LENORE Wedgies
Comic review

'Wedgies' collects issues 5-8 of Lenore, the adventures of a cute little dead girl. As with previous Slave Labor Graphics books, the incentive to get this collected edition are the extra features contained. In this case several pin-ups, an exclusive strip by Jhonen Vasquez and a new full colour Lenore story.

Roman Dirge's cartooning style is perfect for the black humour of Lenore. Although strikingly similar to Jhonen Vasquez's artwork, you really couldn't see the funny side of the Easter Bunny being caught in a giant mousetrap in any other way. It's also refreshing to see such an offbeat style becoming successful in a comic book, proving you don't need to be a great artist to make a great comic book.

The wide-eyed paranoid expressions of nearly everyone in Lenore's world makes even the scariest looking monsters appear vulnerable to Lenore's sick little mind. Not that she mean's it, I'm sure she just wanted to play. And we are also reunited with Lenore's friends: Ragamuffin, Taxidermy, The Muffin Monster, Kitty (her dead cat), Mr. Chippy (the talking wall-mounted half of a chipmunk) and poor old Mr. Gosh who again tries unsuccessfully to win Lenore's heart.

The Lenore comics are more a series of short, very dark, children's stories. Underneath the maiming and 'accidents' lies an innocent quality of the traditional children's tale. No doubt this has carried over from Roman's previous works 'Something at the Window is Scratching' and 'The Monsters in My Tummy'.

This book doesn't comprise completely of Lenore though, and throughout the book is interspersed with Roman's autobiographical admissions 'Things Involving Me', which give us an insight into the creators tainted past and personal fears.

Roman Dirge is a great short storyteller, and even though the book is comprised of a number of short adventures in Lenore's after-life, there is an underlying tale that is brought to a happy climax in this book. If you love dark humour with a child-like quality (Tim Burton's 'A Nightmare Before Christmas' for example) then you will love Lenore. And be sure to look out for the feature length animated version in the future.

8/10

david twomey

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