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THE MARQUIS: DANSE MACABRE trade paperback
Mildly Recommended (6/10)
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Oni Press
Writer/Artist: Guy Davis
Colors: Blush & Blur
Letters: Vince Locke
Collection editor: James Lucas Jones
Price: $18.95 US/$29.95 CAN |
Around the title character, Guy Davis has crafted an eerie, bizarre world in which distorted perceptions can lead to justice, where faith is punished and righteous vengence leads to madness (or perhaps it's the other way around). The audience is presented with a challenging read, but the surreal tone of the characters and circumstances extends to the script, and it makes for some confusion at times. Nevertheless, Davis is to be commended for his originality, creativity and comprehensiveness.
In a French city, during an age of misery, one man -- Vol de Salle -- finds the world around him degenerate into a melting pot of corruption moral and literally demonic influence. De Salle dons the mask of the Marquis and doles out unfettered vengeance, but in the process, he fears he is becoming that which he reviles and fears the most: a devil. Oddly enough, though, his descent into madness makes the world around him a better place.
Davis's organic style makes for some thoroughly creepy visuals. One can see twisted mounds of flesh writhing and flowing, all coming together to become seemingly unimaginable monsters. His designs for the human characters are inventive, and he captures a surreal sense of the historic in the characters and the setting. The only color in the book -- a monochromatic red motif specifically for an infernal sequence at the end of the story -- works wonderfully in the context of the tale, and it helps set the psychological climax apart from the rest of the book.
The sketchiness that's an integral part of Davis's art, and one of his strengths, sometimes works against the story, though. The surreal nature of the story is reflected in the dialogue as well, and it all adds up to some confusing sequences. Mind you, Davis is often purposely vague in his storytelling here, in order to reinforce a sense of the mysterious, but at times, the nature of the story is a bit too ambiguious.
In his introduction at the outset of this volume, Steven T. Seagle, the writer who worked with Davis on Sandman Mystery Theatre, laments the fact that the artist doesn't seem to be in need of a scribe as a creative partner. I would agree... to an extent. The plotting and characters are inventive and unlike anything else I've seen, but I think the property could be bolstered with some more focused scripting.
This collected edition was not among this week's new releases.
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