Crossing ghosts with trains makes perfect sense for a murder mystery. Just listen for a train whistle blowing in the wee small hours of the morning. That’s the cry of a banshee. If comics writer Enrica Jang is to be believed — and I believe it — sooner than later, every train conductor experiences killing someone on the tracks. It simply takes too long to stop a train to avoid tragedy.
In Crossing, Jang’s collaboration with artist Alex Cormack, that’s not the mystery. Rookie conductor M.C. can’t avoid running over the dazed goth girl in the middle of the tracks. He may have known the statistics, but not the aftermath. What no one talks about in preparing for this profession is that those who die on the tracks become tethered to the conductors who drove the fatal trains. Now Nina haunts M.C., insisting that she did not commit suicide. Someone caused her to be there, and made sure she wouldn’t step out of the way.
Sure, M.C. will believe he’s not hallucinating the young woman’s spirit, but he’s skeptical when she says it was a murder. When he goes to a support group for conductors who have had the same experience, he discovers that they all have ghosts, and they can all see each other’s ghosts, too. Each one has an issue keeping them from crossing over, waiting for their living “host” to find ways to connect.
It’s a simple but deep set of rules that Jang has constructed for the phantoms. The emotional complexity helps drive the book along when the mystery takes brief pauses. In the first issue, Cormack’s art has a roughness to it that grows into the pathos. M.C. and Nina start at odds. With every beat they get closer, the art smooths out a bit. There Cormack reveals a knack for quiet moments. When catching up on a comic that has been crowdfunded issue by issue, it’s great to see the artist evolve over a few years. Each issue grows more assured.
Jang has a handle on where she’s going from the start. Before we meet either Nina or M.C., a quick sequence hints at a bigger picture. It’s a story that could have easily been rushed. Instead, Jang takes her time to flesh out the ghosts and their hosts. The only real distraction — admittedly necessary to keep the series going — is a late in the game sidestep to establish the second arc. It’s not so much awkward as in the way of spending time with characters we’ve come to love.
Where can you find Crossing? The individual issues are available at Red Stylo Media, with Jang promising that a trade collection will be coming soon. That will also have some bonus material that further illuminates the ghosts. It will likely also include the fan art that has run in the back of each issue. At this point, I’m not sure which format would be better; pausing between issues actually built up the need to read the next chapter. Either way, the book is a pleasure, and I look forward to the second arc.
