STITCHES: THE UNDERTAKING PULLS TOGETHER TWO GENRES WITH EASE
Ghouls! Zombies! Mystery! Noir! Stitches: The Undertaking, story by Travis Duda & Dan Lee with art & letters by Shawn Daley, is one of those rare comics that comes from out of nowhere, with a concept I’ve never seen before. So before we proceed let’s get the concept out of the way.
Edward Ables is living a quiet, happy life as the owner and director of a funeral home. Of course his past harbors one heck of a secret. His “insatiable hunger for human entrails” might have been a hindrance in the past but his current career choice is a perfect fit. Things don’t stay rosy forever though and now with his food source becoming tainted he needs to get to the bottom of the situation or who knows when he’ll see his next decent meal.
Ed is that type of character we all root for, he’s flawed (he is a ghoul after all) but you get the feeling that, at least recently, he’s been a live and let live type. Of course years of needing to feed have equipped Ed with a certain set of skills and he does seem to relish the idea of being back in the hunt. Couple those skills with some interesting super-natural abilities and you’ve got a fun, well-paced story that takes a forty’s detective vibe couples it with the macabre and brings it all right into the modern age.
