Ask For Mercy: volume 1 by Richard Starkings and Abigail J Harding (graphic novel review).
‘Ask For Mercy’ collects the first few stories from an ongoing fantasy series with script and lettering by Richard Starkings and art by Abigail J Harding. Mercy is the lead character, an unsuccessful estate agent with rich clients when the adventure begins. She drives a jaguar she can’t afford to impress them and rents a shed to live in. ‘Ask for Mercy’ is her catchphrase when she invites them to call her back. We meet her at a cafe in Banbury, Oxfordshire where she’s approached by Alizarine, a lean, smartly dressed gentleman with a neat beard who looks as if he might be on his way to the opera.
He takes her through a doorway opposite the cafe, one she hadn’t noticed before and she finds herself in a field being attacked by World War II planes piloted by monsters. Another monster comes to her rescue. Budgie can take the form of a skinny, gentle-looking human but quickly changes into a large terrifying creature with fangs and claws when the need arises. He’s accompanied by Ratmir, a sort of werewolf, and Kasa, a native American female with shamanic powers.
Monstrous forms do not denote monstrous natures, Mercy soon learns. Budgie, Ratmir and Kasa hunt the real monsters…Nazis! Another gateway takes her to Paris in 1942 and she learns that Heinrich Himmler’s SS are even more dangerous than they seem. I don’t want to give away the big reveals but, as with many fantasies, a larger and more dangerous universe is unveiled and Mercy is very much a part of it, though she’s forgotten. References to Himmler and the occult reminded me of James Herbert’s ‘The Spear’ which I very much enjoyed when young. A turn of the page and there’s Himmler again seeking the Spear of Destiny which pierced the side of Christ on the cross and has super-magical powers. But big ideas can be used more than once and the multiverse of Mercy is a very different affair to Herbert’s take on such things.
The second adventure in this collection takes advantage of the doorways which transcend time and space to visit the wild west. In 1876, Sitting Bull and his Sioux tribe returned to the Black Hills of Dakota. Doris Day isn’t around but General Custer is, as well as some dangerous magical beings and a nightmare version of ‘Old Hickory’ himself, Andrew Jackson. ‘The foulest U.S. President that ever lived’, says Ratmir and that’s up against some pretty stiff competition.
Richard Starkings writes a good yarn and the colourful art by Abigail J Harding is pleasing to the eye. She seems very much inspired by Bill Sienkiewicz with sketchy line drawings filled in with watercolour in a loose, flowing style. I’m not a fan of Sienkiewicz on super-heroes, being prejudiced by an upbringing on Kirby and Buscema, but it suits this branch of the fantasy genre just fine. Both creators are British and that gives ‘Ask For Mercy’ a ‘2000AD’ vibe in story and art or perhaps I mean a European sensibility. There is gore and some darkness. It’s entertaining but don’t expect Spider-Man or that soft, fluffy Disney feel.
Eamonn Murphy
June 2023
(pub: Dark Horse, 2023. 312 page graphic novel softcover. Price: $29.99 (US), £28.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-50672-451-5)
check out website: www.darkhorse.com
