Smuggling Spirits, Book 1 [Paperback]

Ben Fisher (Author), Mike Henderson (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2008

For fans of HELLBOY and THE WALKING DEAD comes SMUGGLING SPIRITS: BOOK ONE! Set in an alternate vision of the Prohibition-era, SMUGGLING SPIRITS: BOOK ONE introduces Al Stone, a bootlegger who finds himself on the run from an unrelenting horde of creatures that believes he holds the key to their destruction.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Ambrosia Publishing (January 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978331311
• ISBN-13: 978-0978331313
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,109,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prohibition Era Supernatural Tale Hits The Spot, August 7, 2008

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smuggling Spirits, Book 1 (Paperback)

I liked the feel of SMUGGLING SPIRITS: BOOK ONE from the minute I pulled it out of the package. The blood red cover featuring the hard guy and the kid toting the machine gun immediately made me think of Max Allan Collins's ROAD TO PERDITION, but the resemblance ended there. Writer Ben Fisher and artist Mike Henderson take a hard right turn off that particular road and into a razor-edged nightmare world by page four in a screamfest that almost jumps out at the reader.

The book is published by Ambrosia Publishing, an internet-based entertainment company that specializes in graphic novels. They release the stories on the internet first, then print them in small graphic novel format.

Fisher and Henderson's macabre tale is set in the Prohibition Era in the United States. Al Stone is a bootlegger, a driver that carries illegal booze from hidden stills to the speakeasies and bars that buy it through the back door for discerning customers. Back in the day, this was big business. Just ask Al Capone.

His sidekick, and the first-person narrator of the tale, is a young boy named Nathan. When it comes to the world, Nathan and Al don't see eye to eye. Nathan sees the monsters, the darklings, that have moved into the world and prey on the unwary and weak. This difference between the characters, with the reader seeing what Al and Nathan see, sharpens the suspense.

Fisher and Henderson work well together. As an author, Fisher stays off the pages as much as possible and lets Henderson's black and white artwork propel the story at breakneck pace through a twisted and familiar nightmarish landscape. The art will probably make a lot of readers think of Frank Miller's SIN CITY books, but that's a good thing. The finished pieces are a little rougher than Miller's stuff, but the visceral excitement and violence is all there.

I loved the opening sequence in the rain, and the way that I was lured into thinking this was going to be a normal bootlegger's run. Then things got weird. It didn't take long before I realized that bringing liquor to a "dry" bar was a lot harder in this world than it had been in ours.

Before Al and Nate get far, they're attacked by monsters that try to prevent them from reaching the still where they're supposed to pick up a load of moonshine. Henderson makes the most of full-page and two-page spreads as he lays out the action and the monsters. While at the shed, Al and Nate make a gruesome discovery and take action that's certain to have consequences. All of that is left as a cliffhanger for the second volume in the series.

I enjoyed SMUGGLING SPIRITS a lot because of the world creation and the characters. Al has a great, tough guy relationship with Nathan that I warmed to. And Nathan's protective feelings toward Al because of the man's inability to see the world as it really is was also touching.

The graphic novel is a quick, easy read, but that's deceptive. I found myself wandering back through the pages in short order, and looking over the sketch pages that Henderson provided again and again. I hadn't heard of Fisher or Henderson before this book, but I'll definitely be watching to see where they go next.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Horror Comic as it's Meant to Be: Dark, Imaginative and Creepy as Hell!, February 9, 2009

By 

Michael P. Ferrari "Author, 'Assault on the S... (Conshohocken, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Smuggling Spirits, Book 1 (Paperback)

Horror comics, for the most part, are kind of a faded relic these days. Since the comic medium belongs mostly to the super-hero genre, a lot of horror comics go overlooked since the grand majority of the books out there focus on archetypes so bland and broad (i.e. vampires, zombies, etc.) to grab a general audience instead of the true horror enthusiasts. That's my observation, anyway.

That said, SMUGGLING SPIRITS is like a Godsend, delivering an original, imaginative horror in a compact, concise story.

The premise for the first of two books is simple: Al and his teenage sidekick, Nathan, serve as bootleggers during the Prohibition Era. In this world, demons and Darklings stalk out the living at night, striking fear into the hearts of everyone but Al, who, whether intentionally or not, can't notice the demons for what they are. After a wrong turn digs Al and Nathan deep into a demon plot, the two find themselves trying to fight their way to safety in a world that seems ultimately corrupted by monsters (a little heavy on the metaphor, but please don't let that sway you).

Dark in both story and black-and-white tone, SMUGGLING SPIRITS does something that I find most comics have trouble accomplishing: it actually gives you the creeps! The mostly black renderings and intentional frantic line drawings constantly give the reader the impression that something could be sneaking up on the protagonists in every frame. It's tough to feel any measure of safety while reading this book, and in the end, isn't that the most important aspect of any horror story, no matter what the medium?

Writer Ben Fisher and artist Mike Henderson work together seamlessly. While I'm not familiar with either creators' individual projects, they show a real synergy on this book. Fisher's pacing and minimalist approach to dialog reveal JUST enough character development to move the story along without choking out the premise and mood. From that point, Henderson's art takes over and picks up where Fisher leaves off, complimenting the story with great tones, very expressive characters and monsters that are convincingly icky without going over the top.

Extra points should go to Fisher, who keeps his characters in line. It would be all too easy to fall into the safety net and write Al as another Bruce Willis knock-off hero and make Nathan into a non-Asian equivalent to Short Round. Instead, with almost little effort, he writes them both with layers, painting Al with a "is her crazy or not?" brush and showing Nathan as a wounded boy who tries his hardest to swallow his fear and push on.

In closing, this book does a lot with a little. On top of that, it actually manages to make it's own little stamp on a genre that can sometimes seems so tired that it has become its own worst enemy.

Michael P. Ferrari, Author of Assault on the Senses