The dogs of Edinburgh is a prequel to the hit series, I was thrilled when I found this graphic novel since I’m a big fan of the TV series.
The story revolves around the time before season one of the TV-series start, Sam who is still studying at Stanford travels alone to Edinburgh while on an academic brake, in search for occult knowledge. On his first day he meets the beautiful raven-haired Emma of the Isles. As it turns out she is a member of the Scottish group called Breaker, a UK variant of Hunters. Emma drags Sam along showing him a darker side of town and they end up hunting some of Edinburgh supernatural monsters. After an romantic evening she then disappears more or less into the night and Sam doesn’t hear a word from her. Then three years later he receives a package from abroad containing a phone, a map, a gun, some newspaper clippings about murders and disappearances at the Scottish coast and books of myths and legends of the sea. Will he be able to get there in time and is he capable to help out with whatever creatures of the sea is responsible for these killings…
So the verdict, well I really wanted to like this one, but unfortunately it was a bit disappointing. The story in itself was interesting, we meet a younger Sam and there is innocence that in the TV-series are long gone. The problem I had was with the presentation of the story. The art is a bit to, how should I put it “square”, big heads, a square jaw line, small body etc. and that isn’t really my cup of tea. The pictures are dark, even when our heroes are out in daylight and the colors are a bit too dull for my taste. Some part of story take place at the Scottish coast and it should have been a gorgeous backdrop to explore but unfortunately the scenery is just flat and not very interesting. All of this I can overlook, no the biggest problem was the reading itself, I had to go back over and over, thinking did I just miss a page, a picture, it felt like there were just something missing.
I think this one is only for the diehard Supernatural fans, there are so many really great graphic novels out there so you will not miss much if you skip this one.
————————————————–
Supernatural: The Dogs of Edinburgh
by Brian Wood (writer), Grant Bond (artist) and
Dustin Nguyen (collection covers and original series covers)
Published 2012 by DC Comics
the road so far... 