Religion haunts Pariah, as more questions and answers are told for Hiram and gang.
Creative Staff:
Story: Andres Salazar
Art: Andres Salazar & José Luiz Pescador
What They Say:
1857. Pariah, Missouri is a riverboat boom-town and haven for the unscrupulous. The charismatic and foppish cheat, Hiram Buchanan is an undercover spy who creates a rag-tag team to ferret out evil, both an underground crime syndicate and the supernatural.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
O Come All Ye Faithful a preacher has come to spread the holy word. The people of Pariah come to see that a couple of pastors have come to help those who have lost their way with God. Unfortunately, one pastor seems to have taken a wrong turn against God, instead opting for magic and powers that can be classified as devilish. Hyram and the gang must look into the pastor and hope to discover who and what he truly is, before the devil preachers convert the town into something that is not God-fearing citizens in the second volume of Andres Salazar’s Pariah, Missouri.
This volume shows us what actually drives Hiram as a character as well as show some of his vices. Seeing this contrast, while we don’t get a sense of Hy being a totally good guy. We get something a bit better, a more realistic hero trying to get to the bottom of the events transpiring in Pariah. Eleanor’s character also gets fleshed out in this volume. Throughout the story, we see Eleanor working towards securing her family, but falls short. It is at this moment we see her true character as a motivated caring person. She befriends the pastor and even becomes a bit religious, all while keeping her duties and collaborative work with Hy. By seeing this scenario play out we see an Eleanor that becomes more secure in herself and thus more productive. These characteristics come as the behest of better writing from Salazar.
The writing for Pariah, Missouri has improved from the previous novel. Some of the complaints from previous novel Salazar addressed in this novel such as pacing and transitioning. The pacing is a little bit better with a more upbeat tempo of events connecting to one another as well as better dialogue and scene transitions. The dialogue and colloquialisms are intact and authenticity of how people smoking these days. What also seems to help is the integration of biblical text into the story as it makes the overall implications of the creatures intend a lot more valid. Salazar does right to keep the secluded with the writing and his style but the coloring, as well as the art style, also helps this novel.
Once again the art style and coloring of Salazar and Jose Pescador are a joy to see. The watercolor throughout the volume with different colors evoking different emotions as well as settings. This type of coloring as well as the style bring people to Pariah and at the exact same time establishes familiarity and intrigue for those who read the last graphic novel. Pescador takes care to bring out stylistic detail that will sure to please most, including the fans in the series. It needs not mention that the expressions fully capture the thoughts and emotions of the characters. What does need mentioning is that Pescador steps up the quality to make it click for a vast majority of readers.
In Summary:
Overall, this volume improved over the previous volume. We see better writing, better characterization and overall quality improvement in Salazar and Pescador’s Pariah, Missouri. As the plot continues we start to see things coming towards ahead of a conclusion. For the most part, it feels like it’s almost natural. Those that are fans will be happy to know that this story seems like it’s going to end with a bang and we’re going to see one spectacular finish.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Andres Salazar & José Luiz Pescador
