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ARIA IS A SMASH HIT FROM AVALON
What do you call a comic that mixes Goth teens, faeries, cool magic, archaic mysticism, a beautiful heroine, an evil villain, a cool story and some of the best looking artwork seen in a long time?
ARIA.
The buzz on this book from Day One, back when Avalon Press was still planned as a separate entity and not part of the Image conglomerate, was huge. WIZARD magazine even went as far as to compare series artist Jay Anacleto to Alex Ross. In fact, they CALLED HIM the next Alex Ross. Does the hype behind this young artist live up to the expectations?
YOU BETCHA!!! But more on that in a minute.
Our story begins with a lovely young, centuries-old young woman walking down the streets of Manhattan, puffing on a cigarette. A man in a trenchcoat walks up to her and proclaims: “Those things’ll kill you. Cut your life in half.” If he only knew the absurdity of that statement...especially concerning this particular young woman.
This is Lady Kildare of the House of Dannan. She runs a magic shop here in the big city and thus encounters all sorts of quaint and exotic customers. There are the Goth chicks, who call themselves Mistresses of the Shadows, that are looking for Absinthe “like in that Trent Reznor video” (Kildare tells them go to buy some crack as the Absinthe in question “tastes like sour cat piss”). There’s an old lady who comes in with what she thinks might be King Arthur’s magic sword, when in actuality it’s from the Knights of Columbus as opposed to the Knights of the Round Table. There’s a cheapskate who is looking for a love potion for under 12 bucks to win the heart of the girl with the Ty-D-Bowl blue eyes.
Yeah, it takes all kinds in this universe.
Lady Kildare even has a phenomenal wise-cracking mirror (not very unlike that which belonged to the wicked queen in Snow White) with a tremendously sarcastic sense of humor. At one point, as she is preparing for a night on the town, she asks the mirror if dress she is wearing makes her “butt look big”. The mirror responds, in Clintonesque fashion: “Define big”. When she threatens to smash it with a hammer, the mirror changes its’ tune “Yours is the very paragon of posteriors, indeed a ‘butt without compare’. Poets should weep at the sight of it.”
Yeah, it does have a bit of an attitude.
Our next bit of exposition involves Kildare going down to Dion’s: the local watering hole of the magical, the mystical and the just plain weird. Here we meet such unusual folks as the magical Count Iblis and the Pug, the latter of which finds himself attacked by a mysterious force towards the end of this the first issue. Meanwhile, over in Merry Olde England, Kildare’s cousin ‘Mad Ginny’ Gwynnion is frolicking in the moonlight. She is due at the Greenman Free House for drinks with friends during what is the feast of the full moon but is running late. When she arrives, the place is trashed beyond belief, with bloody bodies lying everywhere. Her comment, as she holds a hunk of the splintered wooden door: “I think your whatzit is BROKE.”
As Kildare says, lying in bed that evening, unawares of the events affecting both Manhattan and England: “How do fairy tales end? The truth is...they don’t.”
This book is off to a truly riotous beginning. Brian Holguin, no slouch when it comes to writing tales involving quirky characters, has truly outdone himself here. Co-creating ARIA with Brian Haberlin has obviously given him a leg-up, as he knows the players as well as someone like Terry Moore would know Katchoo and Francine, as an example. His characters’ banter is witty and cutting; his side comments are timely and telling. At one instance, while sitting in Dion’s and contemplating life, our heroine refers to the saying of a wise old man: “Better to burn out than fade away”.
Yeah...and rock and roll never forgets either.
As I started to comment earlier, Jay Anacleto’s photo-realistic artwork is amazing! The detail pressed into each panel of each page is phenomenal. Clean lines detail faces with idiosyncrasies and individualities. There is a tremendously delineated 12” x 6” panel when Kildare arrives at Dion’s. There are no less than 22 fully rendered characters presented here, ranging from the woman with the long green hair (complete with a garland of leaves) to the businessman with the cellular phone to the very large man who, because of his size, is only seen from the top of his beard down. Again-each of these 22 are fully rendered and detailed, allowing their personalities to bleed through.
About a month prior to the release of ARIA #1, Image released a short preview book which combined a cute little text tale with some of Anacleto’s black and white artwork. That ALONE was worth the price of admission. Add into that the positively spellbinding colors by the team of Brian Haberlin, Drew and Alex (I kid you not-those are the real credits) and everything just seems to fly off the page with stunning beauty. Fleshtones are dead on the money. Hair radiates with a silken glow. The final scene of the first issue, with Kildare lying seductively on her bed, is lit by a wonderful blue which evokes the darkness of the night-an effect which many have yet to find a way to portray.
This book is wonderful from the word go, although there seems to be a whole lot more exposition coming in the future months. But don’t let that scare you. The story is well on its’ way and the artwork will pull you out of your chair and smash you to the wall. And, if you DON’T like the story, then check this title out for the artwork alone.
This book, like the equally mystical MORE THAN MORTAL, is sure to be a fast seller and a major favorite amongst fans.
And be aware: there is a Michael Turner WITCHBLADE inspired variant cover for issue #1 which is pretty cool and worth checking out.