Review by Aziz Bawany

Writer: Ian Rankin
Artist: Werther Dell’edera
Letterer: Clem Robins
Editor: Will Dennis
Published by Vertigo Crime 

With the launch of Vertigo Crime the comics industry is finally waking up to one very important realization: we’re not going to move a lot of copies sitting in the graphic novel shelves at Borders. It’s been long said that the book market is the saving grace for the comic’s industry yet each month there’s only marginal gains in the direct market. Yes, the numbers are different and we’re not seeing every aspect of both industries but any kind of hope that these readers would transition into monthly customers has yet to surface. 

So instead of making the book market come to us the Vertigo Crime line tailors to the customers who are looking for one thing: great crime fiction. With names like Max Allan Collins, Ian Rankin, Brian Azzarello and others coming into the fray you can bet that Vertigo is starting to see the importance of the graphic novel customer as their primary business.  They are doing their best to get the book onto the crime fiction shelf rather than being relegated to the graphic novel section and its obscurity.

But what’s the story like you ask? Well it’s a John Constantine story that does very little in terms of the character and boy do I love it. Yes, the history of Constantine is long and rich and it’d be great to explore some more of his previous endeavors considering the “mystery” behind this story.  However, writer Ian Rankin writes for the new fans like myself and does a great job of boiling down the character to his essence without delving into two hundred plus pages of publication.  The basic premise follows the paranormal detective as he must investigate why strange things start happening on a reality show that is supposed to scare its contestants. While the interactions between the various members and the wild card Constantine are fun you’ll figure out this mystery about three fourths of the way in. Then what was once a mystery suddenly morphs into a fun fast paced race to the finish.  There are some great lines in here and without having read the other launch title Filthy Rich; it’s hard to peg this down into any guided direction.

With such a heavy focus on the writing it’s hard to forget the importance of the artists on these new books. Werther Dell’edera’s style is a welcome tone to the book as he draws some mean character renditions especially when you consider what happens near the end. You’ll definitely be amazed at what he can accomplish in black and white and I find him to be the casualty of this whole project as Vertigo and DC will attempt to capitalize on Rankin’s name more than anything else.

For a launch title Dark Entries is a great start but doesn’t feel like something completely crafted for the purpose of being a crime story. Instead it’s a reused script that works fairly well and turns out to be something enjoyable and it’s a welcome distraction from your usual hard edged-bleak stories.

Rating: 7 out of 10 (Above Average)