Beck & Caul - Super Powered Fiction

Despite this cover, neither character seems to be able to fly.

Published at the beginning of 1994, Beck & Caul Investigations seems to be a bit of an odd duck. It came from Gauntlet Comics, a short-lived subsidiary of Caliber Press that seemed to be superhero focused. Though a little more hero oriented than most Caliber titles, the comic actually still fell in to the heavy supernatural storytelling that often pervaded Caliber titles of the time. Outside of sharing artist Paul Kowalski, it was entirely different than Gauntlet’s flagship title UN Force (another book that will surely see review here some day.)

The story bounces between Mercedes “Caul” Guillane who stars in the primary investigation story, and Beck, though he doesn’t do much over the course of his few pages here.

Reginald Chaney turns in a decent but unspectacular story with “Satyrday” part one. Kowalski continues to be a decent but somewhat boring artist from his work over on UN Force. The black and white art in the book emphasizes his pencils more than the color art in the other title, which at times allows a few more inaccuracies in design to shine through.

The story is a pretty standard X-Files riff with two characters with dark pasts investigating a mystery related to a giant killer monster. Beck seems to be an immortal (a vampire maybe?) while Caul has some level of telepathic and psychokinetic ability. The book’s quick pacing and constant need to make everything mysterious gives the reader of the lone issue little to go on past the basics.

Beck & Caul appears to be Gauntlet’s longest running series, lasting a whopping six issues (even UN Force only made it to five). Alas, I have yet to find anything past this first issue so I cannot say how “Satyrday” ends or whether or not Chaney and Kowalski give you any more details about the two vague characters we meet this issue.

As it stands, there’s just enough in this comic for me to make it Mildly Recommended.