JUDGEMENT KNIGHT is a gorgeously done graphic novel from the folks at Moonstone. It’s based on The Devil’s Paymaster from The Spider Magazine, May, 1941, adapted by Howard Hopkins with artwork, both the color cover and the black and white noir paintings inside by Gary Carbon.
A mix of prose and art, each page has three sections, prose top and bottom, about half the page, and an art panel in the middle, half the page. As you look at two facing pages, the art is one continuous panel stretching across both. They call it wide-vision.
Someone has turned a harmless device, one to produce synthetic radium for cancer treatments into a ray that infuses metal with killing heat. They use it to rob banks and murder people, terrorizing them, making anyone reluctant to try to stop them.
There’s a “ghost” of the son of the inventor, supposedly having committed suicide by jumping overboard from a cruise liner, that keeps popping up before every murder. And a beautiful blond that somehow seems to get “accidentally” in the way every time Jackson, the Spider/Richard Wentworth’s driver, and Ram Singh, Wentworth’s faithful servant/bodyguard get close to the criminals involved.
There’s a final showdown with the gang in the Statue of Liberty before The Spider reveals the leader of the criminal enterprise. And a surprise wedding at the end!
I enjoyed this, both the story and the art, and wouldn’t be averse to more Spider graphics from this team.
