Comic Review: Five Ghosts #6

Five Ghosts follows Fabian Gray, infamous thief and treasure hunter. As part of an incident with an item known as the “Dreamstone”, Fabian is now “haunted” by five literary ghosts: The Archer, The Detective, The Vampire, The Wizard, and The Samurai. Borrowing their powers, he steals the unstealable, but he still can’t get back the thing he most wants. Writer Frank Barbiere teams with fill-in artist Garry Brown taking Fabian on a one-shot adventure to Japan after a famed sword.

Fabian Gray journeys to Japan after receiving a letter from childhood friend/love interest Hisano. Upon arriving, Fabian learns that the legendary blade Masamune may be more than legend and it’s resting on land that Hisano’s family own, land that is being stolen by an unnatural rival clan. When Fabian finally gets to the bottom of things, it’s apparent that all is not as it seems and that there are many more Dreamstones than his.

Frank Barbiere writes a perfect one-shot. The story is self-contained and required no previous knowledge of the book and delivered an entire story in its own pages. It’s nice to see more of Fabian’s past revealed and it’s also interesting to see Barbiere expand upon the inworld mythos and further build the world of Five Ghosts. 

Garry Brown does much more than a typical “fill-in” issue, as it seems like this issue was written with him in mind. Even while putting his own mark on Fabian Gray and his world, Brown manages to keep the same general aesthetic as regular series artist Chris Mooneyham. The colors provided by Lauren Affe really help to take the art and entire book to the next level of quality.

This is how one-shots should be. A self-contained story that is well executed with fantastic art, writing, and colors. For those that haven’t, this is a great way to jump on Five Ghosts, and for those that are already fans, this is an issue you don’t want to miss.

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