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Wednesday, 11 April 2007 |
 | | ▪ | PUBLISHED BY: | | TOKYOPOP | | | ▪ | ART/AUTHOR: | | DREW RAUSCH / FRANK MARRAFFINO | | | | ▪ | FORMAT/COLOR: | | WESTERN FORMAT / BW | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 175 | | | ▪ | RATED: | | OT+ | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 04/10/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 04/12/2007 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
The Dark Goodbye is a unique addition to our choice of manga inspired reading material. It’s an OEL (Original English Language) piece that reads left to right in North American fashion, but it’s still got all sorts of manga inspired indications that will help it appeal to the same audiences as authentic Japanese manga. The Dark Goodbye fuses that old “film noir” feel with a very twisted sense of humour. It’s much like and old-time crime drama, but with every aspect of dark, gothic, mutated weirdness that you could possibly cram into one book. Fans of “Lenore the Little Dead Girl,” or any other of those Roman Dirge type creations, will likely fall in love with what The Dark Goodbye has to offer such readers.
The art has this strange, but unique sense of decay. Everything and everyone in the book seems to be either melting away, or in a very bad level of health. Character’s faces and bodies seem to contort, sway, and phase in and out of themselves from page to page – it certainly has a very eye catching nightmarish quality to it. Everything about the drawing style is dark and creepy to the max, taking full advantage of the horror genre it tends to fall under. The art and presentation in this book also has this strangely enjoyable way of being almost non-proficient in its execution, and yet this is a good thing! It’s like what makes punk music or an old B-Movie such a riot – it’s not perfect and doesn’t have to try to be. This is a very cool move in relation to art style – very different. It’s also chock full of monsters, demonic manifestations, and things we wouldn’t even presume to understand. The story has just as many twists and turns as the mystery and plot of evil unfold. The plot is complex and the characters well intertwined – it really gives the reader a run for their money in relation to figuring out who’s responsible for what before the book tells you itself.
This first volume presents our hero (or anti-hero) detective and the case he’s been handed to crack. Hired to locate a missing girl, detective Max “Mutt” Mason discovers deeper malignant forces at work. Femmes fatale soon give way to strange creatures older than all of humanity, each bent on remaking the world as we know it and turning it into their own. Mason is going to need some answers before he can even start to think about solving the lesser part of this case. But the solution to this mystery may go beyond mere greed and betrayal – leading Max to the brink of horrifying realms which no one was ever supposed to see with their own eyes. The uber-weird details and often humorous background “goings on” will entertain you all the way through. The Dark Goodbye is yet another new book that is actually quite unique in its qualities – always a plus. You’ll likely want to read it twice to catch anything you missed the first way through – giving it an appeal of replay value right off the bat.
IN SUMMARY:
This book is a great addition to the gothic/humour based creations that are becoming so popular in independent comics and the like. It’s funny, twisted, has uniquely detailed art, and sports a multi-leveled plotline of complexities. |
