‘Dexter’s Half Dozen: Issues 1-3’ Review
Produced by Jamie Lambert and Dave Clifford | Published by Bearded Skull Comics/Deadstar Publishing | Format: Paperback, B&W
Why are the Nazis sending all their bodies to a castle in Germany? Why are they hoarding occult artefacts? These questions were meant to be answered by a spy sent into the heart of Nazi Germany’s supernatural division before he went missing. Kirby Dexter is forming an elite team to go and save him, a team who are willing to put there lives on the line for what others would see as a suicide mission. It will be more than Nazis they’ll be fighting out there.
Enter Sergeant Freeman. A war hero, a man who can seemingly do anything, a man with a death wish. He heads up the rag-tag team of a hardened prisoner, a crazy man and a priest and will lead them deep into the heart of Nazi Germany where they will find horrors unspeakable and non-stop action.
Dexter’s Half Dozen is a dark, mature comic, not one to hold back from violence, nudity and bad language to achieve its goal of high fantasy adventure during World War II. It jumps straight into the action from the start, showing the depths of Oberstgruppenführer Walpurgis’s (try saying that fast three times!) evil and twisted plot and also Sergeant Freeman’s almost mindless disregard for his own safety. During the story the reader will encounter zombies, werewolves and dark magic along side the more traditional fighting and battles found in a World War II story.
Although the Nazis are the clear bad guys, the comic doesn’t hold back on showing the desperate nature of war; the heroes of the tale not flinching (apart from the priest) when it comes to actions such as torture to help them achieve their goal. The artwork reflects this dark story perfectly, using large amounts of black, as shadows creep over many of the pages. This however, does not disrupt the story or make the scene unclear but builds on the sense of foreboding and tension as the reader progresses. The only problem I found was with the font used for the narration. I often had to stop and focus on the letters, which are made harder to see due to the slightly blurry ‘typewriter-esqe’ font.
There are moments during these first three issues where the story does suffer from what I call ‘Rambo syndrome’ as the team of four men take on overwhelming odds to almost ridiculous proportions but come out of it barely any worse for wear. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as the readers are provided with plenty of action and excitement, keeps the pace of the comic fast and the heart of the reader pumping.
Dexter’s Half Dozen is a story for mature readers looking for an action packed supernatural adventure which doesn’t hold back. Issues 1 – 8 are available now from Deadstar Publishing.
