Orphan and the Five Beasts: Baths of Blood #2 pg 5

Orphan and the Five Beasts was a four issue mini-series that came out in 2022. Orphan and the Five Beasts: Baths of Blood is in the process of coming out now (#4 will be out in January) and continues the story. It doesn't seem like the tale will be complete by the end of the fourth issue so I am assuming that there will be at LEAST one more four issue mini to tie things up. Hopefully we don't have to wait three years for the next one...

All that being said, O5B, as I have taken to calling it for the sake of brevity, is a phenomenal story in the tradition of kung fu adventure tales. An orphan, raised and trained by a gruff old kung fu master, must now search out and destroy the master's former students who have become corrupt with power and turned to lives of crime. This masterpiece is written, drawn, lettered, and presumably, colored, by James Stokoe. He is a one-man band who plays all the instruments and still manages to produce a symphony that blends action, drama, violence, and humor. What really caught my attention was additional element of horror; specifically: body horror.

In this page we see Dr. Chun returned home to find his wife Zan fast asleep. The doctor proceeds to have a conversation with a disembodied had who proceeds to talk back by shaping tendrils of viscera into words (and the word balloon in which they reside). Such a gnarly way to re-introduce a character that was thought to be dead.

From the establishing shot in the first panel, to the horrific conversation, Stokoe packs in an insane amount of detail. The same amount of thought and care is put into each tile on the roof of Dr. Chun's house as is put into all the tendrils coming from the hand's stump. And then we get hand lettering right on the page - you can't beat that. Hand lettered dialogue from a hand... SO GOOD!

Watch me unbox this one as part of the End of Year Art Unboxing Extravaganza!