Comics
Review: “Beautiful Darkness”
Drawn and Quarterly’s “Beautiful Darkness” carries itself with a certain innocent whimsy that makes all of the savagery within its pages a harsh experience that cannot be missed. It’s an experiment in horror. A twist on the concept of bleak survival but offered to the reader in the most storybook of fashions. It will leave you scarred and amused. I guarantee you’ve never experienced anything quite like it. Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoët will change the way you look at fairytales and horror forever.
WRITTEN BY: Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoët
ART BY: Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoët
PUBLISHER: Drawn and Quarterly
PRICE: $22.95
RELEASE: February 25, 2013
A book like this doesn’t come around very often. You can read it numerous times, and with each successive read you’ll discover new ways to be repulsed by the human spirit.
The story follows Aurora. She’s the makeshift leader of a cavalcade of little joyous beings. Her group must evacuate their home into the volatile environment of the forest floor. These tiny creatures were actually inside the head of a little girl who now lies dead in the grass. The mini characters don’t see death. They just see a series of challenges and a wild new world to explore.
Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoët paint the body of the dead girl in haunting detail. You’ll be baffled as you watch young Aurora and her wee pals pile from the dead body as if nothing has happened. It’s almost charming. Every challenge of survival is met with rosy optimism and naivety. This feeling never goes away. Even when the book begins to deal with incredibly dark concepts, the charm of idealism never fades.
Which is the book’s greatest strength and horror. These fairytale creatures are capable of unspeakable evil. They carry out murders with the help of song or take up residence in the hollowed out skull of the long deceased little girl. It’s all communicated with a casual optimism that makes it all the more chilling.
The art compliments the tone. With beautifully painted watercolor panels that never shy away from even the most ghastly details. There is a haunting beauty that is created which becomes impossible to resist. Everything that your looking at is beautiful, but everything you are experiencing is downright horrendous.
As these joyous creatures spend more time in the outside world they are corrupted into monsters. They turn on each other with smiles, and become jaded at the drop of a hat. Despite all of this Aurora tries to escape it all. She tries to rise above, and does her best to remove herself from the darkness. Yet, the darkness consumes everything.
Fabien Vehlmann & Kerascoët have achieved something with “Beautiful Darkness” that I’ve never experienced before. They have created a truly melancholic horror book that offers something beautiful. For all intents and purposes this book pleases the eyes and disheartens the soul. It’s an odd reading exercise that you won’t soon forget, and its joyfully dejected tone doesn’t make much sense. Yet, the entire thing works gracefully like a dance with death. I’ve read it twice now, and I fear what a third reading will do to my psyche.
Rating: 4.5/5 Skulls.
Comics
‘Witchblade’ is Getting Resurrected This Summer in New Comic Series from Top Cow and Image Comics
Witchblade, the popular comic series that initially ran from 1995 to 2015 and launched a TV series, is getting resurrected in a new comic series from Top Cow and Image Comics. It’s set to unleash heavy metal, black magic and blood this summer.
Look for the new Witchblade series to launch on July 17, 2024.
In Witchblade #1, “New York City Police Detective Sara Pezzini’s life was forever fractured by her father’s murder. Cold, cunning, and hellbent on revenge, Sara now stalks a vicious criminal cabal beneath the city, where an ancient power collides and transforms her into something wild, magnificent, and beyond her darkest imaginings. How will Sara use this ancient power, or will she be consumed by it?”
The series is penned by NYT Best-Selling writer Marguerite Bennett (Animosity, Batwoman, DC Bombshells) and visualized by artist Giuseppe Cafaro (Suicide Squad, Power Rangers, Red Sonja). The creative duo is working with original co-creator Marc Silvestri, who is the CEO of Top Cow Productions Inc. and one of the founders of Image Comics. They are set to reintroduce the series to Witchblade’s enduring fans with “a reimagined origin with contemporary takes on familiar characters and new story arcs that will hook new readers and rekindle the energy and excitement that fueled the 90’s Image Revolution that shaped generations of top creators.”
Bennett said in a statement, “The ability to tell a ferocious story full of monsters, sexuality, vision, and history was irresistible.” She adds, “Our saga is sleek, vicious, ferocious, and has a lot to say about power in the 21st century and will be the first time that we are stopping the roller coaster to let more people on. I’ve loved Witchblade since I was a child, and there is truly no other heroine like Sara with such an iconic legacy and such a rich, brutal relationship to her own body.”
“The Witchblade universe is being modernized to reflect how Marguerite beautifully explores the extreme sides of Sara through memories, her personal thoughts, like desire and hunger, in her solitude and when she is possessed by the Witchblade. So, I had to visually intersect a noir True Detective-like world with a supernatural, horror world that is a fantastic mix between Berserk and Zodiac,” Cafaro stated.
Marc Silvestri notes, “This is brand new mythology around Sara, and I can’t wait for you to fall in love with her and all the twists and turns. Discover Witchblade reimagined this summer, and join us as we bring all the fun of the 90s to the modern age and see how exciting comics can be. I can’t wait for you to read this new series.”
Witchblade#1 will be available at comic book shops on Wednesday, July 17th, for $4.99 for 48 pages. And it’ll come with multiple cover variants.
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Cover A: Marc Silvestri and Arif Prianto (Full Color)
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Cover B: Giuseppe Cafaro and Arif Prianto (Full Color)
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Cover C: Blank Sketch Cover
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Cover D (1/10): Dani and Brad Simpson (Full Color)
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Cover E (1/25): Marc Silvestri and Arif Prianto, Virgin Cover (Full Color)
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Cover F (1/50): J.Scott Campbell (Full Color)
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Cover G (1/100): Bill Sienkiewicz. (Full Color)
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Cover H (1/250): Line art by Marc. Virgin Cover, Inks (B/W)
Witchblade #1 will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
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