Creator & Writer – Noah Dorsey
Artist – Zsombor Huszka
Creative Consultant – Steve Revenig
Bold and unsettling, Saint Chaos by Noah Dorsey is the type of comic that you won’t give you a warm, fuzzy feeling. If anything, you will feel perturbed… And you’ll relish every moment you spent descending into the rabbit hole of madness and depravity.
Samuel Monroe is down on his luck, in a profound way. The circumstances of his life have become so bleak that suicide seems a valid option. While he lacks the will to live, he lacks the nerve to end his own life. So, he finds someone to do it for him. A serial killer named Honeycomb agrees to grant Samuel’s death wish in four days time. Once his “death day” is set, Samuel decides to use his remaining time to do some good in the world. Unencumbered by fear he becomes Saint Chaos. When he finds something to live for, he questions his decision to end his life, but Honeycomb does not like broken contracts. Has he realized he has a reason to live too late?
The minute I started reading the first issue, I was pulled in immediately by the gritty and gloomy artwork and wanted to know more about Sam and what caused his sudden desire to just end it. My heart went out to the character something fierce. Zsombor Huszka does an incredible job of capturing a sort of modern film noir; a black and white movie with pops of color here and there that are bright and vibrant, while capturing deeply troubled characters. Coupled with Dorsey’s ability to tell deeply provoking stories revolving around depression, grief and suicide, Huszka’s drawings come to life in an impressive way.
Samuel is in a very low point in his life and despite what we may think as hard knocks, he sees them as a sign to check out of life. The writing is pretty legit here and there was no mistaking the sincere desire to die in the prose.
The main villain—and believe me there are several villainous characters—is a man named Honeycomb. I absolutely loved the way Huszka approached the drawing of this utterly evil and damnable character. Honeycomb loves to lure victims to his underground torture chambers and he certainly enjoys his work. In fact, he does it as his job for a criminal organization and for fun. It’s the very essence of him and who he is. He considers it a candy shop. I actually really enjoyed Honeycomb’s parts in the same way you would enjoy a horror movie. I could appreciate the level of detail it took to create such a deeply evil character and I hope that Dorsey will explain his background a bit more. He seems refined; something of a modern day dandy or “fop”. Even the font used in Honeycomb’s sections is dripping with balefulness disguised by condescending, articulate wording.
The only issues I ran into were some spelling and grammar errors that gave me just a bit of pause as I had to reread certain sentences in order to pick up the lost flow. They weren’t anything major, but they were significant enough for me to take note. With that said these sections were small and didn’t necessarily take away from the story.
Overall, a great first issue and I actually looked forward to Saint Chaos #2. Look for that review tomorrow!
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