REVIEW: DAMN THEM ALL #1

4.02/5.0 Stars
Rating if the Book Were a Movie: R

Creative Team:

Writer: Simon Spurrier
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Colors: Sofie Dodgson and Shayne Hannah Cui
Letters: Jim Campbell
Cover: DaNi
Editor: Eric Harburn
Publisher: Boom! Studios 

Ratings:

Story: 4.2 Stars
Artwork: 4.1 Stars
Cover Artwork: 3.9 Stars
Dialogue: 4.1 Stars 
Mechanics: 3.9 Stars 
Editing: 3.9 Stars 

About the Book:

Damn Them All begins with Ellie Hawthorne asking her uncle Alfie to do some magic for her. Her uncle tells her that he will… in a month. All magic comes with sacrifice. During this month Ellie is to cut herself off from booze, smoking, and sex. Additionally she has some other tasks she must perform. Ellie thinks he’s a hack that’s trying to get her to change her lifestyle. As it turns out, Uncle Alfie is a magician and an occult expert. He summons a demon and that changes her life forever.

Reader’s Notes:

Damn Them All came out in October, 2022. I’m a little late to the party on this one. I wasn’t familiar with the title until I saw it on the shelves at a comic book store I happened to be in on a weekend getaway.

This cover instantly caught my attention. It’s  different from a lot of its contemporaries. It’s not overly detailed, which allows one to use their imagination. It’s uniqueness captured mine and it was added to the stack I bought that day.

We’ve had stories about mobsters before. In fact, if you take away the costumes, most of Batman is a collection of stories about mobsters. It’s rare that we get a mobster story where the hero(ine) is a thug. It’s rarer still that the thug is familiar with the occult.

Ellie Hawthorne can be compared to Something Is Killing the Children’s Erica Slaughter. They are both tough as nails and stay calm in all situations. That’s where the similarities end. I find it much easier to identify with Ellie.

I was very fond of the artwork on the interior pages. It reminded me of Dave Gibbons’s work in The Watchmen. The key difference being that the work in Damn Them All is more detailed. 
As a geek on a budget I’m all in on Damn Them All. You’re getting great  artwork. You’re getting some laughs. Best of all, you’re getting a phenomenal story.