SoulFinder by Douglas Ernst and Timothy Lim: REVIEW
This is the Totally Biased Comic Book Review of Soulfinder by Douglas Ernst and Timothy Lim.
Souldfinder is a great, original property that is somewhat of an interesting mix of G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown and the CW's Supernatural. This graphic novel by Washington Times columnist and comic book industry influencer Doug Ernst was crowd funded on IndieGoGo and raised a respectable 33,237$ for a first time campaign and the creators did an excellent job of fulfilling the project and giving their backers a quality product with no industry drama.
I like and follow both Douglas Ernst and Tim Lim on Twitter. They are both nice guys and treat their fans well and tend to try and stay out of the "comic book war" dramas that seem a daily part of life on Twitter.
I personally feel that Doug sets the standard for how a creator should act "professionally" online and when dealing with the various factions and personalities in the current movement. Douglas Ernst is that rare individual that attempts to bring the community together and seems to do his personal best to not cause strife and inspire division. This seems to be a very rare trait in the current situation from my point of view.
Often, I have seen reservations from all sides of the movement, from people who do not trust other people who do not play the never ending game of "Hatfield's and McCoy's" on Twitter. Creator's accused of being "fence sitters" and not committing to one side or the other in the aforementioned "comic book wars" are often considered traitors or cowards.
I can understand this mentality to a point. It is natural for people to distrust individuals who do not take sides on important issues and with life changing causes. When it comes to causes like religion, politics, personal liberties, conflicts between nations and the meaningful fronts of the cultural and spiritual wars going around us, human nature becomes naturally suspicious of people who present themselves as "sitting on the fence" or seem to be supporting both sides of a conflict.
It is not just rational, but important, for people to be weary of individuals who will not let their motives be publicly known or people who try and play both sides of an important issue or cause.
Personally, by my own nature (for better or worse) I have always been prone to be opinionated and ofttimes almost "extremist" seemingly politically to people have more moderate and mainstream views compared to my own, and I've always been fine with that. But I reserve the right to hold the philosophical notion of "Extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice." for issues more important than comic books. As I told some angry, but usually like minded Twitter friends recently, "I am willing to be an extremist for many things, just not for funny books."
The cult-like and hateful Twitter battles that go on daily (admittedly not without cause) about crowd funded comic books and because of the childish exploits of many in Comicsgate and beyond bore me to death and seem totally futile.
Creator's like Doug Ernst who somehow manage to be friendly to their customers, and who are able to take the high road every time they are presented with the opportunity, and act like grown ups who can bring people together instead of trying to profit by division are a rare breed in this day and age. I find it even more refreshing to see because too many crowd funding creators see themselves as "little Machiavellians" waging a political and cultural war, but from my point of view, they just tend to embarrass themselves more often than not.
Doug made a name for himself in the comic book community by calling mainstream creators out publicly because of how they tended to treat the fans poorly during online interactions. Doug spoke out calmly, but purposely, as an advocate for fans rights against the ignorant backlash that often spewed from the intolerant mouths of industry "professionals". Also, unlike many hypocrites that began crowd funding because of such backlash, Doug when he started to make his own comics, did not behave that way towards the fans whenever confronted with criticism like many creators in ComicsGate eventually started to do. Doug "practiced what he preached" to the pros and fellow crowd funders and customers alike, and it was such an attitude as that which made me decide to back Soulfinder in the first place.
I missed out on backing Soulfinder during the active run of the campaign. At the time, I was (ashamedly) mostly unaware of who Doug Ernst was, and what few times I had looked at the project's IndieGoGo I had some reservations about whether Tim Lim's art style would be suitable to the setting of the comic.
Luckily, as I tend to do, I decided to back the book on a whim after I saw how Doug was being attacked with an unfair and unsubstantiated rumor from the usual suspects online and I contacted him via email asking if I could still back the book.
Even though Doug didn't know me from Adam he was polite and courteous in the email exchanges I had with him and the whole encounter was a very pleasant one.
Doug made a name for himself in the comic book community by calling mainstream creators out publicly because of how they tended to treat the fans poorly during online interactions. Doug spoke out calmly, but purposely, as an advocate for fans rights against the ignorant backlash that often spewed from the intolerant mouths of industry "professionals". Also, unlike many hypocrites that began crowd funding because of such backlash, Doug when he started to make his own comics, did not behave that way towards the fans whenever confronted with criticism like many creators in ComicsGate eventually started to do. Doug "practiced what he preached" to the pros and fellow crowd funders and customers alike, and it was such an attitude as that which made me decide to back Soulfinder in the first place.
I missed out on backing Soulfinder during the active run of the campaign. At the time, I was (ashamedly) mostly unaware of who Doug Ernst was, and what few times I had looked at the project's IndieGoGo I had some reservations about whether Tim Lim's art style would be suitable to the setting of the comic.
Luckily, as I tend to do, I decided to back the book on a whim after I saw how Doug was being attacked with an unfair and unsubstantiated rumor from the usual suspects online and I contacted him via email asking if I could still back the book.
Even though Doug didn't know me from Adam he was polite and courteous in the email exchanges I had with him and the whole encounter was a very pleasant one.
At one point, because I was a bit weary of creating a PayPal account, he even offered to send me the book free and I could pay him later. Of course I couldn't let that happen and opened the first PayPal account I have had in many years and gladly paid him for the copy of the book. Doug went out of his way to get me a copy of the book and shipped it quickly and safely. The whole business transaction was so pleasant I had decided to back Soulfinder #2 before the book had even arrived at my house.
A lot of other creators could learn from this. Pleasant online interactions and thoughtful customer service will create for them more real fans in the long run than all of the drama battles will ever be able to do.
So let's get on the the actual review of the comic book its self...
Soulfinder is a comic book about a Catholic priest named Father Patrick Retter. Father Pat is often called to work with the local police department to consult on strange cases, that may or may not have a supernatural element to them, cases that are beyond the day to day expertise of those investigating the crimes. The latest case he becomes involved with starts with some mysterious deaths that soon lead his attention towards the demonic BlackFire Cult and places him and his loved ones in grave danger. The circumstances also introduce him to a little known order of the Catholic Church called the Soulfinders. The Soulfinders are an ancient order of Priests who specialize in exorcisms and demonic activity.
Soulfinder was shipped in perfect condition and had quality binding. It also came with a nice trading card that replicated the artwork from the cover of the book. The interior pages also seemed high quality and did an excellent job of showing off the crispness and the sharpness of the colors. In fact the overall quality of the book was extremely high considering the price-point and the fact this was a "first time" campaign for Doug. I assume he benefited quite a bit from all of the experience of the men he worked with on the project.
One of those men was the accomplished and experienced artist Timothy Lim.
Anyone who has paid any attention at all to crowd funded comic books over the last few years knows who Tim is. He has consistently been one of the most prolific and trustworthy crowd funders around.
Tim seems to have a more manga influenced style. He is a very good artist but I did have reservations that his style would not fit the style and tone of a realistic book like Soulfinder. Those fears were unnecessary though because the book brought about the best artwork from Tim to date.
I was really impressed by his work on this book. Everything seemed to work well together. The characters, the panel flow and the line work were all top notch and fit the style and the tone of Doug's story perfectly. Great details from character designs to backgrounds that would often have to change in surreal ways because of the supernatural elements of the story were truly nice and welcome touches. Clearly, to me, Tim's work was elevated by being forced outside his comfort zone and I look forward to seeing him take more chances with books like Soulfinder in the future. In fact, I was so impressed with Tim's art while looking over the book again for the review I had to go over to IndieGoGo and back his current book Kamen America vol 1 even though it looks different than the types of books and styles I usually like to read. Although, Soulfinder was not the first Tim Lim book I have ever bought... this gem was the first:
A lot of other creators could learn from this. Pleasant online interactions and thoughtful customer service will create for them more real fans in the long run than all of the drama battles will ever be able to do.
So let's get on the the actual review of the comic book its self...
Soulfinder is a comic book about a Catholic priest named Father Patrick Retter. Father Pat is often called to work with the local police department to consult on strange cases, that may or may not have a supernatural element to them, cases that are beyond the day to day expertise of those investigating the crimes. The latest case he becomes involved with starts with some mysterious deaths that soon lead his attention towards the demonic BlackFire Cult and places him and his loved ones in grave danger. The circumstances also introduce him to a little known order of the Catholic Church called the Soulfinders. The Soulfinders are an ancient order of Priests who specialize in exorcisms and demonic activity.
Soulfinder was shipped in perfect condition and had quality binding. It also came with a nice trading card that replicated the artwork from the cover of the book. The interior pages also seemed high quality and did an excellent job of showing off the crispness and the sharpness of the colors. In fact the overall quality of the book was extremely high considering the price-point and the fact this was a "first time" campaign for Doug. I assume he benefited quite a bit from all of the experience of the men he worked with on the project.
One of those men was the accomplished and experienced artist Timothy Lim.
Anyone who has paid any attention at all to crowd funded comic books over the last few years knows who Tim is. He has consistently been one of the most prolific and trustworthy crowd funders around.
Tim seems to have a more manga influenced style. He is a very good artist but I did have reservations that his style would not fit the style and tone of a realistic book like Soulfinder. Those fears were unnecessary though because the book brought about the best artwork from Tim to date.
I was really impressed by his work on this book. Everything seemed to work well together. The characters, the panel flow and the line work were all top notch and fit the style and the tone of Doug's story perfectly. Great details from character designs to backgrounds that would often have to change in surreal ways because of the supernatural elements of the story were truly nice and welcome touches. Clearly, to me, Tim's work was elevated by being forced outside his comfort zone and I look forward to seeing him take more chances with books like Soulfinder in the future. In fact, I was so impressed with Tim's art while looking over the book again for the review I had to go over to IndieGoGo and back his current book Kamen America vol 1 even though it looks different than the types of books and styles I usually like to read. Although, Soulfinder was not the first Tim Lim book I have ever bought... this gem was the first:
That said, the next Soulfinder book is currently being drawn by Matthew Weldon and he was given some art credits in the first book. I do not know the full details of what he is credited for, if he helped with the sequential art or if the credit just refers to his excellent pin ups in the back of the book, but it is clear from those and the preview art for the second book that the second book is still in good hands.
Now on to my favorite part of the book: the writing and the characterization.
Douglas Ernst has manged to create a unique and interesting playground for his own philosophical, religious views and ideals with the world of Soulfinder.
Father Pat is a layered and multidimensional character which is very rare thing in crowd funded comics and entertainment as a whole today. I will not spoil any of the story here but the character of Father Pat is well written with lots of pain and trauma from his childhood and his military background that goes a long way into shaping him as a man and as a Priest. These story elements are interwoven perfectly into the story and into the surreal parts of the plot and in the ways the hero of the story interacts with the villains and the world at large.
Of course the book contains lots of other supporting characters from Father Pat's family members, the head of his parish that plays his part like the stereotypical, angry police chief, disciplining the reckless typical movie cop. But the most important supporting character is, Soulfinder Father Reginald Crane, who shows up to to recruit Father Pat. Crane is the typical seasoned, older vet who sees potential in the young Patrick and wants to help show him the ropes and the "Things you wont find in a text book."
The book has a pretty typical structure that you might have once seen on a television show or possibly in an older comic book, but what makes it unique and non-typical for this day and age, is that since it is about the Supernatural and Christians and how it displays those traditional Christian characters in a positive light, it becomes something that in this day and age you would never be able to make, see and read in either a modern TV show or in a comic book sold by a mainstream source.
And that is the most interesting part of getting a book like this via crowd funding. A book, that very well could have never been made the traditional media route can now exist. The creator is free to bring a project, intact with politics and religious beliefs that main stream sources might tend to resist being made, straight to the pubic and they can decide for themselves what they choose to back and what forms of entertainment they believe in. It is for books like Soulfinder, and friendly creators like Doug Ernst, that crowd funding and even ComicsGate was created for and needed.
Soulfinder was a great book and well worth the money and it was especially successful in my eyes considering it was a first time offer from Doug Ernst.
As I write this the full script for Soulfinder 2 is already written and finished and Matthew Weldon is reportedly slaving away at the art for the book already. So, I feel it is not unreasonable to expect Soulfinder 2 to be hitting the crowd funding sites soon. As I said before I have already decided to back Soulfinder 2 and I highly recommend you look into doing so as well because it is an excellent book and I feel it is very important to reward great creators who go out of their way to treat the fans with respect and show such great customer service.
The book has a pretty typical structure that you might have once seen on a television show or possibly in an older comic book, but what makes it unique and non-typical for this day and age, is that since it is about the Supernatural and Christians and how it displays those traditional Christian characters in a positive light, it becomes something that in this day and age you would never be able to make, see and read in either a modern TV show or in a comic book sold by a mainstream source.
And that is the most interesting part of getting a book like this via crowd funding. A book, that very well could have never been made the traditional media route can now exist. The creator is free to bring a project, intact with politics and religious beliefs that main stream sources might tend to resist being made, straight to the pubic and they can decide for themselves what they choose to back and what forms of entertainment they believe in. It is for books like Soulfinder, and friendly creators like Doug Ernst, that crowd funding and even ComicsGate was created for and needed.
Soulfinder was a great book and well worth the money and it was especially successful in my eyes considering it was a first time offer from Doug Ernst.
As I write this the full script for Soulfinder 2 is already written and finished and Matthew Weldon is reportedly slaving away at the art for the book already. So, I feel it is not unreasonable to expect Soulfinder 2 to be hitting the crowd funding sites soon. As I said before I have already decided to back Soulfinder 2 and I highly recommend you look into doing so as well because it is an excellent book and I feel it is very important to reward great creators who go out of their way to treat the fans with respect and show such great customer service.
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