The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney
Writer: David Doub
Art: Marchioness Sarah Elkins
Colors & Flashback Art: Danielle Alexis
Publisher: Dusk Comics
Price: $4.99 at Amazon.com & BarnesandNoble.com
The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney takes place in England’s Victorian era and follows Henrietta Tilney, a reporter for the London Post. She has received her first assignment which entails interviewing an accused mass murderer, Lord Harwood.
The series of events stemming from the jail cell meeting spirals into an escapade of mystery and fatal consequences.
There are some confusing moments involving Tilney’s character.
She is a gutsy woman who won’t let anything stop her from getting a story and is pretty likeable to boot. However, she believed Lord Harwood’s proclamation of innocence as easily as a child believes in the tooth fairy.
There was no grand epiphany or clever deduction that led to her conclusion. She also used her unexplained clout to have the accused released from jail and it just didn’t make sense for a variety of reasons.
I don’t believe this is a pattern of lazy writing but a byproduct of enthusiasm for a character with a lot of possibilities.
I do have a gripe with the ending as it produced a serious element of danger for Henrietta, but it was a cold finish. There is no “to be continued” and no, “The End”. I can’t tell if there is more, or if that is all there is to Henrietta’s story?
The artwork was enjoyable as the action scenes are fun to look at and the facial expressions are delightfully illustrated. One of the panels involving the gun wielding Hardwood shows an awesome depth of field angle that makes the action pop. Danielle Alexis’s color treatment really provided that Victorian feel with darkish and refined colors.
The book was fun, but at the same time there was this intangible thing that the book was striving for and it fell short. I would recommend this story only if there is going to be a second chapter. I believe there is more of a concrete story to tell and lots of possibilities.
