Things ramp up a bit in this issue of The Clockmaker, though I'm not entirely certain how it's all going to wrap up in the next issue. I know the second act of the series was published as a graphic novel, so I'm hoping for some kind of ending to the first act in tomorrow's issue. But here's the thing...I'm not entirely certain what there is to wrap up. Yes, there are mysteries surrounding the deaths of Astrid's father and brother at the beginning of the series, and around Herbert, the man who lives in the pendulum, but these mysteries have been only very, very slightly hinted at. The majority of the series so far has been Astrid whining about being forced into the life of a clockworker, and Hans telling her what a stupid little girl she is. Again, much as I enjoy the over-sized format of the book in terms of what it does for the art, it does no favours for the story.
What I'm hoping for is this: that the end of tomorrow's issue will intrigue me enough to go out and track down act two. The world that Krueger has built here looks cool, but looks can only carry a comic so far. I could imagine the story of these first three issues actually being a first issue in a series, especially with the end of issue #3. But to get to the point of feeling like I've read one issue by the time I've read three issues points to a flaw. On the other hand, you have to experiment every now and again in order to understand what about a medium does and does not work. Pretty as this format is, I'm not sure it works particularly well for a serialized story.
We'll find out tomorrow if the story holds up.
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