Hell to Pay: A Tale of the Shrouded College
Charles Soule, writer; Will Sliney, artist; Rachelle Rosenberg, colorist; Chris Crank, letterer
Image Comics, 2023

The protagonists are Maia and Sebastian Stone, a married couple. After suffering catastrophic injuries, they have entered into a deal with the mysterious Shrouded College. In exchange for healing and magic abilities, the Stones must locate 666 cursed coins brought up from hell centuries ago, each of which can buy the services of a demon. Every time the coins have been used, they have created a major change in human history: the great tulip speculative collapse in the 1600s, the first pyramid investment scheme, and so on.  Hell loves money, and it especially loves coming up with fraudulent schemes to obtain it.

The Stones find that final cursed coin, but in the process, they find another as well. This changes their contract: it is not enough just to find the original cursed coins. They must also discover the source of the new ones. Their investigation leads them to another player, one with a long history of boom and bust which leads him to a bold plan to pay the Devil himself to eliminate capitalism and money from the world. His plan requires a massive number of cursed coins, which basically causes him to trade human souls for them.

The couple manages to find him (partly due to the help of Alexander the Great, who escaped from Hell with the coins and is a prisoner of the Shrouded College). But in the ensuing battle Sebastian is captured, Maia comes to rescue him with a load of stolen cursed coins, and the deal with the devil goes seriously south. The Stones are freed from their contract, but they still need the College’s help, and the story ends with a new assignment.

This is an effective supernatural thriller, with plenty of action and strong superhero-like visuals from the art team. It does a good job setting up the Shrouded College series. Who knows where it might go from here?

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The Mysteries
Bill Watterson, story; John Kascht & Bill Watterson, pictures
Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2023

Bill Watterson is the creator of the beloved comic strip Calvin and Hobbes; Johan Kascht is a renowned caricaturist. So, this little fable for adults was bound to attract attention. The story is about the Mysteries, who live in the forest and are shrouded in mist. People are afraid of them: they are reputed to possess bizarre and terrifying powers. Finally, the King summoned his Knights and ordered them to capture a Mystery. After years of searching a Knight captured a Mystery.

But the great unveiling of the Mystery was unexpected: it looked surprisingly ordinary. And over time each new Mystery they discovered was even less impressive. Gradually the people stopped fearing the Mysteries. They spread over the land after cutting down the forest. After many strange occurrences people grew alarmed. But centuries passed, eons passed. The universe continued as usual, and the Mysteries lived happily ever after.

The Mysteries are never explained, which is their nature. Maybe that is the whole point of the story. The illustrations are atmospheric black and white, effective but unlike Watterson’s previous work.