Andrew is a very busy person.

Between raising a family and teaching High School English he's writing and publishing comic books and graphic novels. If that wasn't enough he's also hosting a podcast called 'don't try' all about comic book creators who discuss one-on-one their processes, of which I was lucky enough to be on a few months back.

It's obvious he's a lover of weird horror/suspense stories as these two imprints will attest. Man of Sin is a lengthy graphic novel about a man trying to find the murderer of his son, and meeting characters from the afterlife along the way. Forgotten Hymns is a 'special units' procedural similar to Men in Black or Inception. While they both tackle an aspect of the mysterious or supernatural, they couldn't be more different.

Starting with Man of Sin, a watercolor-y spill-the-guts style of rendering we have a very loose narrative. There's murkiness, a swirly quality to the artwork in the vein of Dave McKean's artwork on Arkham Asylum from the 1980s. It's full of innuendo and washiness of characters spilling out here and there. Biblical overtones are present from the beginning with the main character, the father (Damien Nero) of the abducted/murdered boy (Jonah) kneeling before an upside-down cross.

The imagery is very expressive, and so are the characters. One really great panel was his wife Diane and her sad, heart-rending speech she gives about stopping the search for Jonah's killer. Her face is so grief stricken, a very hard thing for an artist to capture, which Camilo Ponce does so very nicely.

Some murkiness.

The hard part of Man of Sin is following the story. I have a big thing about timestamps and flashbacks. They're the lazy person's way of advancing a story. Now, those of you who know me realize I used a 17-year flashback on page one of my story, Mayfield Eight. But that was to establish the tragedy of my main character's father's death. And it was a one-time deal. And it helped to ground the main character as being fatherless, self-reliant, cocky. So there.

That being said maybe flashbacks/timestamps need to be used sparingly. Man of Sin had several, and they didn't really help me understand the story that much better. In fact, I more or less stopped trying to remember most of the details only knowing there was this theme of revenge in the mind of Damien that would surface from time to time. Eventually he'd either achieve his goals or not. MOS's murky artwork compelled my mind to drift in that area.

And now for something completey different.

Forgotten Hymns, however is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish. Story, characters, lettering, panel construction: everything about Forgotten is sharp, crystal clear and focused. This was more to my liking, as I really felt like the story was unfolding in my mind as I read it. No extra effort required on my part. It was sharp, witty and very very interesting. Again, Andrew chose an artist (Isaac Perez) who really could render faces and expressions. This book being in black and white also takes advantage of the style. In an era where printing costs are equal color vs b/w it's unusual to see a comic book formatted so.

Forgotten Hymns follows two secret operatives: an African American Female and her goateed cohort as they shake down for questioning a white trash girl in a sleazy low rent apartment block. She's got the weird-ass tattoos on her back so you know they're uncovering some deep shit soon. Their dialogue, in fact the whole book's dialogues, are concise and very readable. I was surprised that Andrew made these two books, they're so different.

Forgotten Hymns has a sequel, as this current one is more a set-up book. I'll be sure to look up his next Kickstarter to snatch it!