I’ve never read Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files series, or, before now, it’s comic book counterpart. (For some reason I assumed it was a men’s version of the “Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter” series.) Regardless, this issue gets us pretty close to the end of Fool Moon. Here’s the official description from Dynamite:

Harry’s barely survived an attack by the legendary loup-garou — a werewolf of unimaginable power and ferocity — but the worst is not over yet. A building full of Chicago police officers has been utterly savaged, and one of the beast’s victims is an officer he’s worked with countless times in the past. With the deaths of friends and strangers alike weighing on his conscience, and a multitude of enemies hell-bent on his destruction, Harry comes face to face with the one person who might be able to unravel the mysteries tearing apart his life: Himself…

With help from co-writter Mark Powers, Butcher has Harry fighting and pursuing a werewolf (with some amusing spells along the way) only to be waylaid by Parker and his goons (I can’t believe I just wrote the word “goons”.) Like many other comics adapted from traditional books, Fool Moon #6 suffers from an overabundance of narration. It’s a necessary evil, as it’s generally the only way to convey all the thoughts typically found in the original text. Still, it slows things down. I was also frustrated because I consistently found myself comparing Harry Dresden to DC‘s John Constantine (but that’s my problem).

Chase Conley‘s work on this issue is pretty good. He delivers a totally bad-ass werewolf, and really conveys how exhausted Harry is, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Unfortunately, his other characters occasionally lapse into cartooniness, which would be fine, if not for the semi-serious nature of the rest of the book. For my money, though, Nick Nix is the top artist on this issue. His inks bring all of Conley’s pencils alive, and set the scenes perfectly, particularly a fight sequence in the rain.

Fool Moon #6 is by no means perfect, and it isn’t too friendly for new readers, but it is solid in both story and art, and it’s got me intrigued to read more about Harry Dresden.

3/5