Readers may be familiar with artist Russell Mark Olson from his ongoing Gateway City stories serialized online and collected in five volumes. His Prohibition-era gangsters and aliens epic definitely prepared him for this series set in the barnstorming baseball world of 1923 Midwestern United States. Olson’s art duties on various Mad Cave titles have paired him with well-known writers like Jordan Thomas, Rich Douek, Dan DiDio, Ray Fawkes (on the upcoming The Phantom title) and, on this five-issue miniseries Past Time, Joe Harris.
Harris (X-Files, B.P.R.D., and many more) uses a framing sequence based on the actual events of the evening of August 8, 1988 when the first night baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago commenced. The main character is the mysterious blind former ballplayer Ronald A. Harold, who recounts the events of the 1923 rural Nebraska baseball game where Ronald meets the “creature” Henry after a night ball game. In contrast to the supernatural background elements, the sequence gives Harris the chance to introduce some humor into the story through all the oddball personalities of the teams. Due to the decompressed storytelling from Harris (endemic in current mainstream comics, not necessarily just Harris himself) that’s all there is to this debut outing, the barest of introductions to the players and premise. However, the horror elements throughout are well placed and do promise possible Lovecraftian shenanigans in future issues of Past Time.
The big draw for this series is the period art of Russell Mark Olson. From the nighttime Nebraska cornfield and authentic 1920s baseball gear, everything looks the part in a natural way. A hallmark of Olson’s work are nicely varied layouts filling in the sparse narrative with tilted panels in action scenes, overlay panels in establishing shots, and some solid panel-to-panel continuity that also adds life to the narrative. The palette of Olson’s coloring is also a key player with the deep dark blue of a Midwestern U.S. night sky eerily closing in on the primitive night baseball game to the sepia-toned daylight scene that perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the flashback scene.
If you are a fan of Russell Mark Olson or historical horrors, give this one a try to see if you are in or out for the rest of the series.
Joe Harris (W), Russell Mark Olson (A), Carlos M. Mangual (L) • Mad Cave Studios, $4.99
Review by Gary Usher
