Laura Marks

An atmospheric, gothic, feminist horror story set in 19th century New York from Laura Marks and Kelley Jones (of Batman and Dracula: Red Rain fame), Daphne Byrne is a graphic novel that examines death and loss and the nature of demonology. It's the 19th Century story equivalent to the film Hereditary (in a way).

When grieving, support can come in many ways. For Daphne, it came as a demon. Turn-of-the-century New York is a growing metropolis for many, but not for Daphne Byrne. After her father's death, her mother is drawn to a spirtualistic group that claims to speak to the dead. Daphne sees through their act right away, but something from the other side sees her too. Or someone? Daphne finds herself in new company, Brother. He offers support and encourages Daphne to stand up for herself...and to use the powers he has too to save herself and her mother. Daphne isn't quite sure what Brother is or wants. Is he a ghost? a Hallucination? A demon?

Kind of a mish-mash, storywise, with the tale of a young girl with a demonic friend intertwined with that of her mother, being taken advantage of a fake clairvoyant whose interests are considerably darker. I'll admit the story feels a bit uneven but overall I enjoyed it and I liked that Daphne used her dark powers to stop evil from happening to her and her mother. It's interesting that her new found dark powers concur with her awakening as a woman as well.

Kelley Jones art is a pretty great throughout. There are some deeply disturbing panels he created.

I'd recommend this if you like gothic horror stories with a feminist bent.… (más)

This will be the same review for issues 2-6.

In my review for the first one, I didn't know where the story was going, and I wasn't a fan of the art. Unfortunately, neither the story nor the art improved over the next five issues.

Kelly Jones, a veteran of comics, is basically a poor man's Berni Wrightson. He draws in a somewhat similar manner, but where Wrightson had the control and the chops to make damn near every pen and brush stroke magical, Jones seems to flail around and do his best to make it all look interesting, but it never quite gels. Daphne Byrne herself seems to change appearance from panel to panel, with Jones never really settling on a basic look for her face.

And the story commits the cardinal sin for all storytelling, and horror in particular: it's both boring and derivative. It's basically Rosemary's Baby, a hundred years earlier, with some other elements in there. In fact, in my reading of this, it felt like Marks and Jones didn't actually settle on that final theme until a few issues in. It felt half-baked.

And so, we have the first true failure of the Hill House brand.… (más)