Karmen #1 is now available from Image, and this visually stunning book is a dream come true; but filled with nightmares.
The writer and illustrator for this five-part mini-series is Guillem March, from Spain. He is known for his work on Batman, Catwoman, and Harley Quinn. He’s also worked on several graphic novels for Titan Comics and Europe Comics. Milo Manera contributes a variant cover, which due to its partial nudity is unlikely to be seen on the shelf of North American comic shops.
Karmen is an unusual angel. She wanders the border of the living and the dead, dressed in a skeleton costume. As she encounters a young woman near death, she takes her under her wing, so to speak, and begins to establish communication. What follows is a strange, unsettling, and distinctly original experience for both of them.
The story is visually arresting, immaculately rendered in exquisite detail. The aerial perspective, roaming point of view, anti-gravity-free-floating-narrative, the muted colour palettes (colour assist by Tony Lopez, lettering by Cromatik Ltd), the sense that time has been arrested and not released, the all-consuming creepy beauty of the margin of the human pulse, it’s so well done here.
Don’t be disappointed when you find that the storyline is thin and wavery, the air is thin and wispy. The glances and gestures are more than enough, the thoughts and experimentation in Karmen is reward itself. It’s funny, adult, sad, clever and very touching.
Extra pages show us Guillem March’s sketches-to-final-inks process.
Image, Karmen #1, $3.99 for 30 pages of story content. Adult, mature
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