Shadowgirls Comic Book Review
Posted on August 29, 2008 by Flames
By David A. Rodriguez and Dave Reynolds
To be honest, I’m not really a comic book fan. There are only a couple select comics I’ve ever gotten into. This comic was pitched to me by David as Gilmore Girls meets Call of Cthulhu. He was selling 3 of the comics, issues 1,2 and 5, and an accompanying activity and coloring book for $15. His hook was great, and he grabbed me with the coloring and activity book.
Overall the art is really fitting for the story. It is more aimed for a more mature audience, so the artwork is on the revealing side. It is a cross between the classic American superhero art style and hints of anime thrown in. It is dark and trashy, and utterly fitting.
The story starts off with the birth of the main character, named Rebecca. Her mother, Charon, had been found wandering the desert after going missing for some time. She was already several months pregnant, and the father is unknown. The relationship between Charon, and her long time friend Jack is one that is both obvious as well as strange. Human emotion is abundant more and more as the story flashes forward to the present, when the hidden nature of the mother and daughter are revealed in a bloody, violent, and fitting way.
The aspect of surprise and confusion, on the other hand, at their supernatural changes remains hidden though. Neither knows what is going on with them, but they react as if it is either second nature, or whether they chose to keep their confusion hidden, given the circumstances. Overall developmentally I think that is the weakest aspect to the storyline.
They just accept that they change into buff, supernatural women.
In retrospect the strongest point of this comic is how you get a great sense of who each character is almost immediately. Both the writing and the visual aspect of the comic support this, making it very easy to establish character roles extremely early in the book.
There is a lot of action surrounding the women, both from their enemies, as well as from the people who choose to interact with them. And not every interaction is pleasant in the least. Both girls are rather controversial around their town for their history and actions. Fighting, cheating, and guilt by association surround our heroines. Plenty of drama and fights occur to keep us engaged, and the resolutions to the conflicts never end up exactly as you want them to end, which adds to the dynamic of the characters.
Future issues of this comic have a lot of ground to cover in explanations and flashbacks, but I think that it is moving at a good pace right now. I look forward to seeing the history of these characters deepen, and have them fit more into their destined states.
I would highly recommend these comics if you are looking for adult themed comic books, engaging stories, and an awesome ending sequence featuring chibbi versions of the characters; this is definitely the comics for you. They do offer online versions of the comics as well, which is wonderful for on-the-go reading. So yes, if you are into comic books this is definitely one that should be on your list of what to get! Now if you will excuse me, I have some puzzles to finish and characters to color in.
Review by Crystal Mazur
Tags | horror comics
Hmm, Gilmore Girls meets Cthulhu would sell me too, will look out for them. 🙂