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Hobtown Mystery Stories #1
The Case of the Missing Men
"Kris Bertin's stories are a revelation, a triumph—each stamped with the mark of a new and rising genius." —David Adams Richards
The Case of the Missing Men is the first part of an ongoing mystery thriller set in a strange and remote East Coast village called Hobtown. The story follows a gang of young teens who have made it their business to investigate each and every one of their town's bizarre occurrences as The Teen Detective Club (a registered afterschool program). Their small world of missing pets and shed-fires is turned upside down when real-life kid adventurer and globetrotter Sam Finch comes to town and enlists them in their first real case—the search for his missing father. In doing so, he and the teens stumble upon a terrifying world of rural secret societies, weird-but-true folk mythology, subterranean lairs, and an occultist who can turn men into dogs. The Case of The Missing Men is at turns funny, intriguing, eerie, and endearing, and is beautifully illustrated in a style reminiscent of classic children's pulp series like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.
Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes are childhood friends who trained in separate disciplines in order to reunite as adults and make comic books. Alexander Forbes is an artist and graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and Kris Bertin is the author of the short story collection Bad Things Happen (Biblioasis, 2016). They are both from Lincoln, New Brunswick, and both live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Case of the Missing Men is the first part of an ongoing mystery thriller set in a strange and remote East Coast village called Hobtown. The story follows a gang of young teens who have made it their business to investigate each and every one of their town's bizarre occurrences as The Teen Detective Club (a registered afterschool program). Their small world of missing pets and shed-fires is turned upside down when real-life kid adventurer and globetrotter Sam Finch comes to town and enlists them in their first real case—the search for his missing father. In doing so, he and the teens stumble upon a terrifying world of rural secret societies, weird-but-true folk mythology, subterranean lairs, and an occultist who can turn men into dogs. The Case of The Missing Men is at turns funny, intriguing, eerie, and endearing, and is beautifully illustrated in a style reminiscent of classic children's pulp series like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.
Kris Bertin and Alexander Forbes are childhood friends who trained in separate disciplines in order to reunite as adults and make comic books. Alexander Forbes is an artist and graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and Kris Bertin is the author of the short story collection Bad Things Happen (Biblioasis, 2016). They are both from Lincoln, New Brunswick, and both live in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
301 pages, Paperback
First published November 14, 2017
35 people are currently reading
1399 people want to read
About the author
Kris Bertin
10 books66 followersKris Bertin is a writer of from Halifax, NS. His first book of short stories, BAD THINGS HAPPEN, won the Writers' Union of Canada's 2017 Danuta Gleed Award and the ReLit Award for short fiction. Kris's graphic novel (illustrated by Alexander Forbes) THE CASE OF THE MISSING MEN, published in 2017 by Conundrum Press, was nominated for a Doug Wright Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews
November 14, 2025
Absolutely brilliant. So the kids at Hobtown High in Hobtown, Nova Scotia, have a detective club that goes around solving mysteries, but now they’re onto something big, and the corrupt adults take their club just seriously enough that they’re constantly trying to sideline it. I love how the more contemptuous the adults are, the more likely they are to screw up the club's name.
It’s full of perfect Maritime details, it has that kind of straight-to-the-point humour and the little tics of language, the kids are from an earlier time (Scooby Doo’s Daphne, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the older guy vaguely Steve McQueen). There’s something about the fashion I really liked but can’t quite nail down: the author and artists clearly know who these kids are beyond the words on the page. And they have this great way of conveying action. The other element at play here is the influence of David Lynch: there’s a certain High Weirdness at work against the town’s veil of normalcy—or perhaps in collusion with it. And yet for all that, it builds a world completely of its own.
Do yourself a favour and check out the Hobtown Mystery Stories.
It’s full of perfect Maritime details, it has that kind of straight-to-the-point humour and the little tics of language, the kids are from an earlier time (Scooby Doo’s Daphne, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the older guy vaguely Steve McQueen). There’s something about the fashion I really liked but can’t quite nail down: the author and artists clearly know who these kids are beyond the words on the page. And they have this great way of conveying action. The other element at play here is the influence of David Lynch: there’s a certain High Weirdness at work against the town’s veil of normalcy—or perhaps in collusion with it. And yet for all that, it builds a world completely of its own.
Do yourself a favour and check out the Hobtown Mystery Stories.
January 13, 2018
Well I’m slightly annoyed to report that I may have read the best graphic of the year already.
Nancy Drew and David Lynch had a secret love child and it is one freaky deaky beautiful baby.
Review to follow....
Nancy Drew and David Lynch had a secret love child and it is one freaky deaky beautiful baby.
Review to follow....
September 20, 2019
I can’t stress this enough.... this book rocks. If you read every Hardy Boys book back-to-back without sleeping this would be the nightmare you have afterwards. Strange and kooky and thrilling and so so fun, it’s Nancy Drew in the twilight zone and I loved every minute of it! So excited for the second book to come out in November.
March 5, 2018
"Wouldn't you want us to know we're all dreaming?"
If you ever wished that Nancy Drew would solve a mystery in Twin Peaks, have I the graphic novel for you! Creepy, thrilling, and highly entertaining.
If you ever wished that Nancy Drew would solve a mystery in Twin Peaks, have I the graphic novel for you! Creepy, thrilling, and highly entertaining.
November 11, 2021
This was a really weird book.
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I haven’t read much, or maybe any of these kinds of graphic novels before. Maybe it’s pulling from tropes from Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, or Scooby Doo? But it literally doesn’t make sense, even when you just go with it.
About half of the questions raised are answered. Some casual racism thrown in there for good measure just to make it more confusing. Are we trying to make this “realistic” and people are racist newfies or is this all supernatural and, if that’s the case, maybe make a point with the racism or take it out?
But more than that, it’s just not communicating genre or expectations well and it routinely spends time on stuff that doesn’t matter, then does an exposition dump where they got all these clues we didn’t need to see them getting. Suddenly they’ve got a new contrived lead that takes them to a contrived place. The plot beats for an actual mystery, I don’t know what this is? Maybe I’m just completely missing what the is is; it’s completely possible. But it’s still a mystery, I assume. And in that case, at the very least the plot beats are contrived and mishandled, the pacing is terrible, and the dialogue is out of a B movie.
The only thing I can is, maybe just like a B movie, it’s so bad it’s supposed to be enjoyable?
[image error]
I haven’t read much, or maybe any of these kinds of graphic novels before. Maybe it’s pulling from tropes from Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, or Scooby Doo? But it literally doesn’t make sense, even when you just go with it.
About half of the questions raised are answered. Some casual racism thrown in there for good measure just to make it more confusing. Are we trying to make this “realistic” and people are racist newfies or is this all supernatural and, if that’s the case, maybe make a point with the racism or take it out?
But more than that, it’s just not communicating genre or expectations well and it routinely spends time on stuff that doesn’t matter, then does an exposition dump where they got all these clues we didn’t need to see them getting. Suddenly they’ve got a new contrived lead that takes them to a contrived place. The plot beats for an actual mystery, I don’t know what this is? Maybe I’m just completely missing what the is is; it’s completely possible. But it’s still a mystery, I assume. And in that case, at the very least the plot beats are contrived and mishandled, the pacing is terrible, and the dialogue is out of a B movie.
The only thing I can is, maybe just like a B movie, it’s so bad it’s supposed to be enjoyable?
May 26, 2018
Baffling. Absolutely baffling. I can’t make heads or tails with this story. The characters are so severely undeveloped, I had no sense of their relationships to one another. The murders happen so quickly that it felt ridiculous and the dialogue was so stilted that it felt unnatural.
June 24, 2024
I recall enjoying the second volume of this, read years ago. Going back to the first in this colored reprint. It starts off strong, basically a kids detective group - some missing men. It feels very much inspired by Lynch. Most obviously Twin Peaks but the kid's detective group and missing men reminds me of Blue Velvet.
It's just as bizarre as a Lynch story... but it just doesn't work for me. I can't quite put my finger on it. The info dumps didn't help, it just made reading a chore. I didn't understand why the kids were left to fend for themselves. No adults wanted to help? Basically all the cops are corrupt? I ended up not caring about the mystery.
Beautiful coloring job. The artwork is at times very nice. I especially enjoyed the landscape and scene settings of Halifax. Very cool to have a comic set in my home country!
It's just as bizarre as a Lynch story... but it just doesn't work for me. I can't quite put my finger on it. The info dumps didn't help, it just made reading a chore. I didn't understand why the kids were left to fend for themselves. No adults wanted to help? Basically all the cops are corrupt? I ended up not caring about the mystery.
Beautiful coloring job. The artwork is at times very nice. I especially enjoyed the landscape and scene settings of Halifax. Very cool to have a comic set in my home country!
December 16, 2018
Loved the idea of a graphic novel riff on classic teen sleuth stories - think Nancy Drew, Scooby Doo - though this is more Riverdale in its darkness, and in fact would make a great tv adaptation. Set in a super-weird small town in Nova Scotia where there have been a bunch of mysterious disappearances and things are not what they seem (well, other than creepy - they both seem and are creepy). I had a hard time keeping up with which character was which: this made it harder to stay invested and follow the plot properly. 2.5.
March 6, 2019
The back cover describes this as, “Nancy Drew meets David Lynch …” I certainly can't argue with that. We have a group of teenagers who solve mysteries, and we’ve got a singularly weird and creepy mystery to be solved.
Boy adventurer Sam Finch comes to town to investigate the disappearance of his father. Hobtown is a small town in Nova Scotia, but there have been a rash of disappearances. The members of The Teen Detective Club (a registered after school program) are investigating as well. But the police and many of the town’s adults seem to be hindering their progress. And then things start getting weird … dog men, and deformed dwarfish creatures that not everyone can see …
This is a well-crafted story with great atmosphere that builds well. It does end with the promise of more to come, and I’m looking forward to more of the series. I was particularly struck by chapter 10, in which the action is conveyed obliquely through various eyewitness statements.
Regarding the Nancy Drew influence, it occurs to me that the character most like Nancy, Nana, has a similar name and even an attorney father. I also note a bit of Johnny Quest in Sam Finch. Yes, he’s not a little kid but a teenager, but his father is a dead ringer for Dr. Benton Quest and he even has a best friend who appears to be from India or thereabouts.
All in all, this was a great beginning to what promises to be an intriguing series. Recommended!
Boy adventurer Sam Finch comes to town to investigate the disappearance of his father. Hobtown is a small town in Nova Scotia, but there have been a rash of disappearances. The members of The Teen Detective Club (a registered after school program) are investigating as well. But the police and many of the town’s adults seem to be hindering their progress. And then things start getting weird … dog men, and deformed dwarfish creatures that not everyone can see …
This is a well-crafted story with great atmosphere that builds well. It does end with the promise of more to come, and I’m looking forward to more of the series. I was particularly struck by chapter 10, in which the action is conveyed obliquely through various eyewitness statements.
Regarding the Nancy Drew influence, it occurs to me that the character most like Nancy, Nana, has a similar name and even an attorney father. I also note a bit of Johnny Quest in Sam Finch. Yes, he’s not a little kid but a teenager, but his father is a dead ringer for Dr. Benton Quest and he even has a best friend who appears to be from India or thereabouts.
All in all, this was a great beginning to what promises to be an intriguing series. Recommended!
February 19, 2018
This is an odd one. It reminds me most of Laird Barron's meta-fictional story "We Smoke the Northern Lights" in the The Gods of HP Lovecraft anthology, but with Nancy Drew instead of the Hardy Boys, and a stronger Twin Peaks vibe instead of X-Files. I recommend it, as long as you are into weird fiction and don't expect the story to tie up neatly like a true Nancy Drew mystery.
April 5, 2018
I'm not a 100% on my rating, but this was a strange book... and I liked it. It had elements that reminded me of Nancy Drew, Buffy and the good days of the show Supernatural. All things I love. I read it almost all in one sitting and I couldn't wait to figure out who did it. If there was one thing lacking it would be character development. I didn't feel like I got to know the main characters, but I wanted to. If you're looking for something a bit creepy and weird, this may be for you.
Content warning: some language, including one use of the f word, and some disturbing imagery
Content warning: some language, including one use of the f word, and some disturbing imagery
November 3, 2017
What an amazingly self assured and solid piece of work. From the darkly comic story to the lush linework to the book design, this is one of the best graphic novels I have read in some time. The reviews commonly compare it to Nancy Drew or Twin Peaks, and those comparisons are deserved, but it also reminds me of some of my favourite comics, from the likes of Richard Sala and Charles Burns. I love this world that Bertin and Forbes have created and I hope there will be more.
April 3, 2018
Highly recommend this book. I changed plans around to make sure I could continue reading it without interruption. It doesn’t let go of you. What’s unexpected is how funny it is.
I also recommend this if you don’t think of yourself as a frequent graphical novel or comics reader. It really is for everybody.
I also recommend this if you don’t think of yourself as a frequent graphical novel or comics reader. It really is for everybody.
November 26, 2018
I'm giving this a two, however I'm struggling pretty hard with it as well.
Partially it was because the artwork turned me off. I was doing okay until the scene where they see a character digging (or possibly burying) something in the dirt off the side of the road. Until that point the art had been defined, but not detailed. For some reason the artist decided to hone in on this one instance in such graphicness that I physically cringed away from the book.
From then on I continued on in morbid fascination tempered with a lot of confusion. The characters all seem to be "in the know" in a way that doesn't quite come across in the story. They go from scene to scene, "clue" to "clue" with a sort of manic need that I never felt. The GN is paying homage/taking inspiration from the old teen books/shows from yesteryears, but it had none of the charm of those stories.
It at times felt like it was maliciously mocking those stories - mocking the fact that these "meddling kids" would look into investigations that they had no business looking into yet come out of it pristine and heroic. The town itself was unsettling, which fits with the overall ghoulishness I suppose - the macabre nature of the deaths and disappearances seemed less important then keeping everything peaceful
In the end this book was extremely unsettling, but not in a good way.
Partially it was because the artwork turned me off. I was doing okay until the scene where they see a character digging (or possibly burying) something in the dirt off the side of the road. Until that point the art had been defined, but not detailed. For some reason the artist decided to hone in on this one instance in such graphicness that I physically cringed away from the book.
From then on I continued on in morbid fascination tempered with a lot of confusion. The characters all seem to be "in the know" in a way that doesn't quite come across in the story. They go from scene to scene, "clue" to "clue" with a sort of manic need that I never felt. The GN is paying homage/taking inspiration from the old teen books/shows from yesteryears, but it had none of the charm of those stories.
It at times felt like it was maliciously mocking those stories - mocking the fact that these "meddling kids" would look into investigations that they had no business looking into yet come out of it pristine and heroic. The town itself was unsettling, which fits with the overall ghoulishness I suppose - the macabre nature of the deaths and disappearances seemed less important then keeping everything peaceful
In the end this book was extremely unsettling, but not in a good way.
February 1, 2018
I like it when books review themselves: "It's not strange. It's nonsense."
The creators try to bring a Twin Peaks sensibility to the teen detective genre epitomized by Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and deliver a vaguely supernatural and wholly nonsensical missing persons mystery filled with murder, brainwashing, premonitions and some random little gnomish monsters. The Scooby gang here consists of a bunch of stiffs, with hardly an actual personality to be found. While the art fits the desired tone, the story is just too dull to be eerie or scary or any of the other adjectives used on the back cover.
The creators try to bring a Twin Peaks sensibility to the teen detective genre epitomized by Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and deliver a vaguely supernatural and wholly nonsensical missing persons mystery filled with murder, brainwashing, premonitions and some random little gnomish monsters. The Scooby gang here consists of a bunch of stiffs, with hardly an actual personality to be found. While the art fits the desired tone, the story is just too dull to be eerie or scary or any of the other adjectives used on the back cover.
November 16, 2018
"Did you think it was weird?"
"What?"
"The way everyone was. I'd never noticed before, but most people were like, out of it. Not everyone, not you. But most people... It's not that no one cared. But no one was surprised. Here's a bunch of kids carrying this bleeding kid. Looks like he could be dead... ...People just watched. Like a movie or something on TV. They'll watch, but it doesn't matter to them. It's a rerun and they already know what happens."
[153]
Nancy Drew meets David Lynch is accurate, but this graphic novel didn't work for me. Lots of tropes and nothing new, just an unsettling but strangely bland mishmash. It ends on a cliffhanger, but I'm fine walking away.
"What?"
"The way everyone was. I'd never noticed before, but most people were like, out of it. Not everyone, not you. But most people... It's not that no one cared. But no one was surprised. Here's a bunch of kids carrying this bleeding kid. Looks like he could be dead... ...People just watched. Like a movie or something on TV. They'll watch, but it doesn't matter to them. It's a rerun and they already know what happens."
[153]
Nancy Drew meets David Lynch is accurate, but this graphic novel didn't work for me. Lots of tropes and nothing new, just an unsettling but strangely bland mishmash. It ends on a cliffhanger, but I'm fine walking away.
October 20, 2018
The Case of the Missing Men
Kris Bertin (Goodreads Author), and Alexander Forbes (Visual Art)
This graphic novel was disappointing, shallow, lacked characterization, had several plot gaps, and people were turned into dogs. But, the graphics were good.
Kris Bertin (Goodreads Author), and Alexander Forbes (Visual Art)
This graphic novel was disappointing, shallow, lacked characterization, had several plot gaps, and people were turned into dogs. But, the graphics were good.
November 26, 2024
A bit baffling in character development and even in storyboard where the sequencing seemed to skip important information from frame to frame, but all in all, an oddball graphic novel that leans more 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘞𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘔𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 than David Lynch that I wish I had when I was a teen! It holds all the things I love! Blood! Gore! The weird and paranormal. Comedy! I was a weird kid back then!!!
May 16, 2025
I read this when I was a youngster and had vague memories of it so I picked it up again at the library. Really impressed how creepy eepy and bizarre it still was for me. Overall the story got a little too convoluted but the drawings are amazing! Especially the drawings of all the buildings and weird corners of Hobtown. I should read up a little on Nova Scotia. Nice fun return to graphic novels for me!
May 26, 2018
Strange. The artwork was not at all to my taste, and the storytelling was weak. It often seemed to leap from one scene to the next, and did not build the mystery in a coherent way. Sort of like the Scooby Doo Gang, but less competent and not as funny. The whole town had a weird thing going on, there were gross little man-like beings (possibly for population control, but WHY?), a stupid secret club, brainwashing that made no sense, oblique references of their mothers dying or going mad...Perhaps it would be smarter to just tell the kids what was going on so at least they could be better prepared? Oh, and maybe one of the girls is somewhat prophetic? You know, just 'cause. It doesn't properly introduce any of the characters, just throws you into the story to figure it out as you go.
A lot of this reminded me of Hot Fuzz, with the town claiming obvious murders are "accidents," and being largely brainwashed and controlled by some higher ups that are behind everything. Dana's dad seemed intelligent, but apparently wasn't. If the men think they're dogs, why are they using weapons? If they're culling the population "randomly," why is the weird man-thing there too?
There seemed to be no point behind the plot. As this is the first in a series, I suppose they're saving it for later, but I couldn't care less. Not sure how this got such great reviews. It needs a lot of work IMO.
A lot of this reminded me of Hot Fuzz, with the town claiming obvious murders are "accidents," and being largely brainwashed and controlled by some higher ups that are behind everything. Dana's dad seemed intelligent, but apparently wasn't. If the men think they're dogs, why are they using weapons? If they're culling the population "randomly," why is the weird man-thing there too?
There seemed to be no point behind the plot. As this is the first in a series, I suppose they're saving it for later, but I couldn't care less. Not sure how this got such great reviews. It needs a lot of work IMO.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2019
All you have to do is try to say something intentionally obtuse and keep things half complete for readers to guess (hushh.. its supposed to be a mystery thriller after all!). A story where characters and their inter-relationships are not fully developed just so that reader is confused as to if two persons are friends or not. Throw in some psychobabble BS about people being hypnotized and dehumanized to turn into animals, some strange dad club, interconnected passages .. pfff.
And what's that stuff about calling out an Indian guy "black", making his complexion unusually dark and calling him "hindoo bastard"?
The illustrations fared better, the faces especially depicting the strange creepiness of the characters.
Not the best I have read.
And what's that stuff about calling out an Indian guy "black", making his complexion unusually dark and calling him "hindoo bastard"?
The illustrations fared better, the faces especially depicting the strange creepiness of the characters.
Not the best I have read.
March 11, 2019
An interesting, stylistic mystery. I don't agree with the marketing text claiming this is Nancy Drew meets David Lynch, since in the end it's frankly all too reasonable. But maybe a darker Nancy Drew at least.
The mystery is interesting, if a bit too convoluted at times. There are some interesting characters as well. However, I just never get enough feeling of tension. I dunno if it's that I don't feel close enough to the characters, if it feels like there's not enough danger, or both.
And 300+ pages and we still only get a partial ending? SIgh.
The mystery is interesting, if a bit too convoluted at times. There are some interesting characters as well. However, I just never get enough feeling of tension. I dunno if it's that I don't feel close enough to the characters, if it feels like there's not enough danger, or both.
And 300+ pages and we still only get a partial ending? SIgh.
December 19, 2021
Weird and fun mystery graphic novel! Don’t totally know what’s going on but it doesn’t bother me! Will definitely have to read the next one.
May 30, 2025
Could not follow the conclusion but fun vibes.
November 1, 2022
Weird, creepy, bizarre. I'm a huge Nancy Drew fan so I loved all the Easter eggs in the book. The story was totally weird but I was into it, but I really struggled with the characters. They were so underdeveloped that even at the end of the book I had no idea who some of them were (not just figuratively - literally). The art was disturbing but definitely in a good way.
I will also note that I was not super thrilled that the only POC character was an employee of someone else, and kept referring to the characters as "Mr. So and so." It just didn't feel like something that needed to be in a modern book...
I will also note that I was not super thrilled that the only POC character was an employee of someone else, and kept referring to the characters as "Mr. So and so." It just didn't feel like something that needed to be in a modern book...
November 13, 2025
At times it feels like a 70s teen mystery, something like scooby doo or the hardy boys then it gets weirder and more disorienting. Hobtown is twisted and under the veneer of a simple, small town is a sick secret society that uses mind control and murder!
The artwork is fantastic, reading it in late fall is perfect-
Highly recommend this to fans of twin peaks, weird enough to be enticing to those who wouldn’t care for an average whodunnit.
The artwork is fantastic, reading it in late fall is perfect-
Highly recommend this to fans of twin peaks, weird enough to be enticing to those who wouldn’t care for an average whodunnit.
April 1, 2018
Absolutely delightful take on the Nancy Drew mysteries with a dark, dark underbelly.
August 5, 2021
Plus un 3,5, mais le croisement entre Nancy Drew et Twin Peaks m'a quand même eue. L'enquête est parfois décousue, j'avais à certains moments du mal à suivre, mais les dessins sont pas mal beaux et j'ai complètement dévoré la BD.
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November 18, 2025I’m loving staying in the spooky zone post Halloween I didn’t get enough
Displaying 1 - 30 of 353 reviews