I know we all love hearing about more comics even after every game, developer and developer's cat has their own comicbook on the way. This one has nothing to do with video games at all. Shocking, I know. I picked up an Amazon Prime membership about a month ago in the interest of prolifically but responsibly expanding my meager collection of comics without buying a stack of trades at a time and not really reading them. Ah, comics, I heart thee so. Much like games, they can range from dumb fun to a very impressive presentation of story. They allow for many different styles, effects and even controlling the pace of the reader/player. I've been intermittently working on blogs about why I love Nextwave and Marvel Adventures: Avengers, and I've already somewhat obtusely told you why Shakara: The Avenger kicks ass (and is in fact pure ass-kicking pressed into a book by design; just check the banner and consider that I didn't even use the panel with cyborg dinosaur space-commandos). More recently, I took a chance and ordered a book based only on the sparse mention scattered across the internet and the sweet cover image. The Marquis: Danse Macabre, written and drawn by Guy Davis was worth it. Judging a book by its cover? A-OK.



If you're familiar with BPRD comics, you may already have read some of Davis's work. I was, though I didn't realize it having really only thumbed through a couple issues of The Universal Machine. If you aren't familiar with his previous work, there's nothing to worry about because The Marquis is wholly isolated and finite series. For the record, I like that. I will never, ever end up having all the trades and individual issues needed to collect longer running series like Spider-Man or what have you, so I won't really get to read them. Danse Macabre is the first of five books (the first four telling the story of The Marquis and the fifth being a prequel book for the setting). Each will be an individual story and the others won't be required and stand alone.

The art (for the most part) is black and white. The very conservative use of dark shading in characters and scenery and nearly solid black of The Marquis very effectively portrayed as the ominous, looming figure he is perceived as in the story. It's hard as hell to find a decent page scan online, especially one that I like, and the book is too thick to scan well myself. Lame. Here's a panel though. It's definitely Guy Davis's style and gives an ok look at the shading I was talking about, it's just a boring one.



The plot isn't groundbreaking, but it is enjoyable. Vol de Galle, former inquisitor fights devils hidden amongst us with a sword and some very impressive looking turret pistols—there are monsters and they are bad. I liked it and the way it handled a supernatural/religious horror feel. It was familiar enough that I didn't feel entirely fish out of water, especially after a particular Guy Davis BPRD story, but it still felt fresh. I really have trouble talking about the quality of a plot without mentioning the thing I liked about it and dropping spoilers in an entirely casual manner so I won't say more. The dialog, for a story set in 18th century France, is colorful without being too overdone. You won't get any Thor-style “say thee nay”s, but the fearful mention of “de Marquis” makes the otherwise simple title feel like a solid name for the character.



The book is available on Amazon right now, but if you can hold out (You mean on buying this thing we've never heard of or didn't care about when we found it ourselves, Trev? Sounds hard.) until September you'll be able to get it and the apparently completely out of print Intermezzo in a single book, with an expanded sketchbook and a cover gallery for each issue including all original covers, variant guest covers and the covers from the French versions (damn!). For anyone that finds themselves interested, the next book, The Marquis and the Midwife, is due out sometime next year.