I have to admit, my first reaction to Sylvia Faust was disappointment that Henderson, an Austin native like myself, had taken a uniquely Austin landmark and essentially transplanted it so we could have yet another story set in New York City. That said, the story that Henderson and Scott have cooked up here is potentially interesting, if a bit slow-going here in the outset. The charms of the Apocalypse Drafthouse, the centerpiece of the story in many ways, are not really explained unless you're already familiar with its basis in reality, the Alamo Drafthouse, and the story is just getting started. Sylvia Faust has a fair amount of style and personality, but it remains to be seen if there's a strong story underneath that.
Sylvia Faust is a difficult book to pin down, and that's something I like about it. In this first issue, we have stuff that is very much indy slice-of-life, with Sylvia's progression of dead-end jobs or Tim Klass, manager of the Drafthouse, trying to find the B-movie star who is supposed to be his main attraction. We also have weird magic stuff, with Sylvia's weaving of spells and unusual housepet, which is reminiscent of urban fantasy Aria. Then there's the two-page interlude in the place of Sylvia's birth, which is straight-up heroic fantasy/science-fiction. Like Sword of Dracula, the first creation of Henderson and Scott, this is a pretty nifty little genre blend.
Unfortunately, much as I love the concept, I wasn't crazy about the lead character and her story so far. Henderson is going for a snarky and hip character in Sylvia, but she comes across as kind of annoyingly arrogant instead. On the other hand, she is a realistic character, if not someone I care terribly much about yet. The other lead character, Tim, is more sympathetic, and there are some great dialogue exchanges whenever he's involved. I particularly loved Tim's frantic search for Lance Marks, and his reaction to "you might try the stoners in the alley." Henderson has some great dialogue skills, and he shows them off in this issue.
Greg Scott is best known for shadowy, dark work, either in Gotham Central or Sword of Dracula, so his art on Sylvia Faust might come as something of a surprise to folks who have seen his work before. It's colored by Leslie Ann Barkley in a bright pastel style, and Scott doesn't use traditional panel borders, instead leaving white space to define the panels. As with some of his previous work, there's a weird variance between characters' faces in different panels, making them look a little fluid and misshapen, but if he could tighten that up a little while retaining the loose feel of his overall style, I think I'd really love this work. I'm reminded quite a bit of the work of Matt Wagner on Grendel and Mage, and that's not bad company for Scott to be in.
I confess that part of my disappointment in this book stems from Henderson choosing not to use Austin as a setting, because I feel like the Drafthouse "belongs" to the city, I think Austin would make for a great setting for this type of story, and L.A. and New York are both pretty played out in fiction anyway. However, I also think that Henderson writes some really fun scenes of workplace tedium crossed with unusual magic, that Tim and the rest of the folks surrounding the Drafthouse are potentially fascinating characters and that Scott is doing good work that borders on great from time to time. Maybe not there yet, but one to watch.
