The Strange Tale of Oscar Zahn by Tri Vuong
I read a few episodes of this on webtoons a couple of years ago. Not getting webtoons and webcomics at the time ( my brain has finally got around to it now, especially since using verticals on global comix) I never really returned even though I enjoyed it.
An Awesome Comics podcast slack group member posted a collected book of the first 65 tales. I had no idea Webtoons had published this and it sparked my interest again. So, I promptly purchased it off eBay.
Oscar Zahn is a supernatural detective with a floating skull for a head. He has a mysterious backstory and is also possessed by a glowing Cthulu-type creature that he manages to keep under control most of the time. The first story is an introduction to Oscar and his work. It is a short ghost story about a haunted house: the next story, The Lost Soldier of the Somme is the sad tale of a World War 1 soldier trying to find his way home, not realising he is dead. Evil spirits are wandering and he stumbles across Oscar trying to defeat them. The second tale, Stardust and Soliloquies is about Oscar and his old friend Edmund, who has been on many adventures with him. They go on a quest with the 3 Hydronaughts, steampunk deep sea diver characters, and spirits contained in the suits. They travel between dimensions on a modified tug boat. They are traveling to seal a whole in a rift in a dimension when things go awry
Considering this was a Webtoons comic first, the publishers have done a great job at the design and layout. Plus the colours are great ( digital colours always pop more, I think) not losing anything from the original webcomic. The storytelling is fantastic and the artwork is beautiful. It has a very Mignola Hellboy feel, by way of Herges Tin Tin.
He did 100 episodes in the end, check it out here but has not created anything new with the character since 2019. The print version has been long in the making, this is from the artist’s Instagram:
The cat’s finally out of the bag, and I can officially announce that “The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn” will be coming out as a series of graphic novels from the fine folks at Ten Speed Graphic!
This moment has been a LONG time coming. While “The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn” began as a webcomic and found an amazing audience on Line Webtoon, it was always meant to be read as a book.
Now, with the help of Ten Speed Graphic, I can finally bring you an expanded version of Oscar’s adventures. The comic has been rewritten and re-edited for print, with extra art and story, and even an all-new epilogue. No stone was left unturned for this book. Volume One will be a 240-page book collecting Oscar’s first four adventures: “Lost and Found”, “The Last Soldier of The Somme”, “Stardust and Soliloquies”, and “Doppelgänger”, and will be out on September 10, 2024.
Tri Vuong is a Canadian artist who works with Lego and sky bound and Oscar Zahn is his creator-owned project. Check out his Instagram to see more of his work.
If you are a fan of Mignola’s work and Hellboy, I think this will be perfect for you. I’m a big Hellboy Universe fan myself and I enjoyed this. It is full of atmosphere, a great mix of Steampunk and fantasy, with creepy gothic other-world horror of Lovecraft and a heavy dose of action and adventure. You can grab a paperback copy from Amazon or the more impressive hardback from Waterstones
