Mathieu Lauffray

The story is pretty straightforward - Hell is unleashed on Earth in the usual Lovecraftian manner, and only ONE MAN can stop it. There's the usual nonsense about a prophet and a messiah, a couple of Akira Events, oh-god-what-have-i-wroth, and a rather trite ending.

The art is generally quite good, and the plates at the end are a nice treat. Unfortunately, many panels seem rushed, and some in the action scenes are downright indecipherable. There's a tendency to forget what characters look show more like, or a tiredness at drawing the same face over and over again: the profile of the protagonist changes about a half-dozen times. Good thing he's wearing that shirt, eh?

Once the show starts, and the demons and mutants are walking about, the character design starts to feel a little unoriginal. I'm not one for video games, but I've seen these creatures on ads for them in the subway. Particularly the pointy-eared elf type, and the lipless orc type. There's so much of this thrown about that I started to wonder if this was intended as some sort of pop-culture riff.

There aren't too many recurring female characters, and those that appear are drawn rather ... porny. Skin-tight or mysteriously-clinging outfits, impossible bodies, arched backs, sexually submissive poses. The standard sins of comics. This really stood out because I had recently read Niourk (sorry, no GR entry yet) which, despite all the gratuitous nudity and Sheena outfits, managed to not give the impression that the artist was having one off to his own drawings. What I'm saying is, when you find yourself asking "Is that really a girl who's undergoing a living transformation into a demonic horror? Or is that a still from a Pornhub video?", the art may be detracting from the story a bit.

Given how much I'm knocking this thing, you'd think I would give it only two or three stars. But you know what? I enjoyed it. The story and the art really work together, the way a graphic novel ought to be. show less

This graphic novel reminded me a bit of the first season of Black Sails: besides the obvious similarity of pirates in the Caribbean, there's a great deal of setup for the rest of the series interspersed between the action sequences. It's a riveting book with gritty art, and I'm looking forward to the second volume.

Received via NetGalley.

Interesting story that is in vein of madness horror stories from Lovecraft's lore and movies like "Sphere". I found the story engaging and in regard to some of the other reviews [for me] story was not convoluted or hard to understand. This is a huge book, lots of pages and lots of things going around and it will take you a while to link everything up but that is a trademark of European comics and I like this approach (and this might not be everyones cup of tea, I agree).

Highly recommended show more for all fans of Lovecraft-like stories and that near madness experiences of the main character that are the trademark of this type of stories. show less

I absolutely love the art-style and how vibrant the colors are! Very eye-catching and immersive drawings!

Unfortunately, the story is a bit lacking and I can't quite place my finger on why. I didn't feel fulfilled story-wise with this graphic novel.

Though, I definitely recommend giving this one a try if you like pirate graphic novels as it was a fun, quick read.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this graphic novel.