Boom! Studios 2019
Written by Brian Azzarello
Illustrated by Maria Llovet
Lettered by AndWorld Design
Faith is drawn into a new world when she attends a party at the home of renowned artist Louis Thorn. It’s a world of opulence, excess, and sensuality—and something darker that she can’t put her finger on. There is something.....curious about these people, a darkness or shadow just at the edge of reason....and maybe it is exactly what Faith is looking for.
So last issue ended with one of the most diabolical cliffhanger endings ever! Now I have no idea what the hell is going on but I don’t care I just want to see more. Why oh why are we not picking up from last issue and why aren’t we seeing what the hell Poppy truly is again? Still the opening is perfectly distractedly weird and creepy in it’s own unique way and grabs the readers attention beautifully. I am beginning to think it isn’t Poppy who’s the one with certain gifts and instead it’s Faith herself who is capable of reaching deep within herself to unleash something she never felt she could before.
I am grasping at straws to explain what is going on here. Still that I have this undeniable and unyielding desire to figure it all out is a testament to how well Brian has already gotten me involved in this book. It is hard to turn the page here without coming across something that catches the readers’ attention so that we stop and think which inevitably takes us way off script and into our own minds and imaginations. The way that the characterisation is being done here is outta control and I like it. We see the characters develop through circumstances, interactions and how they react to what they encounter and experience. It seems everything, every moment, is something that helps define who they are and who they will be.
The way this book is structured is phenomenal as Brian uses the natural ebb & flow of Faith’s life as the catalyst for how we see things. On the whole it is like someone took Faith and put her into the world of Studio 54 if it were a private, only the cool kids know about kind of club but it’s not just a place it’s life itself that changes. The circle of people she meets and advice that’s given alongside revelations of self, all of it is exactly what she craved and wanted now it’s time to see how she deals with it.
Oh Maria, Just met a girl named Maria, And suddenly that name will never be the same, To me. The interiors really have this beautiful, charming and intoxicating way about them that suits the subject matter. It makes the mood, tone and feel so bloody dead on that as your eyes move across the page you can feel the atmosphere. I have question, now why wasn’t that three-way scene more graphic eh? I would love to have seen more like that whole show us how to suck, I wanted to see that! The whole encounter was so suggestive without showing anything really and that was a tad disappointing. That poor thing crying as that hits his eye that whole thing begged for more.
The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a solid eye for storytelling. That there are backgrounds being utilised to enhance the moments and bring us this size and scope to the story is incredibly well done. The colour work is nice, I would like to see more use of colour gradation and shading but overall it fits what we see in how the linework is representative of the story.
There are so many parts of this that are truly unexpected treats and pleasures that the excitement felt by turning the page to see what she’ll encounter next has this delicious tension to it. Boom! Struck gold with this one and it’s so on the edge between erotic and vulgar that it puts Madonna’s coffee table book to shame, don't you agree?