Purely by coincidence, today's comic is written by David Quinn who, along with yesterday's artist Tim Vigil, created Faust, one of the most notorious of the brutally violent comics to come out in the late 80s and early 90s. I can see the links. Vigil's art is blood-spattered, and Quinn's writing is pushing at that bottom of Goth-y darkness, forcing it deeper. The story itself is a bit confusing, for in media res reasons, but it seems to be a vampire hunting story. Sort of. Hannibal King's art is good, though is a bit clean for my liking, especially considering the subject matter of the story. There's a back-up story, with no artist mentioned, that's a dingier take on the setting and characters, and that, for me, fits the tone of the tale more properly.
Goth comics are interesting. They seem to skew in a couple of very definite directions. They're either the vampire-celebratory gore-fests, like Faust, or anything from Full Bleed Studios, or they're the very dark comedies that we see in something like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac or (After)Life in Gothland. The only series I can think of that straddles the two, though with decidedly less gore, is Gloomcookie, that gives us some vampiric monsters, some satire, and a nice healthy dose of gothy love. That mixture is probably why, of all the Goth comics I've read, Gloomcookie's my favourite. Guess I should probably get back to my weekly graphic novels so I can actually read that series again.
Onward!
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