Review by Larry Stanley

Now, I have read some weird stuff over the years and a lot of it in the horror genre but Wormwood Gentleman Ghost has to be either right at the top on only a couple of notches down.
Doing some research, I have discovered that Wormwood is basically an intelligent maggot who has gotten sick of his own dimension and constantly noshing on the bodies of the dead gods so he takes off searching for a little place to call his own.
Finding earth he settles into the corpse of a dead Englishman, becomes addicted to Guinness and women.
He often finds himself saving his new universal home and the order of life as we know it because, well, the rest of the world is full of prats.
His best friends are Medusa, an immortal stripper, dancer and ex girlfriend who now manages an interdimensional gateway on earth, Mr Pendulum, a mechanical drinking buddy made from a grandfather clock and beer cans Phoebe Phoenix, who gets a new tattoo every time she kills a man. She has a bunch of tattoos now.
Now and then, ancient Sumerian gods will show up, as well as the four horsemen of the apocalypse who are happily playing video games and eating fast food so we don't have to worry about them for awhile.
Ben Templesmith has created a funny but spooky story, dealing with things that are wakening up all over the city. Things that leave mutilated bodies behind and no logical explanation for them. Owing a favor to his cop friend Trotsky (his dead cop friend Trotsky), Wormwood takes a look at the crime scenes, and it isn't long before this hard drinking, woman chasing maggot are deep up into it.
No one draws like Templesmith. Using direct strokes, he tends to put less on the page, thus drawing you attention to the central image itself. When he does a bit more detail, you can still see the genius in his work.

For instance, look at the image on page 11 of Wormwoods home. Simple drawing of a broken down mansion, but at the same time the detail, the shadowing and the sharp colors demonstrate something a lot of artists can't do.
They convey something sinister, without drooling zombies, cannibals, or hockey mask wearing killers. All of which I like, don't get me wrong. But sometimes it is nice to see an artist fall back on the mystery of Hammer films and Universal Monsters.
Now get back to work and gimme the rest of 'em.