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Strangehaven #2
Strangehaven: Brotherhood
Alex Hunter tries to make sense of being trapped in England's weirdest village, the ghost of the beautiful woman who haunts his dreams, and why the villagers celebrate Christmas in mid-summer. The Amazonian Shaman, Megaron, reveals his tribe's deadly cycle of vengeance; and the village's resident extraterrestrial, Adam, explains away the UFO phenomenon, while behind the scenes a clandestine brotherhood pulls the strings. A complex and intriguing journey through romance, mystery, and the supernatural with a twist of bizarre humor, beautifully illustrated with pencil, pen & ink, painted watercolor, and manipulated photographs. Introduction by Heart of Empire creator Bryan Talbot. New, full-color painted cover by Millidge.
176 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 24, 2020
Well the action ramped up at the beginning of the volume, but we got lost in the multiple soap operas again. Relatively extreme ending though, almost jarring; we'll see when I can get my hands on Vol. 3.
July 14, 2024
This is a self-published comic series that was of 18 issues released between 1995 and 2005.
These books contain 6 issues in each.
It is set in a typical but fictional English village and blends folk horror with soap opera, think of an amalgam of The Archers and MR James.
It’s a rural gothic with a set of very strange residents that becomes a murder mystery.
The artwork is really well done, and the result is entertaining and highly original.
These books contain 6 issues in each.
It is set in a typical but fictional English village and blends folk horror with soap opera, think of an amalgam of The Archers and MR James.
It’s a rural gothic with a set of very strange residents that becomes a murder mystery.
The artwork is really well done, and the result is entertaining and highly original.
April 28, 2022
This was a big improvement on the first volume, the pace finally picks up and the story unfurls much more satisfyingly. It feels less conceptual and better developed, I was hoping for more from this series and I definitely got it!
April 28, 2023
A little more scattered with its storytelling in this volume. Millidge juggled the various subplots delicately last volume, but this following arc feels a bit clumsier. Alex Hunter has failed to leave Strangehaven, and the budding relationship with Janey has crashed. Suzie Tang pushes Petey to break up with his wife harder, and finally resolves to come clean on her own. Christmas is being celebrated in August. The Knights of the Golden Light consider adding Alex as a new member. Is Adam an alien? What is going on with Meg and his interest in Janey's younger brother? These subplots are interesting enough on their own, but I do feel like the surreal aspects that I enjoyed in the first six issues feel a little too toned down.
Millidge's artwork is still really strong, and he incorporates some phototracing/collages/mixed media into the book that looks pretty interesting. I'll admit it doesn't all look good to me, but there are definitely moments where the book looks kind of uncanny in a way that makes the surrealism more potent. I do think the book is still at its best when Millidge is utilizing his sharp linework and rigid panel compositions.
Millidge's artwork is still really strong, and he incorporates some phototracing/collages/mixed media into the book that looks pretty interesting. I'll admit it doesn't all look good to me, but there are definitely moments where the book looks kind of uncanny in a way that makes the surrealism more potent. I do think the book is still at its best when Millidge is utilizing his sharp linework and rigid panel compositions.
July 22, 2022
No es que este sea peor que el anterior, es más, todo lo contrario. Pocas veces se puede ver el avance artístico y la experimentacion del autor en una única obra. Pero quizás me precipite con las cuatro estrellas anteriores, ya que el misterio fue disolviendo su interés en mí mente mientras avanzaban en los números.
De todos modos, debe decirse que el manejo del ritmo tranquilo me parece único y una fuente de la cual aprender cuando se trata de historias simples dentro de la narrativa movida por los personajes. Pero, aunque interesante por ese lado, no encuentro lo que motiva a los demás críticos a decir que está sea una obra tan increíble como se la tiene. A veces los personajes son unidimensionales, otras se sacan cosas de la manga sin más explicarlo, el misterio es manejado tan sutil que te olvidas que existe o perdés el interés entre demaciada exposición metafórica.
Las historias chiquitas de pueblo siguen siendo pintorescas y sigo viendo a la par del vídeo para que enriquezca mí lectura, solo espero que haya algo muy loco para pensar y reflexionar sobre todo esto.
De todos modos, debe decirse que el manejo del ritmo tranquilo me parece único y una fuente de la cual aprender cuando se trata de historias simples dentro de la narrativa movida por los personajes. Pero, aunque interesante por ese lado, no encuentro lo que motiva a los demás críticos a decir que está sea una obra tan increíble como se la tiene. A veces los personajes son unidimensionales, otras se sacan cosas de la manga sin más explicarlo, el misterio es manejado tan sutil que te olvidas que existe o perdés el interés entre demaciada exposición metafórica.
Las historias chiquitas de pueblo siguen siendo pintorescas y sigo viendo a la par del vídeo para que enriquezca mí lectura, solo espero que haya algo muy loco para pensar y reflexionar sobre todo esto.
November 8, 2017
I still love this series because it’s so weird and out there and knows exactly how to create a weird hook for the reader. There’s an event fairly early on that makes you believe one thing happened when another ended up being the case, but still with some strange happenings in between. This story is absolutely walking a tightrope in an expert way, and I hate that it’s taken me this long to get into the third volume.
March 1, 2017
I enjoyed this second Strangehaven book, still more questions to be answered, so I will be reading the third book.
June 22, 2013
In this second book of Millidge's extraordinary, unfinished Strangehaven, we leave the idyllic strangeness of Arcadia and are taken deeper into the fold of the village's Brotherhood. This volume reads quite well as a book (having a good startpoint and a shocking conclusion), though I wouldn't recommend it without the other accompanying volumes.
Millidge jumps right in with the main character Alex Hunter returning from the camping trip he'd promised himself at the end of book one, and he has a very odd tale to tell. His recounting of his trip-gone-twisted is one of several expositions in the book: we also get Sergeant Clarke's telling of why the village celebrates Christmas in August; there's Adam Douglas' lengthy examination of alien contact with Earth, and the lack thereof; Megaron gives us his early Amazonian history in two parts, told to two people; and Alex returns to talk about the birth, life and death of his romance with his first wife. Add to this the usual passing peculiarities that we've come to expect of this exceptional series, and it equals a book that is absolutely packed with casual English weirdness, charm and tales. As if that weren't enough, we get more of the background characters and even at least one new one thrown into the mix.
This book collects issues 7-12 and reproduces in black and white the original colour covers. It also has: a heartfelt intro from fellow British comic stalwart Bryan Talbot; a catching-up 'What Has Gone Before' piece told from Alex Hunter's perspective with new (or at least re-detailed) spot art; another extensive bibliography and acknowledgements (the latter largely repeated from the previous collection); and a new author biography bewilderingly told through his life as a UK football fan.
Millidge jumps right in with the main character Alex Hunter returning from the camping trip he'd promised himself at the end of book one, and he has a very odd tale to tell. His recounting of his trip-gone-twisted is one of several expositions in the book: we also get Sergeant Clarke's telling of why the village celebrates Christmas in August; there's Adam Douglas' lengthy examination of alien contact with Earth, and the lack thereof; Megaron gives us his early Amazonian history in two parts, told to two people; and Alex returns to talk about the birth, life and death of his romance with his first wife. Add to this the usual passing peculiarities that we've come to expect of this exceptional series, and it equals a book that is absolutely packed with casual English weirdness, charm and tales. As if that weren't enough, we get more of the background characters and even at least one new one thrown into the mix.
This book collects issues 7-12 and reproduces in black and white the original colour covers. It also has: a heartfelt intro from fellow British comic stalwart Bryan Talbot; a catching-up 'What Has Gone Before' piece told from Alex Hunter's perspective with new (or at least re-detailed) spot art; another extensive bibliography and acknowledgements (the latter largely repeated from the previous collection); and a new author biography bewilderingly told through his life as a UK football fan.
March 22, 2009
The pace picks up considerably in this volume, although perhaps it's just the revelation of large consequences brought on from earlier, smallish actions. Either way you get a good deal more background on Megaron, the authenticity of the secret society's sinister character and more in this volume.
I remember reading scanned versions of the first volume's first few issues on my computer in college and loving every moment of the story but I definitely do not enjoy it that much now. Perhaps I was so new to my return to comics at that point, not knowing the depth of quality of other titles yet made it seem so special.
That said, it's definitely not a bad book, but it wears its primary influences on its sleeve (The Prisoner and Twin Peaks) and the lack of irony in the town's name deflate a lot of the mystique. A mystique that used to come with reading it back when only the first volume had been collected and the rest of the story was being published on an annual or semi-annual basis.
I remember reading scanned versions of the first volume's first few issues on my computer in college and loving every moment of the story but I definitely do not enjoy it that much now. Perhaps I was so new to my return to comics at that point, not knowing the depth of quality of other titles yet made it seem so special.
That said, it's definitely not a bad book, but it wears its primary influences on its sleeve (The Prisoner and Twin Peaks) and the lack of irony in the town's name deflate a lot of the mystique. A mystique that used to come with reading it back when only the first volume had been collected and the rest of the story was being published on an annual or semi-annual basis.
June 10, 2024
En la segunda entrega de "Strangehaven" lo extraño y el terror se empiezan ya a apoderar totalmente de la narración. Los Caballeros de la Luz han pasado de ser una extravagancia local malrollera a ser una amenaza peliaguda: el cliffhanger de este segundo volumen pone los pelos como escarpias, más cuando hasta el momento el tono era "bizarro", no terrorífico, aunque el pavor siempre estaba ahí detrás acechando, a la vuelta de la esquina. Una lectura extraordinaria, donde "Gent del Barri" (EastEnders) se cruza con Lovecraft y por el camino se encuentran con Monty Python y "El prisionero"...
December 11, 2014
Not bad this one was. Big improvement on the first volume. This one was actually spooky AND brutal. It's like a car crash in the future. You know it will happen, and anticipate it, and it happens and delivers you the pretty bloody sights.
Not bad at all. Not 5 stars because some stories just got stuck somewhere... Hope there is a conclusion in the end of it, too bad the book is damn expensive to get...
Not bad at all. Not 5 stars because some stories just got stuck somewhere... Hope there is a conclusion in the end of it, too bad the book is damn expensive to get...
April 11, 2021
The second chapter of Millidge's series Strangehaven. It lacks the powerful sense of immediacy of volume one (although that's inevitable when telling a fish-out-of-water story), but the oddity and emotional intensity continue at a good pace, and suspense increases as an act of violence descends on the seemingly idyllic town.
March 25, 2012
Read in one night. Things were getting pretty crazy in Strangehaven.
June 19, 2014
Great!"
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews