Comic Book Review: Holmes: The Bento Cases by various creators
Bento Comics was an artist collective that allowed fans to select stories from their members to put together in bespoke anthologies. At conventions, they’d sell themed volumes to demonstrate the concept; I reviewed their Peter Pan anthology some years back. This collection is on the general theme of Sherlock Holmes.
The volume opens with “The Nun in the Bar” by Queenie Chan, which sees a nun, Sister Holmes, drinking warm goat’s milk in a dive bar in Whitechapel. A man is mugged in the fog for his valuable coin, and the nun uses her observational skills to solve the case. It turns out her presence was no coincidence, God’s work needed to be done.
The final story is “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Left Sock” by Leisl Adams. The great detective’s stocking from his favorite pair has vanished, and there’s a shocking culprit. This one’s for the shippers.
A couple of favorites: “7%” by Myung Hee Kim Wiggins, now a detective in his own right, returns to his aged mentor for assistance on one last case. It is said that Mr. Holmes’ mind is gone, but perhaps there is yet a spark.
“The Adventures of Sherman ‘Holmes'” by Dan Hess is about third-graders investigating why so many students are being transferred out of their class. Sherman Stein is obsessed with being a detective, so calls himself “Holmes”, much to the disgust of his classmate and unwilling sidekick, Miko Watson. But it turns out there’s actual evil afoot.
My least favorite story was “The Kamikaze Couple” by Dennis Lo. It’s about a married couple of spies tracking down a missing flash drive, with the excuse for the theme inclusion being that the operation has been randomly assigned the codename “Sherlock Holmes.” The attempts at comedy are shambolic.
Overall, this is a fun collection, but may be difficult to track down–hopefully the good bits will be reprinted in other books from the creators. Have fun hunting!
