Review by Ian Keogh
The Librarians TV show ran for three years from 2014, itself connecting with three earlier TV movies titled The Librarian, featuring Flynn Carsen as protector and guardian of a number of mystic artefacts stored beneath the Metropolitan Public Library. When the franchise was rebooted it was decided Carsen needed help, and so a team was recruited around him, all with specialist knowledge and talents. Think Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossed with Indiana Jones, and you’re about there.
Will Pfeifer’s graphic novel version begins with Carsen attending a live interview with sensationalistic film-maker Sol Schick, which doesn’t go as planned when Schick is murdered by Oscar Orville, narrator of his films. It leaves the Librarians investigating the mystery of why Schick was killed, whether there may have been more truth to his films than the public realised, and why Orville seems to be very calm about his arrest. Schick was certainly a showman, and Pfeifer constructs a clever plot around that, all the time posing the question about what truth is. Was Schick really murdered, for instance?
The cast have real character under Rodney Buchemi, who captures likenesses well without going into forensic detail. To some extent the plot is dependent on detail, so an artist willing to put in the necessary work to supply it was essential, but Buchemi goes beyond, also supplying imaginative viewpoints for a lot of dialogue, and some great scenes of plain strangeness.
As the story continues mystery piles upon mystery until there’s a tower of unanswered questions. The Librarians are professionals, and they have no idea what’s going on, so amateur sleuths are better off letting Pfeifer unfurl the puzzles at his pace, and just soak in the strangeness. Don’t worry. There is a pay-off and just to be sure everyone’s up to speed Pfiefer lays out what’s been learned to open the fourth chapter. It’s as humdinger that changes the tone entirely. If you’ve ever wondered what the show might be like if there was the budget to really create the impossible, then Pfeifer and Buchemi supply it.
