COMIC TITLE: Daphne Byrne #1 (2020)
Kelley Jones– Artist
Laura Marks–Writer
January 8, 2020
Hill House Comics/DC Black Label
We are just into our second week of 2020 and it looks like everything is almost back to normal in the world of comics especially when it has to do with new comic book day. There were a lot of great debuts this week and some great continuations of stories that I am into at the moment, but there was one that I just had to check out. For those of you that do not know who Joe Hill his, he is the son of one Stephen King who has also decided to get into the world of Horror Comics with Hill House Comics as he teams up with DC Comics imprint DC Black Label to create a line of comics like The Low Low Woods and more. This week they came out with a new comic entitled Daphne Byrne #1 and it was written by Laura Marks (TV’s Ray Donovan) and illustrated by Kelley Jones (The Sandman, Batman: Red Rain) who is a legend in the horror art world. Daphne is your typical 19TH Century New York teen who is going through some personal turmoil since her father passed away. One thing is for certain and that is that her mother is being irresponsible and is being taken for a sucker by occultist wannabe’s, but these wannabe’s may have opened a door for Daphne as he is visited by an entity named Brother, but what does he want?
I have to say that I definitely enjoyed Daphne Byrne, but not as much as I did with The Low Low Woods. I definitely enjoyed the last part of the comic because that is when things really started to rock and roll and that is why I believe that I am going to enjoy future issues of the comic. What also has me excited about the future of it is that Joe Hill said on the Adventures In Poor Taste Podcast that the book is about, “a 19th-century feminist Omen. A ghost and gaslight take on the child born to end us all.” Now what is exciting about this comic is the artwork that was done by the legend Kelley Jones who brought out the creepiness of the darkness that surrounds the comic on every single panel. He has this way of making sure that you do not miss the macabre in every panel as he manages to infuse it and Michelle Madsen does an amazing job bringing all of that to light as the colorist of the comic and it’s beautiful. The other element that was smartly infused into the comic was the fact that we got the creepiness factor in well before the macabre show up in the example of this homeless old man who will make your spine tingle. All in all, I am actually excited to see what happens next in the comic especially with the artwork so stay tuned. Check out my grades below:
Grades:
Story/Plot: A
Artwork: A+
Character Representation: A+
Entertainment Value: A+
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