Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Caliber Comics
Cover Date: 1996
Cover Price: $2.95
Writer: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Adapted by: Warren Ellis
Artist: Craig Gilmore
Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate the curious problem of an English businessman named Robert Ferguson. His wife has been caught sucking blood from their infant and she’s also attacked her step-son, Jack Ferguson. Desperate for assistance, Ferguson believes that Holmes will figure out a way to cure her presumed vampirism. Naturally, it’s no issue at all for the world’s greatest detective to solve this problem … but, can you?
Warren Ellis has adapted a wonderful short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, here. There’s more going on here than what appears on the surface but our hero clearly sees that. The story does a great job of slowly pacing through everything and allowing Holmes to come up with clever and insightful deductions. This is the first Sherlock Holmes story that I’ve read and it’s set the bar extremely high. The only thing I can pick on it for is Gilmore’s dreadful artwork. I suppose it may fit the tone of the story but there are plenty of other moody artists that would have been much more capable. But, don’t let the art keep you from reading this one. It’s a keeper!
On Ebay: Sherlock Holmes | Arthur Conan Doyle | Warren Ellis | Craig Gilmore | vampires