Review - The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney #1

It's Victorian London. You're an aspiring female columnist seeking to write a meaningful story. Your editor decides to throw you to the wolves and have you interview an accused mass murderer. Sounds like fun right?

The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney #1 is written by David Doub, illustrated by Sarah Elkins and colored by Danielle Alexis St. Pierre with letters by Joamette Gil. Tony Parker and Charles Hobert provide covers, while Kyle Lawler provides additional illustrations.

Miss Henrietta Tilney is tasked with interviewing Lord Beowulf Harwood, a man being detained for his supposed streak of murders. Henrietta goes in skeptical, but leaves partially convinced that he was setup and black magic was involved.

She helps Harwood and his associate Dr. Plum escape, hoping the assistance of the duo will help her get to the bottom of what actually happened. By the end of the first issue, Henrietta finds her investigation take a turn she didn't expect.

Doub does a good job with Henrietta, making her confident and ready for whatever she's tasked with. There's a intriguing, burgeoning detective story unfolding and could be pretty awesome if done right.

If there's one complaint about the issue, it would have to be with the pacing. There are some rather jarring scene shifts peppered throughout the book. At some points, it was a little unclear how the characters got where they were and what exactly happened in the meantime.

It doesn't completely take away from the issue, but it is a little distracting at times and breaks up the flow of the comic. There are also some pages that seem to unfold very quickly and some that take a lot longer to unfold, again affecting the pacing of the issue.

Elkins' art is a little cartoony, with more attention paid to the characters as opposed to the backgrounds. In fact, in may panels there really isn't background shown at all, which sort of conveys this incompleteness in the art. The art isn't incomplete, but it sort of feels like it.

The first issue is a promising but slightly uneven start to the three issue miniseries. It's got potential to have a strong female character investigating a man with a reputation for hunting humans for sport, which will lead to some interesting dynamics.


The Trials and Tribulations of Miss Tilney #1 is available now.