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By Dave Howlett — from Atlantic Books Today #98, fall 2023

The back cover to Doors, the second collection of comics by Cape Breton, N.S., native Angus MacLeod, invokes Aldous Huxley’s quote from his book, The Doors of Perception: “There are things known … and things unknown … and in between them are the Doors.” 

Doors between this world and unknown realms beyond are featured in many of the stories in MacLeod’s latest offering, but the stories themselves could be considered doors of a sort as well — gateways to earlier eras and lifetimes, as well as storytelling traditions that recall not only various myths and legends, but comic book storytelling from previous eras as well. MacLeod explains, “I find the old Gaelic stories have a lot of concepts that lend themselves to stories and it’s a largely unused resource. I’m sure reading Poe, Lovecraft (My “Joe the Fisherman” story has a heavy Lovecraft bent), and Robert E. Howard has had a big influence, along with the many comics I’ve read.” 

MacLeod, who also teaches Gaelic online through the website Explore Gaelic, explores Norse mythology in stories like “Between-Time” and “Combat,” both of which feature the warrior maidens known as Valkyries bearing fallen mortals to the afterlife of Valhalla. The format of these stories — short tales which usually involve eldritch magic, lonely spirits, and extradimensional visitors, often with a romantic or macabre twist (sometimes both at once) — recalls the black and white horror/fantasy magazines released by publishers like Warren in the 1970s, or even the EC Comics of the 1950s. But MacLeod insists the similarity is purely coincidental. “I didn’t intentionally set out to produce something with a ’50s, E.C. vibe; I just like doing short stories!” 

The influence of an artist like Bernie Wrightson and his legendary DC Comics Swamp Thing series can be seen in a story like “Bog Beast” — not just in terms of its muck-monster protagonist, but also in MacLeod’s elegant brushwork. The author, however, is quick to acknowledge a wider variety of influences. “Wrightson definitely influenced me. Also a lesser known but equally brilliant artist from Gananoque named Gene Day. He drew Master of Kung Fu for Marvel Comics. Lesser but important influences would be Wallace Wood, Gene Colan and even a bit of Neal Adams. For the writing I’d have to say Swamp Thing, The Sandman, and V for Vendetta, along with too many others to name.” 

Doors to the past are clearly ones that MacLeod loves to pass through; few of the stories in Doors feature a modern setting, and the ones that do are still haunted by the past. Both “The Man In The Shop” and “The Hag’s House” feature present-day characters who encounter visitors from earlier eras. Readers are unlikely to see smartphones or tablets or any mention of social media, but that’s part of the appeal of MacLeod’s work. His “doors” offer an escape from the anxieties of the modern world, even if his protagonists are instead plagued by the anxieties of the past. These doors are far more likely to open on a lush forest, a besieged castle, or the deck of a storm-tossed ship, rather than an urban centre or a modern office tower. 

However, according to MacLeod, this emphasis on stories set in the natural world, and his seeming rejection of modernity, is largely dictated by the subject matter. “The choice to use natural locales for the stories was largely dependent on the stories themselves but, since I’ve always lived rurally, I’m sure that has an influence too. I guess I do tend toward more rural settings, but I also do some stories within cities. I find rural settings more interesting to draw. Too many straight lines in cities!” 

Perhaps appropriately, MacLeod still works with traditional materials like brushes and pens to create his comics, rather than relying on tools such as Photoshop. This lends MacLeod’s art a handmade quality that digitally-created comics can never quite replicate. Doors leads readers to many places and situations that are fantastical, romantic, and occasionally even horrifying, but ultimately, it’s less these doors and what they open on, and more the ordinary folks who inhabit these thresholds, that are of interest to MacLeod. 

“I find myself drawn to stories of fantasy/horror, but with a focus on the people in the stories rather than the fantasy/horror aspect,” he explains. “The people have to be interesting. My stories take the direction the characters and circumstances seem to me to dictate, and don’t follow usual story-telling patterns.” 

In other words, MacLeod merely makes his characters aware of these doors. It’s up to the characters themselves — and the readers — to pass through them to wherever they might lead.