By d. emerson eddy — I'm a sucker for pulp heroes. While the bygone pulp adventures are known for their heights of space and jungle adventures (as well as for having racially insensitive and sometimes worse villains), they also at times dealt with the type of crime that happens right outside our doors in the real world. The Shadow, The Black Bat, The Phantom, and The Spider were just as likely to be embroiled in a war with street thugs and crime bosses as they were intergalactic jewel thieves, and it lent the heroes a certain authenticity. When dealing with ordinary crime, it made a regular guy in a tuxedo, cape, and domino mask feel more like a possibility. More real, of the ordinary person going to extreme lengths to actually do something to clean up their part of the world.

The Black Ghost #1 from Alex Segura, Monica Gallagher, George Kambadais, Marco Finnegan, Ellie Wright, and Taylor Esposito fits right into that mold. This Comixology Original has that street-level pulp feel, introducing a hero in the vein of The Shadow and The Spider, but it approaches it from a different perspective. The Black Ghost is more of a cipher here than a character, a driving force for the focus of the real protagonist, Lara Dominguez, a crime reporter obsessed with the vigilante. It's interesting how the story delves into real problems of racketeering, political interference, and the current decline of print journalism.

The streamlined, deceptively simple art from George Kambadais, Marco Finnegan, and Ellie Wright works perfectly for the pulp flavor. Since at least The Batman Animated Series, I've found that an angular, refined art style with heavy shadow — whether like Bruce Timm and Alex Toth or more like Stuart Immonen and Chris Sprouse — works very well for noir and mystery stories. Kambadais' style falls somewhere in between the two camps, and it looks great. Very nice conveyance of action from Kambadais and Finnegan. That simplicity is enhanced by Wright's colors, making some flat, solid choices for backgrounds that bring more emphasis to the characters.

Those characters themselves are nicely fleshed out by Segura and Gallagher. Lara gets the most attention, fully fleshing out much of her history and her reasons for both becoming a reporter and for her more direct forms of activism. The supporting cast of one of her students, an annoying co-worker, and the shadowy Lone supplying her with information are also well-realized. While there's definitely a hook with the crime going on, and a shocking occurrence with the Black Ghost himself, it's really the characters that are going to grab you here.

The creative team is rounded out by letterer Taylor Esposito. Esposito gives us a nice approach to differentiating some of the narration, with Lone's dialogue appearing as a kind of digitized electric blue and Lara's narration an inverted white text on black background. They're nice little touches that help give the story its own feel.

Overall, I'm very impressed by the first issue of this digital original. Segura, Gallagher, Kambadais, Finnegan, Wright, and Esposito perfectly capture the feel, tone, and spirit of the original pulp heroes in this new series, giving it all a modern perspective.

The Black Ghost #1
Writers: Alex Segura & Monica Gallagher
Artist: George Kambadais
Layouts: Marco Finnegan
Colorist: Ellie Wright
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Publisher: New Wave Comics
Price: $2.99

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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.