‘Helen of Wyndhorn’ HC (review)

Written by Tom King
Art by Bilquis Evely
Published by Dark Horse Comics

I have to say this for writer Tom King: he really likes to try to stretch himself. Every time I pick up a book that he’s written, I never know what to expect. This book here is no different.

This time, King looks towards some of the old Conan and Red Sonja comic books for inspiration. He decides to take it into new direction of course because that’s what he does. It also has many different layers to this tale that make this book endlessly satisfying for the reader.

Helen is a girl in a strange land. She is the star of the story for sure, but the narrator for a lot of the story is Lilith Appleton. (Helen narrates pretty much the rest and the two trade off). Lilith works for Barnabas Cole, who is a sort of Robert E. Howard kind of adventurer who is mixed with a bit of Doc Savage.

When Helen’s parents are killed, she is forced to come live with Barnabas (who is her grandfather) and Lilith at Wyndhorn House. It does have a dash of Charles Dickens at this part as Lilith takes care of Helen. Helen has frequent drunken outbursts and it is a bit hard to like her at first, as she acts rather bratty.

However, Barnabas keeps going on adventures away from the house. Helen starts to become curious about these adventures that he’s going on. So, he decides to take her on one of the adventures much to the chagrin of Lilith. This makes Helen even more enthralled with Barnabas and what he gets up to. She then starts to go on adventures with all of the time. And that is when the book really starts to pick up and get a little bit exciting. The stuff before all of this though is a little bit difficult to sort through.

And the beginning parts of the book aren’t that bad.

But it is a bit overwritten and a tad boring to get through. At a certain point of the book, it started to feel like prose. Maybe Tom King wants to write more prose like he did at the beginning of his career but most of what it does here is cover up the beautiful art of Bilquis Evely. And the art, for the record, is absolutely beautiful. It is also the best part of the book for sure.

So Helen and Barnabas go on a lot of adventures together, fighting all sorts of creatures all over the land. As the book goes on, Helen has a lot of questions for Barnabas as to who her parents really were. There are some nice moments between the two of them for sure and the three main characters are very well developed. Their interactions are the crux of the story. There is also another layer to the story as well.

King likes to try to layer his books with his storytelling and this tale is no exception. We get to see that with a modern day framing device. Lilith is being interviewed at the beginning about her experiences and the book goes back and forth in time from this interview to what happens in Helen’s time. I did enjoy this very much but we didn’t learn much about the interviewer, save for some token characterizations. It did work mostly for the book, however, and it is done in a clean way that doesn’t confuse the reader. That takes skill, and the creators really do well with this device.

As the book gets to the conclusion, not a lot is really solved. That’s not a bad thing, but the ending is just doesn’t have as much impact as one would like. Part of that is just the nature of the story that the collaborators are telling. There’s a few nice moments, but it is more of a gentle story and the delivery matches that, for better or worse.

Tom King does write a unique story here. He wears his influences on his sleeve and that shows here. I am glad I read it. As stated before, Bilquis Evely does a hell of a job drawing this. The colors are great too. Overall, this is a strong book, and done in a different way than most comic books out there.

RATING: A-