Calling all fans of black-and-white comics and The Darkness! Top Cow released issues #1-3 of The Darkness Vol. 3 in pure black and white last week in this special, 72-page book ($4!).
The Darkness #1-3 Raw Edition
Writer: Phil Hester
Artist: Michael Broussard
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Design: Chaz Riggs
Editor: Rob Levin
Cover: Michael Broussard
Summary: Now you can see The Darkness in a whole new light in this pristine, black-and-white presentation of artist Michael Broussard’s pencil work. No inking, no coloring. Broussard’s work is laid bare in this unique collection of the first three issues of this new volume.
Jackie Estacado, the current wielder of The Darkness power, joins forces with a brilliant scientist, who teaches the former Mob boss how to turn his curse into a blessing. Together, the duo overthrow a small South American country and turn its people into addicts of Nightfall, a synthetic drug made from The Darkness. But what Jackie doesn’t know is that the professor has a sinister, ulterior motive that will turn The Darkness powers against him, and he’ll be lucky if he gets out of this alive!
Even if you’ve read these issues before you’ll appreciate how Broussard, under Marc Silvestri’s guidance, has matured into a talented penciler in his own right.
Review: I’m not really nuts over black and white comics. Yeah, it’s cool to see it “raw,” but what can I say? I like color. 
It wouldn’t be so bad if it were inked, but this three-part comic is simply pencils—which makes it hard to tell, sometimes, what’s going on in a panel. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell characters apart, and other times it just looks like random markings on white paper.
On the other hand, once and awhile you get a panel where the “raw” factor actually comes through in a powerful way, and the detail of the pencils is awesome. For only four bucks, it’s cool to have. And the three issues in the edition are really interesting! Every comic of The Darkness I read just gets me more and more excited about this title and its main character, Jackie Estacado.
So if you want to catch up on #1-3 of volume three of The Darkness and want to save some money, then Raw is a nice addition to your collection—especially if you’re a fan of black-and-white comics and/or The Darkness. Still, if you don’t mind spending the extra bucks and you’re not that into black-and-white comics, then you’ll probably find it more beneficial just to stick with the regular issues.
You can check out a preview of Raw on Top Cow’s blog.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I love when pencils, inking and color come together, but there is something SO appealing about seeing raw sketches. MAN, this guy’s stuff looks JUST LIKE Silvestri’s art! He taught him well. Great review!
September 11th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Thanks, Meg!
I’m just a sucker for color, ahahah.
But there were definitely cool panels where the pencils brought out something … unique. It’s hard to explain unless you read this comic!