Rereading this series brings back a great deal of memories. Dawn was one of my oldest looks into the independent publishing world of comics in the mid 1990s. The landscape at the time was rife with pure and unreadable garbage. From that desolate land there were a couple of shining beacons for the faithful that decided to remain and continue to read comics in general; these included Billy Tucci’s Shi, David Lapham’s Stray Bullets, Frank Miller’s Sin City and Joesph Michael Linsner’s Dawn. I remember Wizard magazine lumping this along with a number of other series in what they claimed was a Bad Girl craze at the time. They seriously missed the point as Dawn was a great deal more than just a pretty picture. It was an intricate world unto it’s own, JML’s masterpiece stands tall and proud over 10 years after it was originally published by Sirus Entertainment and recently recollected from Image Comics.

Although the series is called Dawn, this first story revolves mainly around the character of Darrian Ashoka, a man living in a post apocalyptic New York City. This isn’t exactly the New York we know, or even a work that we fully understand, things are not exactly what they seem. Demons and Angels roam the world freely. Gods and Goddesses are part of the landscape.

In what seems to be a weekly ritual Darrian and Jaynus set off to “Time Square Free For All”

Kill who you want, and take what you can

However this time, things are different. Darrian’s night is interrupted as he catches the eye of Dawn. He follows her up to the rooftop of a building where they see angels being slain by demons. After a night of passion, Darrian’s world is turned upside down as he leaves New York City to get into the “Church” aka Heaven. Thus begins the story of Darrian on his quest to find himself.

Meanwhile God has summoned Dawn to ask a favour. Dawn is the Goddess of Birth and Rebirth. She is not part of Heaven nor of Hell. There is something in hell that he wants back. It was an oversight. He want’s Lucifer’s Halo back. These two separate threads are directly linked, but I wouldn’t dream of telling you how.

The story is a layered one, filled with odd metaphors and quotations. The real intentions of the story only become clear much later on in the game, around the fifth chapter, but Linsner plants the seeds right from the first chapter, dialogue, actions, reactions and events, they all intertwine into this story, nothing is there by chance.

In the landscape of the mid 90s glut of rubbish comics, Dawn was a crowning achievement, because it had a story. As you can imagine though, what brought it into the spotlight back then was the awesome artwork that graced the pages. In what was a rare thing indeed, Dawn was a fully painted series, printed on coverstock. Each cover was/is completely striking and can easily be framed and put on your wall, yes the artwork is that good. All the colours pop of the pages and the character designs are second to none.

What’s completely clear as the nose on my face is that ‘Lucifer’s Halo’ was in fact a complete and utter labour of love. Linsner pours his heart out into every single page, every single panel and really tries his best to tell the story, by using his craft to great effect. The characters have expressions of supreme sadness, of contempt, of surprise, of glee and the range goes on. It’s a wonderful thing to find a craftsman that can handle this in manner that comes across as easy. It’s not easy, it’s called pure talent and Linsner has buckets of it.

I was meant to write about this last week, but I was extremely busy with life in general that I didn’t get a chance to hit all the reviews I wanted to get done. I’m pretty behind on my schedule but that’s life. Anyway I emailed Rich a while back and asked him if he had a pdf I could have in order to review. He was gratious enough to send me one before it all exploded and he’s got it up for sale on his site, if you can’t find it from a store near you. As I live in London and both Rich and I have the same comic book store (Gosh Comics) I was also able to nab a signed copy of the book on Saturday. Anyway lets get to the review of this graphic novella shall we.

The Flying Friar is a difficult book to review, mainly because I actually didn’t know what to expect. It wasn’t recommended from anyone, I just liked the preview art that Rich was pimping and I’ve been reading Rich’s column for several years now (was a fan of All the Rage, back when he used to write that). He’s a Londoner and has always been very courteous whenever I’ve e-mailed. So he was going to be getting my money.

This is a historical book with a bit of a twist. Set in the early 1600 in Cupernito, Italy; the book chronicles the early lives of two young men, Lux Luthor and Joseph Desa. They meet under funny circumstances. Lux is bald due to a meteor (or something similar) hitting the village and is interested in flying. Joseph on the other hand is not what he appears to be. Yes the similarities between this story and the Superman methos don’t end there. Saying anymore however would ruin things.

Reading through the book I initially had the feeling that I didn’t have a clue as to where it was going. At first it seemed as though this was going to be a story for the second coming. Having recently finished a book set in 1666 recently I can see where Rich is coming with this. People back then were still waiting for the second coming as if it was going to happen any day now. Of course the year of the beast (apparently) didn’t get officially announced until 1649, but I’ve done no research in the matter so take that with a pinch of salt. Anyway that theory proved to be incorrect. As it turns out what I was reading was an interpretation or dramatisation or a story that tried to tell the life of Joseph Desa the Patron Saint of Aircraft pilots and travellers.

The artwork is provided by Thomas Nachlik, who is a newcomer to me at least. I’m not sure if this is his first work or if he’s a complete veteran and I’ve missed out on his work. He tells his story very clearly which is a very good thing, however I did feel that the art was a little sharp around the edges.

Part of me would love to say that this book is fantastic and that you have to pick it up, but unfortunately I can’t give it such a glowing endorsement simply because I don’t actually feel that way. This isn’t a slant on Rich’s story. He’s crafted a good yarn here, if the above meagre attempt at a description tickles your fancy definitely pick it up. For me however it didn’t really hit the right notes.

This is the first book that I review that’s not a graphic novel. It doesn’t have a spine on it, but that’s ok I think I’ll let him off just this once :). This is also the first book that I buy from Speakeasy Comics. The paper quality of the interior pages are thick and glossy so you know the guys aren’t skimping on the paper quality for their production values. I like that in a black and white comic book as it makes the blacks pop out.