ComicSpace - Read Bulletin

Home / arhar / Bulletins / Read Bulletin

Befriend arhar

« Back

Posted by:

arhar

Date:

January 15th, 2008 9:01 AM

Header:

Gothic Romance #1 & The Faustians #1 reviewed at comicrelated.com

Bulletin:

http://www.comicrelated.com/commentary/ronfortier_080112.html

Ron Fortier Reviews

TWO FROM PENNY DREADFUL PRESS

A short review of two new, wonderful comics from the
Independent Market you should really check out.

GOTHIC ROMANCE

This is a terrific collection of three short horror pieces as written by Penny Dreadful’s own founding father, David E. Arhar and they cover a wide spectrum of themes. Memorandum is the shortest and least effective in that its ending, although grim enough, doesn’t pack enough of a dramatic punch. Cause and Effect is the longest of the three in this premier issue and a damn good story with a wonderful, ironic twist. Still, my personal favorite has to be Fool Moon which plays off classic gothic monsters in an especially fun black comedy.

The art throughout is provided by Raj Golay and he does a fine job with story-telling throughout. In all it’s a really nice package graced with an exceptionally beautiful and eerie cover that I liked a great deal. Oh, and least I forget, Arhar also includes a short preview of his other series, The Faustians. Although I wish, instead of the company cross promotion, he’d have graced us with another original yarn.

THE FAUSTIANS

The give away with this book is clearly its title, alluding to the famous character in mythology who sold his soul to the devil. The book comes together like a cross between the X-Men and the X-Files in that you’ve a gathering of gifted folks who all have occult abilities with the nether world. But no sooner do they come together then they are approached by a strange character who says he requires their help on a special mission.

Soon the Faustians find themselves on an arcane journey to hell to combat the very Prince of Evil. Jason Ho provides the art and he’s really a very skilled artist. Just the right creepiness to his pencils work extremely well with this story.

This is a terrific concept and Arhar moves it along at a good clip. Once I started reading, I didn’t want to put it down. Which is my only complaint. It does end way too soon for a first chapter of a new series. One could argue this point but for the fact that he includes at the book’s rear a story from Gothic Romance as a sort of bonus. Doing much the same cross-promotion as he did with that other title. And once again, I felt cheated. I’d have preferred those extra five pages been devoted to more of the main story.

But that’s only one flaw and I can live with it, if subsequent chapters correct it and focus solely on the Faustians. This is a grand tale and I want to know what happens next. So will you.

« Back

Befriend arhar