By: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds (writer), Denys Cowan (pencils), John Floyd (inks), Dave McCaig (colors), Clem Robbins (letters), Joe Hughes (assistant editor), Karen Berger (editor)
The Story: A young woman gets involved in some funky voodoo/werewolf action in New Orleans.
Review: It was bound to happen: Vertigo has released a new series where I didn’t enjoy the first issue. The publisher has been on quite a run recently: Unwritten, Sweet Tooth, American Vampire, I Zombie, Daytripper, Spaceman, New York Five and the recent Saucer Country… all were quite good and some are/were great. But, Dominique Laveau Voodoo Child #1 left me pretty cold.
Full Disclosure: I’m not a fan of New Orleans-based voodoo stories. Someone must enjoy them because various writers and publishers are drawn to the material, but I completely don’t care. I’m just not a fan of weird, pseudo-godlike creatures fighting their battles on Earth or anything like that, so all the scenes of Caribbean immigrants speaking in tongues or scenes in graveyards leave me cold. Also, I’m bored with every New Orleans story happening around the time of Hurricane Katrina.
And, that’s really my biggest complaint with DLVC #1… The subject matter just didn’t click with me at all. It does have one positive: A young female protagonist. That’s often a good start for me and I am willing to give this title a few issues to see if it can get it’s act together. I never get tired of seeing stories where young women “grow up” and become a powerful force for something. I just don’t like it when their reason for doing so has to do with some unknown destiny they have because they are related to some ancestor they didn’t even know…
The other positive for this title is the art of Denys Cowan. Now, this isn’t the best Cowan we’ve ever seen, but it is the kind of art that will buy this series a few more issues to make me fall in love. Cowan also hasn’t been doing a lot of comics work recently, so I’m pretty confident that he’ll get even better. To me, Cowan’s style in this issue is very much “modern Neil Adams”, especially around the faces and eyes. It is all very straight forward art, there’s nothing here to trick you or fool you or make you revisit pages, it just bounces you through the story in a highly competent manner.
Conclusion: It makes me sad that I don’t like this more and can’t say nicer things about it. I wanted to, but the comic just didn’t give me much to work with. The art of Denys Cowan will keep me around for a few issues to see if the story starts to click, although lovers of New Orleans voodoo culture may love this.
Grade: C+
-Dean Stell
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