Review by Woodrow Phoenix
Helen of Wyndhorn brings the Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow team of writer Tom King, artist Bilquis Evely and colorist Matheus Lopes back together, to craft another epic quest. Where the structure of Supergirl reminded many of classic Western film True Grit, this book channels vintage pulp SF and Sword and Sorcery, drawing on the work of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Conan the Barbarian, Tarzan and John Carter of Mars.
It is 1935. Sixteen year-old Helen is the daughter of pulp writer C.K. Cole, creator of a popular series featuring Othan, a sword-wielding warrior who battles wizards and exotic menaces in other dimensions and alien worlds. Despite his success Cole lives a hand-to-mouth existence, alcoholic and always on the run from creditors, dragging his daughter around the country with him. After her father dies suddenly in Texas, Helen’s reclusive grandfather sends for her to be brought across the country to his home in the enormous, imposing Wyndhorn House, a mansion set in a vast estate, where she is to be privately tutored by a straitlaced governess, Lilith Appleton. Used to living a very disordered and impulsive life, the grieving Helen is unruly, foulmouthed, rebellious and constantly drunk, bringing her into conflict with her governess and her grandfather, on the rare occasions when he appears. Desperate to find out who her dead parents were, she discovers there is much more to her father’s stories than he ever let her know.
Tom King chooses to tell this story in a non-linear arrangement of scenes through a series of layers, each experienced and narrated by a different person. The first layer is Helen’s life. The second layer is Lilith Appleton’s description of her time with Helen and her grandfather. The third is the story of Thomas Rogers, an author writing a biography of C.K. Cole fifty years later. Fourth is the experience of Rogers’ boyfriend who is dispersing of his dead partner’s possessions thirty years after that, and a fifth is a young comics fan who later buys the original tapes of Rogers’ C.K. Cole research from a dealer at a convention. Two further points of view involve the unnamed boy’s mother selling his now-abandoned comics, books and memorabilia at a yard sale, and then finally the person who buys them. With each level, Helen and her experiences recede further, becoming more trivial as each person who encounters the artefacts cares less about what they might be.
King wrote Helen of Wyndhorn expressly to give Bilquis Evely a period piece suited to her amazing facility for characterful protagonists in intricate landscapes and she 100% delivers. This book is wonderful to look at. Evely’s masterfully convincing renderings are complimented by Matheus Lopes’ equally sensitive and accomplished colours to create a beautifully involving throwback to the era of High Adventure. It’s a shame that we aren’t allowed to enjoy this for what it is. The constant undercutting of the primary story by post-modern framing and ironic commentary feels ultimately like a device to load significance onto what might otherwise be damned with faint praise as a very capable pastiche. It’s too bad King wasn’t brave enough to trust the artist more, because Evely totally nails the assignment, carrying all before her in enthralling, majestic finesse – for as far as she is allowed to, anyway.
Extra features include a sketchbook section and pin-ups by Massimo Carnivale, Elsa Charretier, Tula Lotay, Clay Mann, Fabio Moon, Walt Simonson, Greg Smallwood, and Jill Thompson, and for anyone captivated there’s a Deluxe Edition also.
