Review: A Spatchcock Mystery; The Final Curtain

How about a "murder" mystery with a gluttonous filling of cake puns and laugh out loud comedy with the endearing nature of a daytime tv detective show in disarmingly charming black and white art? Then wipe away the crumbs of confusion with A Spatchcock Mystery; The Final Curtain by Gavin Mitchell and Jim Bampfield.

Gavin Mitchell is a freelance comic book illustrator and creator who interestingly won 2000 AD's first-ever portfolio challenge at our favourite convention Thought Bubble. He has a piquant resume of work, including Pup & Grumpicorn, Santa vs Nazis, a Samurai Slasher chapter, The Trolltooth Wars and a short in The Pride to name a few. With help from the sapid Jim Bampfield, illustrator, writer and co-creator of Bruce Outback and Eagle Award-nominated Lou Scannon, have concocted a moreish delight in the Happy Clam published, successfully Kickstarted and now Etsy available (WeAreHappyClam - Etsy UK- A Spatchcock Mystery) soft boiled crime "murder" mystery. With the exceptionally endearing detective, it's (hopefully the first of many) A Spatchcock Mystery: The Final Curtain.

So, let's start with the art. Gavin Mitchell is a very adept artist capable of a myriad of interesting and impactful styles that capture mood and tone with great accomplishment. The Final Curtain is a sublime example of this, with every aspect of this comic hitting its style thoroughly throughout. Everything from production, presentation, design, panel layout, lettering and character design. It's a real joy to read visually from beginning to end.

The cover and inside page straight away set the tone with the faux-worn library aesthetic that is instantly endearing and comforting, like finding a classical murder mystery novel on a dusty shelf. This is followed by something I've never experienced, in a depiction of a Battenberg that manages to encapsulate a sense of foreboding doom, like a harbinger of unscrupulous ne'er-do-wells and unsavoury rapscallions.

Into character design, and the first thing that becomes apparent is the strength in the choices made. Each captures a stereotypical nature in as much as the characters look the way you'd imagine were this just a novel. Idealistic really. It facilitates the ease of becoming fully invested in each character, a trait only emphasised by the black and white palette utilised to its full potential. My favourite of these is the titular Spatchcock, who manages to capture a look somewhere between Captain Pugwash and Merlin from Disney's The Sword In The Stone if cast and styled for Murder She Wrote or Columbo. "Oh, and just one more thing", the panel presentation is particularly powerful, utilising every layout the format allows to stunning effect.

It's time for the story, and I'll try to keep this brief as the proof is in the pudding with this one. The Final Curtain orbits around Spatchcock, a retired premier merchant of carpets and flooring accessories turned detective with a penchant for two by two chequered cake. In pursuit of a childhood dream, Spatchcock will be thrust into a play that serves a side of murder mystery.

There's a cast including an egotistical director, ego-inflated actors, an inept aspirant star, a cat-distracted volunteer and a pining underling. The story has all the hallmarks of daytime TV with refreshing yet nostalgic wit, with all the notes of your favourite series, which adds to the compelling nature. This intertwines wonderfully with those visuals. The icing on the cake, then, is that nothing more should be said as the reading experience on offer here is everything you could wish for in this genre. The cherry on top comes from the QR code available at the end of the comic, which must not be missed.

For fans of daytime TV crime shows, murder mysteries, deep-cut carpet references, meta jokes, laugh out loud comedy, endearing and engaging detectives, Battenburg, and reuniting with lost cats, presented in a perfectly pitched format with indulgent black-and-white art, scoff up A Spatchcock Mystery; The Final Curtain. Copies can be found on the WeAreHappyClam Etsy store, which also has some exceptional Giclée prints in Columbo and Murder She Wrote flavours and Risograph prints to adorn your walls. Also, keep your ear to the ground for the return of Spatchcock in They Came to Cramphorn.

Rating: 5+/5