Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Serenity Rose volume 1: Working Through the Negativity by Aaron A. ::
by William the Bloody
Ah, Serenity Rose. She's a 22 year old university student with blue hair, who likes to doodle and occasionally puts out a mini comic in an underground 'zine. She lives with her step mom and younger half-sister. She has a best friend, Tess, whom she has known since the age of eight. They all live in the tiny community of Crestfallen. Serenity Rose is also, a witch. Unfortunately for her, it is this last characteristic that the world chooses to focus on. There are, after all, only about 52 witches in the whole wide world, only five of whom reside in the United States. So, Serenity tries to go about having her everyday life and more less tries to ignore that creepy crawly feeling of being a circus freak to the world at large. She could be famous, you see. No, really famous. Everyone knows her name already, so she could do anything she wanted and whatever it was would be bought on her name recognition alone. But that's part of the problem, isn't it? She would prefer to produce and sell based on whether she was any GOOD and not trade on her name. So, Serenity is sort of stuck in neutral at the moment, not really knowing what direction her life is taking, if any, how to make any real difference in the world, and will she ever even do anything worth while before it's too late?
The Good: Aaron A. is the man. You heard me. I love his art stylings. Gothy and cute at the same time is what I like, yes. The majority of the book is printed on black paper and it looks great for a black and white only book. The sense of humor in the writing so much matches my own, it is frightening. Aaron's creation of words like "assholery" is just wonderful. In issue two when Serenity refers to the Kiss video "Lick It Up" as a "war crime," I about lost it. Also, there's a part when Serenity and Tess go to a goth club. The club-goers are all numbered and Aaron makes fun of every. single. one. of them! (and shame on me for getting the "wizard master" reference therein. Heh.) I can also identify with the character of Serenity on many levels. I mean, don't we all at one point in our lives, feel like a circus freak to the world at large? And her feelings of paralysis at her own indecision is something I can really understand as well. It is, or course, her best friend Tess who lends to many of the funny moments just because of her strong personality, but gosh darn it, I love her. When Tess was in the dirty ol' convenience store and she referred to it as "god," that was awesome. And her squeak with delight at the cartoon channel in issue 4 was great (just like me!). The end of book 5, and the end of this little collected edition, did a good job of bringing the story full circle. We get a nice little sense of closure regarding Serenity and her lack of direction, which should be satisfying to just about everyone. Many of Aaron's views on society and ideas are intriguing ones and definitely food for thought. Oh, and the Humbly mini stories are awesome. Humbly rocks my socks.
The Bad: The art is pretty "rough" in places. Also, it may a tad too black on black for some people. By Aaron's own description in the margins, the book can occasionally become a "grueling experience in word balloons" so if you're expecting all action and pretty pictures, look someplace else; some pages are dialogue heavy. There are some bits where the panels are sort of lacking in sequential continuity. This may come off as confusing to some who miss the point. Also, there are parts where, since this is a whole new made up universe, Aaron needs to squeeze in one heck of a lot of exposition. This leads to pages of mostly just a lot of text, and lazy people might just skip over these bits, even though they have some important information on stuff (re: the drug "the curse" and how it works). The bits into Serenity's origins were a bit too brief to me, but I'm hoping Aaron will dish more on that in later volumes, especially a more descriptive account of Serenity's infamous "bus incident."
Overall, I really enjoy this little comic. It's main theme is about a girl trying to find her place in life and the world is something most people should be able to get and relate to. But stiflingly serious background content aside, the humor is quite good and the spooky cute art is one of a kind. People may try to liken him to Jhonen Vasquez, but those people are clueless. Aaron A.'s his own man. Serenity Rose is a truly unique small press comic experience. Not everybody's thing, I'm sure, you can't please everyone, but he's sure got me.
A-
