So you wanna be a goth? See what you can learn from Lenore, the cute little dead girl.
LENORE: NOOGIES
Publisher: Titan Books
Creator: Roman Dirge
Summary: Take a trip into the dark, surreal world of a little dead girl with a knack for (often) unintentional mayhem in this gothic classic, now remastered and colored up by creator Roman Dirge for the very first time!
Lenore might only be small, but her talent for mischief — and occasional wanton destruction — is anything but. Featuring stories about limbless cannibals, clock monsters, cursed vampire dolls, taxidermied friends, an obsessed would-be lover and more fuzzy animal mutilations than should be legal, never has the term ‘something for everyone’ seemed more sinister and bizarre.
A massive cult hit on both sides of the Atlantic, Lenore is one of the funniest, darkest, cutest, creepiest characters on the marketplace today, and this collector’s edition hardcover is a must.
Review: My first exposure to Lenore was catching a glimpse of a small PVC action figure set at my local comic shop. This year, I picked up a #1 issue of a Lenore comic to see what made this unusual character such a fan favorite. Lenore is a little girl who died and although she was embalmed, she popped right off the mortician’s table and went about her undead life. Her personality and attitude are similar to TV’s Wednesday Addams. After getting through a complete volume, I can see the attraction to this weird little girl and Dirge’s other supernatural creatures.
Noogies is actually a remastered version of Lenore Volume One. Creator Roman Dirge introduces the book with an explanation about how the black and white original was improved by his new digital coloring. I haven’t seen the original but I wasn’t a fan of the coloring job done on this book. Most of the time it looked like digital coloring with the feel of a student’s Photoshop project; thankfully there were a few moments when it wasn’t so distracting and worked just fine to give a little pop to the pages. But this is a book about a quirky goth girl who repeatedly has to kill her boyfriend for not giving her enough space and she kills every pet she acquires—black and white sounds like a better plan for this subject, so Dirge probably should have left well enough alone. The four chapters contain short stories from one to several pages in length, which is a great format that prevents the book from feeling formulaic.
Like the action-adventure novelist Clive Cussler, Dirge also takes the time to write himself into some pages. He doesn’t interact directly with Lenore though. Dirge’s first appearance in the book is more of an essay where he recants the tale about his personal overdose on caffeine as he tried to get the original book done. He ended up in the emergency room with a medical staff that refused to believe that he was not on any drugs other than coffee and No-doze. His tattoo sleeves and bizarre behavior must have been a memorable experience for those nurses.
Because of the violent imagery, Lenore might be considered mature content by some readers. I think the whimsical approach to the violence excuses the rating and readership age somewhat. I have an 11-year-old niece who is a bit of loner and leans more towards arts than athletics, and I think she’d be able to read this collection without nightmares. Check out titanbooks.com for more information.
Rating: 3/5
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I’m a huge fan of Lenore! Two things I wish for: colorized versions of the entire run and a book to release more then once a year! Oh and also a DVD release of the rarely seen animated episodes!