Dusk

I make no secret of the fact that if something is put in front of me, I will probably read it. I was asked via email to consider reading the graphic novel Dusk. I read it in PDF format, and was mostly impressed by it.

The Author/creator of this comic is David Doub. He has a good site that has lots of cool stuff on it with regard to the comic (Chapter, short story, evolution of a page, etc.) You should be able to go there and get a good feel for the comic. Here is the First Chapter, and here is where it Can be purchased online.

Dusk is a series of related stories featuring Eve, an abused spouse who is kidnapped by a Vampire, only to be subsequently saved by another vampire, and take up with him as a sort of Ward/enforcer. She is addicted to his blood, which gives her heightened abilities, but which she also seems to abuse to some degree, and she is also proficient with some sort of magic. She acts as a sort of problem solver. Sometimes being tasked to fix supernatural issues, sometimes to capture evil doers and deliver them to the proper authorities.



We get some interesting depth in this. Her ex-husband is still around. She seems to be in love with Ash, her benefactor, but he (probably because he cares for her) doesn't want her living the life she is living and certainly not living HIS life. The 4 chapters in this book are all different stories that convey bits of those elements, as well as being stories on their own.

I read it start to finish this evening, and had the following thoughts on it:
The writing is really better than average. The layout, in my opinion, is pretty brilliant in places as well. I enjoyed this comic a good bit.

There are some negatives, but I don't feel they are huge. The Art is handled by Three different people on Pencils and two different Inkers. Maki Naro does Chapters 1 & 2, Jerry Gonzales Pencils and Inks Chapter 3, and Frank Czuba pencilled Chapter 4. Chris Scott inked Chapters 1,2 & 4. The art even within each chapter is a bit inconsistent, but is really not bad for a 'small press' or first self published work sort of thing. Each of the three artists on Pencils really do have flashes of brilliance in this, but also some fairly rough patches. The inking in some places is pretty heavy handed, but that may not be completely the fault of the inker, I imagine it is the direction that was given, but some parts of the book are almost too dark to make sense of the panels.



The writing is not perfect, but really has a good feel to it, not too many things that should have been caught in editing, and a nice amount of depth. We are given a lot of insight into Eve's character, from a number of different angles, and we see all of the recurring characters in a couple different settings.

I recommend that you click all the links I have included, look at the several images I am including here, and make your own decision with regard to purchasing it (Since I know normally everyone just blindly buys everything I mention). I don't know how else to say this, but if I had picked this sort of thing up at SPX for 10 bucks(the price being asked) I would feel pretty good about it.

Actually, as I look at this from more of a thumbnail sized view of multiple pages together, I really love the layout. There are more than a few panels that have really interesting layouts, some of them very subtle, but there is a definite eye for layout shown a lot in this book.

There is also some humor. Maybe not a ton of humor, but there certainly is some. My favorite being this panel that shows EXACTLY what you are in for if you happen to get a boner at school...