

out of her element. So you're out of your element.

So there could be a little bit of a psychological

tug there potentially. I know it's tough because

obviously, especially with an independent book

and artists, it takes a lot of time to get it

right. So I don't necessarily, it was a bad thing.

It was just something that was certainly noticeable

because that first issue with I thought the art

fit a little bit more. It was obviously different,

but I thought it was an interesting choice aesthetically

to go with it. And I thought ultimately the story

worked and it worked for the story it was telling.

Um, but it's just interesting when you put it

all together, it's kind of just, you know, the,

the means of telling comics. Sometimes you gotta,

you gotta make do with what you have. Yeah. I

mean, that's kind of my, like, like an overarching

problem. Sometimes I have with comics and this

is even get more off topic, not even talking

about Harle County, but other comics in, in,

uh, in general is that if I don't really like

the art style in a book, I'm more apt to not

want to go beyond one issue or two issues. Like

to me, that's a big thing where. Like the story

can be fantastic. Like let's say batman or uh,

what is it? Um, um, the great morse batman arc

of asylum like I understand that it's a beautiful

looking book, but It's it's like looking at a

painting for the 100 pages or something like

that. There's minimal dialogue The art style

is sometimes it it's a love it or hate it thing

I know people like loud it as like, you know

a masterpiece and I own the book myself because

I do think it's very good however This is kind

of like my argument with like the art has to

be just as good as you know What you're putting

on the page? That's why I always thought like

a polo and Snyder were great a great combination

on the Batman books because I love Capolo I love

him going all the way back to spawn and then

Snyder. He always writes great dialogue and you

know He's a great writer for a comic book. So

It did like you said it kind of took me out of

it for this fourth the fourth issue on the volume,

just because it was such a drastic change from

what I was seeing. Like I've seen beautiful artwork,

then I've seen more beautiful artwork than I

saw. I mean, I mean, Beauty's United Beholder.

I'm sure people love this art style. I mean,

I'm not going to take that away from anybody,

but maybe it's just not for me and for you and

for other, you know, it's just kind of that thing,

you know, it took me out of it a little bit.

I've read a lot of comics that have this have

a very similar style to it. And like you said,

it's not necessarily It's about matching the

story you're telling or especially if you're

telling a long -form story the aesthetic so it

kind of it flows naturally and it's in challenged

because you know, you're you're trying to Get

artists that work sometimes that may not happen

or you know column bunk is ultimately just really

like the artists that thought he was a good good

for the story and I think separately from this

like if I just read this Issued by itself outside

of this volume. It probably would have been fine.

But Just you know, it's like what's like watching

a movie and halfway through like you completely

changes cinematography you completely alter like

the Color palette of the movie and like it suddenly

it's like it looks different than everything

you've done before it especially with the comics

That's a you know, it's a complete jump. Yeah,

but they get back to kind of a Really, I feel

like the meat of this volume is within the two

issues in the middle where you get an introduction

to another witch, and it's more of a very classic

folktale story surrounding these copperhead snakes.

Again, this is one that's not even really dealing

with our main character at all for these two

issues for the most part. How did those two issues

work? I thought they were fantastic. I love the

arc. I like introducing another character that

kind of has like that gray area where, I mean,

come the end of it, you kind of figure like,

okay, she is probably good because she's working

against this other witch who was like, it's pretty

much a snake talker or a snake charmer in so

many ways. So she became like this one collecting

all these water moccasins and everything and

putting them in jars because they're evil. And

I do like this kind of progression to a Bernice's

character. doing like maybe she has some powers

that we don't really know about yet too so she

could be a bigger kind of influencer coming down

the line so you are giving like you said there

is a lot more meat on these two issues because

you're kind of building you know the other side

like Emmy I feel like we're pretty built up we

kind of know a lot about her already so let's

concentrate on these kind of ancillary ancillary

characters that could play a bigger though they're

they're bigger pieces in the in the chessboard

if you will so Do like that. I like the like

the folklore that you're talking about with like,

you know snakes charming and things like that

and the other witch and things I mean and I guess

kind of it worked for me a lot and plus going

back to that watercolor style It seems like a

cohesive part of the overarching story as well.

Like it feels like it's Cohesive to the first

eight issues type thing. So there's you know,

maybe they're gonna do something that maybe they

feel like The main art style will be cohesive

to like the main story, but these other little

kind of snippets of Caleb and the stranger and

the haunted house is, you know, not a huge part

of the story, but I'm sure it will be at some

point, too. Yeah, that's a good point. And this.

those two issues do a lot that I really love

about comics when they do it and Jason Aaron

does a lot with his books where he will spend

some time with those tertiary characters and

round them out give them more character like

like a Bernice and I think it makes it a stronger

book because once now she shows up and later

in the comic like you feel like you know her

she's more of a complete character you know you

you expand the scope with this world especially

you know so far with Howard County it's really

felt a little bit isolated but now it feels like

oh there's actually much more history here there's

much going much more going on going on in this

world and also thought within those two issues

there's a really strong story it has a good setup

and this you know idea of these snakes and this

other witch that and like just the hold she has

on it and thought it was good how it juxtaposed

those expectations in the sense of taking what

you thought she was and really seeing that she

was much more of a healer much more of a helper

and really placating those Types of first reactions

people tend to have and using it kind of Against

the reader and I thought it left out of a really

good place I was actually really excited to continue

that story of like I'm liking where this is going

which also kind of made me why That last issue

didn't work as well for me as much because I'm

like I want to get to that story again and and

I yeah Wait a little bit. So well, it's like

the ultimate to be continued because they essentially

just leave it as oh to be continued Oh the next

issue Nothing said about it. We're going to a

different we're going to a different place and

there's a haunted house and Everything that goes

along with haunted house stories and everything.

So yeah, it was like if that is a good like great

storytelling that he's doing where it's like,

yeah, you're going to get more. You're just not

going to get it more yet. So sleep on this and

see what happens to Bernice and the witch and

everything that kind of goes along with that.

But I liked it a lot. And it's world building

too, because at least they're going to another

part of town too. They're going, what was it?

The holler or something like that. Like the other

section where it's like, oh, this is like the

place that kind of time for God. It's almost

like a little caravan village and things like

that. So I do like that you're growing. The uh

world around harrow county or the greater harrow

county areas So I do like that There's a bigger

world being built as well and I loved how like

when bernice did what she did like trying to

investigate to see what happened and it caused

the snake to bite the other witch I can't think

of her name like her reaction like I thought

she like she had a such uh like matter of fact

reaction to it that I thought was kind of welcoming

where She's not angry or yelling. She's like

this was bound to happen. And all right. This

is now falling onto you and I thought that was

a Cool way to approach it where instead of like

seeing her like put some sort of curse or like

dammer was like Just having kind of a general

conversation and just understanding, you know,

there was like a calmness to her that I thought

was Unexpected well flip that expectation on

your head where it's like, oh she's like messing

around these snakes She has to be bad. Like if

you deal with snakes, you are a bad person. She's

like no It's like i'm actually collecting these

snakes to stop bad people so I do like the fact

like you brought it up earlier like kind of switching

like flipping it completely on your head of like

your thoughts and feelings of because everyone's

like oh this witch is bad she obviously killed

this guy who got bitten by the snake earlier

on and he walks out like you know I don't know

what his what his deal is if is he healed is

he not healed um you know there could be a lot

of different things going on there but at least

in the Like right now you feel like the snake

charmer, which is a good character. Yeah. Who

knows? I don't know though. So we'll see what

happens. We've seen people show up that we think

you're good and then they end up having a little

bit more to her. So yeah, I thought that was

really that to me was the strength of the third

volume for sure. And it's interesting just like.

Getting getting some more flashbacks to and getting

more history of this world and seeing where it's

coming from and I'm guessing there's possibly

some foreshadowing because we have that other

You know the the witch that bestowed this on

her Yeah, feeling like she's probably gonna be

popping up someplace and it was a name Odessa

or something like yeah, I think the other witches

name was yeah, and she's if she somehow related

to where Emily's coming from like where Where

where their histories lie? So I just again, it's

I thought for like this volume the ultimate purpose

of it even to the last issue was just building

the world and bringing in a lot of new characters

and you know, it's like our The main players

that we've been more staying with are barely

really in in this at all like it's I thought

which would sometimes be the gentleman but I

think in this case it worked well because It

was something I think this was needed to really

more set the stage and understand that there

is actually a lot going on in this world outside

of just the ones that we've been focusing on.

Yeah, I like that a lot. It's just kind of like,

and I think you grew to kind of know who Bernice

was anyway, you know, so this is just kind of

like continuing to add to what she's going to

hopefully offer later on down because you don't

see the father at all. The father is completely

gone or the, or Emmy's caretaker or whatever

you want to call the guy, Paul, whatever. But

you get a little bit of Caleb, you get Bernice,

and then you don't really get anybody else who

was like, oh, that's familiar. I know that character.

Everybody else is completely new and then you

get you know Abby in the fourth in the fourth

issue But you know other than that I do like

that you're there And a lot of people could be

turned off like oh well my favorite characters

on in this one. Why am I gonna read this like?

I still was intrigued in the overall mythology.

Yeah. And I think that's something great that

they're building with the book, that they're

building it more around a mythology than they

are just like, this character, this character,

this character. It's like, I want to know more

about what's going on and the greater scope of

everything. Yeah. You can see why this is still

going now because there's a lot here that it

can kind of continue and go and take its time,

which is what I appreciate. The beauty of telling

a serialized story where you have that Freedom

to do that. Yeah, exactly. It's funny you say

that like because they are ending the comic.

Yeah But so we'll get to all eventually think

they're on like volume 9 now, so yeah, so we

get we still got a few ahead of us. That's good

No, I mean just kind of like a you know, kind

of a tale of two like till like volume is so

kind of different. It's the most different volume

we've had so far with the different art styles,

not as much of a cohesive story going on right

now. So this is kind of like that weird awkward

phase, I guess people could, this could almost

be seen as like maybe a make or break volume

for a lot of people because it's broken up. So,

well, I mean, if you really wanted to, you could

end, stop reading Harrow County in volume or

issue eight. Like you could say, like, OK, that's

the end of the book and I'm done. But if people

want to keep reading, you're going to have to

get through these issues in order to see where

the story is going. And another thing is this

is something funny I noticed while reading the

book. This was also the first time in this volume

where they're introducing new comics to the volume.

Read this comic, read this comic, read that comic.

It's like, okay, well, apparently Harrow County's

been doing well enough. They're picking up other

things as well. So that's fantastic. And some

of the stories, some of the other stories from

Harrow County were really cool. Like I liked

the butcher story. I thought that was interesting.

Didn't really tell you a whole lot, but it...

kind of cool anyway kind of remind you of like

a little bit of a scary story to read in the

dark type of tale and then the other thing with

the cows how they're calling cows and stuff like

that it's like don't call the wrong cow so I

always like those stories I think they're a lot

of fun and my point going back around to that

is how they how they include Harrow County kind

of like in the beginning where it's like you're

reading Harrow County and sometimes it's in the

cornfields or something like that or it's on

like a like a rock written in stone or something

It kind of reminds me of Atlanta the TV show

how they're always including Atlanta in different

things for the titling So it just kind of gave

me that same feel. Yeah. Yeah, I like to especially

the opening issue with it in the stars That the

train is coming. I thought that was a really

good opening Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like

a where's Waldo almost like so where's the title

this time? I'm not sure so I love how they do

that. I think it's really really I know I feel

like this is where it's getting when it comes

to like the volume breakdown words less of specific

arts and more so this is just like that they

these are the four issues because they're just

picking them up in four issues, which, you know,

it's just the business model of it, but I'd rather,

in the sense of them, instead of taking that

middle story that's two issues and spreading

out to four, if that's what they, you know, they

didn't feel like they could do that, at least

padding it up with something, but it does, I'm

curious to see if that's going to be the norm

moving forward, or if it's going to kind of go

back to what it was the first eight. Yeah Very

cool. All right, Matt. If warm people wanted

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