THE CANCEL HAUS -Guest review by Paul Ashley Brown

 THE CANCEL HAUS ISSUES 1 & 2 by Hroge, Strawman Publishing ( 36 pages full colour comic book )

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the urge to review anything comic- book wise ( as my esteemed host Mr Hooper knows only too well !) .There’s very little these days in Comic Book land that makes me feel even the vaguest hint of genuine drooling excitement,, whether it’s sat on the shelves of your local comic book store ( sorry friend Meesh !) or the rear corner of your trendy Bookshop’s Graphic Novel selection ( sorry nobody !). Oh sure, I’ll occasionally pick up some overhyped title or latest lauded GN I’m meant to care about,to see what the fuss is, and yet a split second later put it back on the shelf – I couldn’t tell you if it’s written well because usually the artwork is so appallingly awful and visually uninspiring I can’t get past the first page.

 Every now and then though, even a jaded old curmudgeon like me can be suddenly lulled out of their all-too- snug  cynicism by something that suddenly drops into view. So it was a week before Christmas, aptly enough, when a parcel arrived that made this tired old Ebeneezer Scrunge suddenly be reminded that there may well be hope and redemption, even when all seems lost.That was when I opened the package containing the first two issues of The Cancel Haus by Hroge.

What? What’s a Cancel Haus ? And what’s a Hroge ? I hear you ask.( And if you aren’t then you really should !!)

 It’s a very good couple of questions to which I still  don’t know the whole answer.  What I do know is that Hroge is the writer /artist of The Cancel Haus, which is a planned 15 issue comic book series that he’s been working on in splendid isolation for the last 12 years ( !!!), seperate from the somewhat hysterical and overhyped Emperor’s New Clothes of the current comic book landscape, which he’s got off the ground via a Kickstarter, like a lot of people whose work otherwise might never see the light of day. I’ve always had somewhat conflicting views on the value of Kickstarters, so it’s rare for me to go and back one, but when I saw the artwork teases posted on the site, I felt it was my artistic duty to show support for what appeared to be a genuinely promising-looking project. I’m happy to report that on the receipt of the physical first two issues, I’m really glad I did.

Firstly, it’s a rather beautifully printed book on some quality paper stock that has the added bonus of also smelling really nice.( yes I am the kind of person that sniffs paper stocks in art shops and strokes the textures of drawing papers and art boards if you must know !!! )  As well as the 24 pages of full colour artwork per issue, there are additional pages featuring quotations, lists of films and music playlists compiled by Hroge and mysterious design collaborator Esther, that act as almost supplementary indicators of influences and mood, and pull the whole thing into a very simple yet sophisticated overall design package, which suggest some serious proper thought has gone into creating a whole world for the reader to enter. It’s the small details like this that impress me; in its modest way it’s similar thinking to how each issue of the original Watchmen was a conceptual piece in its own right while being part of a bigger whole. Or the way Vaughn Oliver might design an album for 4AD say.  Congrats to whoever Esther is, but she deserves kudos for her collaboration here.

Anyway, what about the actual comic-strip content ?

The first two issues introduce a lot of characters and locations. There’s a man in a stetson sat waiting for a motorbike courier to arrive in an exotic location who may or may not be our reliable narrator or veteran covert spook operative. There are a group of French detetives/police/ covert undercover operatives in the palais de justice, a bunch of twatty twentysomethings hiking in the middle of Scotland that come across a remote pub called The Broken Cormorant., some young women beachcombing and a couple of dodgy geezers robbing some reasonably well-off yuppie thirtysomething. Then there are some dodgy blokes in a curry house plotting something and talking bollocks that may be in for a surprise when their taxi turns up and a young woman pouring through a bookshop for hidden messages. And who is taking dubious snaps of a young woman on the hospital bed at the end of issue 2  ?  Don’t ask me, but I’m definitely intrigued already.

While I’m getting my head around just who everyone is and who fits where with what, I love the writing in this, alluding to the current climate of hysterical insanity and underhand conspiracy spook hauntology we find ourselves in, while referencing historical narrative leylines if you like, but having its own poetic tone and vocabulary that seemingly stream of consciousness crosscuts and cuts-up- the parallel visual narrative. As with all genuinely great work, what you have is a fully realised vision of a world which , as a viewer and reader you want to fully inhabit, are pulled into and want to know. Both the writing and art are creating a tension, threat and mystery, causing us to wonder at where these seemingly disparate characters are headed, and how they are linked if at all, and by what. On occasion it felt to me like it had an echo of the opening of the brilliant Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective – you’re aware of a sense of uncertainty and unease, an undercurrent of darkness you feel drawn into.

These moods and tensions are ably aided and abetted by the art in the book, a significant part of that due to the thoughtful and considered colour palette that complement these narrative tonal shifts. As to the actual comic-strip technicalities on display here,  let me firstly state this . I’m someone who rarely has time for a lot of the reductive, poorly observed  and badly-drawn visually empty nonsense that passes for comic strip artwork these days. There are still a few out there whose work suggests all is not lost. I can assure you Hroge’s drawing here can be more than added to those quality few. It was a pleasure to find a whole comic resplendent with beautifully rendered, observed and considered drawing, perfectly realised and imagined consistently throughout, and having an understanding of how to move a story graphically along in comic-strip narrative language and form, utilising well paced and ,pleasingly constructed layouts and neatly visualised panel compositions.Initially Hroge’s work reminded me of classic British artists like Arthur Ranson and John Ridgeway, beautiful drawers and immaculate renderers, yet he’s definitely his own man, who’s certainly made his own mark with the content here. It’s rare for me these days to find a comic I’m drawn to by the sheer quality of the drawing alone, but this one’s got it. 

The Cancel Haus is both an aspiring and auspicious debut which, in an intelligent, reasoned and nuanced cultural and critical landscape would be being rightfully lauded as a major new work by a major new artist. Personally, I’m not entirely sure that’s where we are right now, but I really hope people out there recognise just what’s being done here. It’s an incredibly striking and commendable achievement thus far. I look forward to what comes next.

If you’d like to know more,including how to get your own copies, please go to  www.thecancelhaus.co.uk

Paul Ashley Braunhaus

text (c)2024 Paul Ashley Brown