By d. emerson eddy — Strictly speaking, Cry Havoc by Si Spurrier, Ryan Kelly, Barbara Guttman, Miguel Montenegro, Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge, Matt Wilson, and Simon Bowland is not a werewolf story. Because its protagonist, Lou Canton, is not exactly a werewolf. But it does occupy a space somewhat adjacent to werewolf tales, with Lou coming to terms with her transformation affliction, embracing the monster, and eating some cats.

“Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war,” you've undoubtedly come across in school while reading Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Beyond the title it's not explicitly mentioned in the comic, but it does fit the them of one part of the comics triptych storytelling approach, and the massive ball of literary and mythological references that are tied up in this comic. But theme, plot, and reference are only one aspect here, as aided through the book's annotations, as much as craft. And it's craft that's probably the first thing that will reach out and bite you about this story.

While Cry Havoc as a completed book is very heady, the first thing you're likely going to be hit with is how this story is told visually. Ryan Kelly packs many of the scenes with characters to further enhance the density of the myth being told, along with changes to structure and layout of the three different segments, but what you're likely to appreciate the most at first are the colors. Each location and time period is tackled by different colorists, Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge, and Matt Wilson, approaching each with their own color palettes and their own styles. It gives each segment its own feel and atmosphere, working through potentially the sadness of the past in Filardi's blue London, the brown existential sandiness of Wilson's Afghanistan, and the visceral red of Loughridge's primal Red Place. It's a unique storytelling technique focusing on the color and overall feel of each segment, complementing Kelly's beautiful adaptations for his linework.

It's held together visually by the consistency in Simon Bowland's excellent lettering, especially for the beasts as we see them throughout. And conceptually through both textual narrative and metatextual narrative, blending what's happening on panel in the main narrative and in the annotations for the creators' narrative, that this is a story about stories as much as it is about Lou Canton and friends working their way through relationships, fighting a war against rogue monsters, and giving birth to a new zeitgeist.

In the end, though, Cry Havoc from Spurrier, Kelly, Guttman, Montenegro, Filardi, Loughridge, Wilson, and Bowland might have you wondering if this exploration of myth, monsters, and, well, a werewolf of London, was really just a shaggy dog story. Maybe all the time you were wandering through action and adventure, it was all really an elaborate joke, with something else really going on. You'll have to read it and find out for yourself. It's worth it.

Classic Comic of the Week: Cry Havoc

Cry Havoc
Writer: Si Spurrier
Artist: Ryan Kelly
Inkers: Barbara Guttman & Miguel Montenegro
Colorists: Nick Filardi, Lee Loughridge & Matt Wilson
Letterer: Simon Bowland
Publisher: Image Comics
Meet Lou: a street musician savaged by a supernatural terror.
Meet Lou: crossing war-torn Afghanistan with a unit of shapeshifting soldiers.
Meet Lou: a monstress held captive by the rogue beast she was sent to kill.
CRY HAVOC interweaves three stages of a remarkable life into a critically-exalted saga of military, myth and mania.
Release Date: August 23 2016
Buy It: Digital / Physical

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d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.