By Justin McCarty

I was not familiar with Cynthia von Buhler before picking up this title. For those that don’t know she is a contemporary artist that has been creating art that ranges from illustrations and fine art to theater and performance art. Perusing her Wikipedia page and website gives you quite a lot of insight into how her style informed this comic. Minky Woodcock The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini is a new ongoing title from Titan Comics’ Hard Case Crime series. Its protagonist is a somewhat plucky wannabe private detective that, as the title suggests, gets herself involved in a mystery that centers on the charming illusionist Harry Houdini.

Minky is the daughter of a famous private eye, Benedict Woodcock, she’s obsessed with being her father’s partner, instead of her free-spirited brother. The story is set in the nineteen twenties. She is inspired by Agatha Christie, writing to her for advice. Rather than getting to be her dad’s business partner, she is his secretary, forced to man the phones and take notes. She wants to be a detective so bad that when a man, Arthur Conan Doyle, comes to hire her company she pretends to be her father, seeing her opportunity to prove herself. He believes that Harry Houdini is dealing with the dark arts and wants Woodcock to prove it. To convince her to take the case on her father’s behalf, he takes her to an eccentric medium who performs in the nude. Minky is unconvinced, but the medium does something startling and it sends Minky to a bar where she manages to run into the wife of Mr. Houdini.  

This was an interesting concept, but it didn’t fully grab me. I admit I will need a few more issues before I can really get a sense for this book. Its premise is unique, but the story components don’t exactly feel new. This particular story’s time period can be a great place to go for mystery and spooky occultism plot devices. The lack of technology and style creates a mood and tone that makes the book very attractive. Some of Cynthia’s choices do feel a little out of place and detract from the overall quality of the book. The art sometimes feels flat. The dialogue is wordy and a bit unnatural. Still, if you are a fan of Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Allen Poe, (and who isn’t?) it draws on them in an engaging way. 

The mid-twenties had plenty of occultism to inspire as many stories as any writer could imagine. It is no wonder you can easily find stories, especially in comics, that draws on that period. It can be a difficult subject matter to get right. There is a thin line between homage and cliche’. Having Houdini be the center of the mystery doesn’t feel that original to me, it was a surprise to see the interesting characterization of Conan Doyle, and the female protagonist feels both fresh and a product of her time. Buhler’s illustrations have an interesting woodcut style to them. They tend to feel very flat, which generally works for the story, but not all the time, certain angles of view feel distorted. It’s clear she took a lot of inspiration from the twenties, magazine illustrations of the period. She also pulls from the gothic and Victorian styles. 

This title has a lot going for it. With a couple more issues this story could really take off. This has been a hard review to score. I want to read more because I don’t feel we’ve gotten all the components so far. Minky is a fun character, the art stands out, but the rest has a lot to overcome. This comic is off to a good start and I do recommend it to the mystery and hard-boiled crime fans. 

Score: 3/5

Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini #1
Titan Comics