Calum Petrie reviews The Bloody Best of Lenore…
For those of you who may not be familiar with Lenore, this comic series of short stories is based loosely around the titular character. Lenore is a little girl who just happens to be dead, a la the poem by Edgar Alan Poe titled “Lenore”. The comic series has been in circulation since the late 90’s, with a “best of” graphic novel filled with her adventures being released today by Titan Comics.
The Bloody Best of Lenore features 17 short stories where the misadventures of this little dead girl can confuse, perplex and have a reader scratching their head if they had never encountered the character before. The off brand humour would appeal to the fans of Dave Firth web shorts (Salad Fingers, Salisbury Toast Boy); the humour in most stories comes from the randomness of the situation and how shocking the events are rather than aiming for a flat out joke or punchline.
The series is definitely aimed at a more dark humoured group of people, and those of a Gothic sub-culture might find the “cute dead girl” theme something they can latch onto. The art style is something extremely different from the comics and graphic novels I am used to, which in turn made me pay more attention to the darker colour pallet of the series overall.
The humour was not all lost on me, but I found myself confused at times, and then mildly amused. I will say that if you aren’t familiar with this series, it potentially may not be for you, though long time fans will surely be filled with joy as their favourite little dead girl is brought to life once more in this bizarre compendium of twisted tales.
Rating: 5/10
You can follow me on Twitter @Cetrie
