An original story, Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files: Ghoul Goblin continues with issue four. Harry learns more about the curse of the Talbot family and the identity of the Ghoul is revealed. Here’s what Dynamite had to say about the issue:

A small, isolated Midwestern town is being terrorized by a pair of the Nevernever’s most vile creatures, who’ve managed to decimate the star-crossed Talbot family. Harry’s sworn to protect the survivors and end the curse-something that can only be accomplished if he can convince them to take refuge in what amounts to a supernatural fortress. And if the ancient guardian spirit he’s summoned doesn’t kill him first…and if the local cops don’t toss him into a jail cell…

Despite being heavy on text, Ghoul Goblin #4 avoids feeling like a prose novel with pictures added, a flaw that pervaded previous issues of the series. Jim Butcher and Mark Powers cover a lot of ground with this issue. Harry’s encounters with the Naga and with the mayor of Boone Mill, specifically, hint at a lot of things to come.

Joseph Cooper had another strong issue with his art. The Naga segment at the beginning was definitely my favorite. There’s a great panel in which the giant snake has a puzzled expression on her face. Additionally, Cooper’s design for the Naga’s human guise was refreshingly new and different among all the other human characters in the book. Her body language and expressions constantly remind us that her real form is far more sinister.

There is one thing that will make this series more like a “real” book and improve it at the same time: collecting the whole story in one volume. Even though it’s only the fourth issue, GG seems to have dragged on for much longer. Each issue, I have to try to recall who all the Talbots are (though it keeps getting easier, and not because my memory is improving). That won’t be a problem in trade format. Similarly, one of the big reveals of this issue, the identity of the Ghoul, was pretty heavily foreshadowed months ago. Obviously, this reveal had to happen, but when it came, it didn’t feel like new information. If you’re reading this story for the first time as a trade, there won’t be a long wait.

Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed this issue a lot. I just know the whole series will work a lot better in a collected format.

4/5

Zac Boone has been feeling pretty ghoulish himself. Follow him on twitter, if you dare.