Lore is the latest project from Ashley Wood, who can always be relied on to divide opinion.  Some say Wood is a fantastic, visionary artist who brings an incredible, unique style to his work.  Others say it's all just pretentious, blurred sepia nonsense.

The truth lies somewhere in between, of course.  Wood is certainly unique, and his comics can usually be relied on for a healthy degree of insanity.  He seems to favour stories where the plot is as warped and erratic as his art, and the art makes rather more sense when coupled to that sort of material.  (He used to have an unfortunate habit of taking assignments on completely mainstream stories and illustrating them in the same style.)

On the other hand, of course, he's often ropey when it comes to actually conveying what the hell's going on.  All that blurry grey may look beautiful, but a lot of the time you just wish he'd show you what the hell is happening.  He's got better about conveying the basics, but there are still more than a few panels in this issue where, even knowing the thrust of the scene, I honestly haven't got a clue what they're meant to be showing.

That's a minority, though - Lore is actually pretty accessible by Wood's standards.  It's credited as cowritten by somebody called T P Louise, but it's apparently Wood's idea.  The basic premise is that ancient folklore characters have returned, and people are looking in various ways to deal with the situation.  There's a nice streak of dark comedy to the book - for example, in the Vatican's panic-stricken reaction to the PR problem, and a hilarious diary excerpt from a blithely oblivious magician.

The plot jumps about a bit, and doesn't quite build up momentum in the way you might like.  Ending the issue with a rather cryptic scene about a leprechaun doesn't really work as a cliffhanger.  Still, it's often genuinely funny, and Wood's art has the usual aesthetic charms (albeit coupled with some of the usual narrative downfalls).

All good fun, perhaps smothered a bit by Wood's curious love of neutral blurry colours.  Still, those in the pro-Wood camp should love it.

Rating: B+

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