‘Harker: The Black Hound’ Starts Its Second Arc On Kickstarter

Since coming to Time Bomb Comics in 2019, dark comedy crime series Harker has quickly become a favorite of the British Indie comic scene. The second arc in the series will be funding on Kickstarter through November. 

‘DCI Harker is enjoying a holiday in Whitby, and the last thing he wants is to be drawn into solving a murder. So when a famous novelist is killed right in front of him, he decides he’s a suspect and relaxes on the dodgems. DS Critchley, however, needs his help, especially when another body washes in with the tide. Who is the murderer, what does it have to do with this spooky old coastal town, and how does it involve the huge dog seen on the Moors?’

Following the success of the previous story, Harker: The Book of Solomon, Time Bomb Comics and creators Vincent Danks and Roger Gibson are excited to bring this new chapter to readers. Like the previous Harker books, this graphic novel is part one of two: a full color, sixty-eight page perfect bound volume.

DCI Harker pays homage to the classic TV detectives. He has the shabby dress sense of Columbo, drives a car Morse would love, has the grumpy demeanor of Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes, possesses the quirky oddness of Monk and displays the dazzling brilliance of Sherlock Holmes. 

He’s a classic hard-boiled English copper in his late fifties: moody, antisocial and almost incapable of functioning in the modern-day police force. DS Critchley, his faithful assistant, is his foil – modern and smart with an eye for the girls, but equally strange and eccentric.

“Much of what makes Harker such a great read is because Gibson & Danks aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel or pander to perceived trends,” said Steve Tanner, Time Bomb’s Chief. “Instead, they’re concentrating on telling brilliant crime stories, using the familiar detective tropes everyone has seen time after time on the TV screen to create a thoroughly engaging and entertaining comic. The tone of it, the style of it, the absolute sheer British-ness of it – It’s a delight to be publishing it under the Time Bomb Comics banner!”

The Kickstarter launched on November 1, and can be found here. Backer rewards kick in at the £5 (just shy of seven bucks American) level for a digital copy. For £14 (about twenty bucks American), you can grab a physical copy. Book plates and digital prints come in at higher levels, and at the top levels, backers can pledge to receive original pencilled interior pages.