This is my first stab at doing a review here at eatsleepgeek.com, normally I stay within the disciplines of news finding, and opinion giving; both of which are usually about things that are pretty unimportant. But this go round I wanted to give you my review of David Doub’sDusk, a comic that I think is pretty important. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that Dusk is important because of the book itself, but important because it’s a book that the author chose to self publish. We’ve always found that any news or articles going up about artists or writers always do well and thought that giving some exposure to a writer and a few artists you’ve probably never heard of would make for an interesting read. So much so that we’ve asked David to write a series of articles about his ongoing experiences writing, and publishing his own comic for the site. Hopefully you like David because you’ll seeing him pretty frequently over the next month. With that aside lets get on with taking a look at Dusk Vol.1 (You can get a copy of Dusk through Amazon, here’s the link to it.)

In his own words David describes Dusk as:

As a battered wife, Eve’s only concern was to keep her marriage together. But when she is kidnapped into the sordid supernatural world of vampires and foul magic, Eve finds she doesn’t want to leave. Her mysterious benefactor, the Vampire Lord Ash, wish her to have a normal life but Eve chooses to stay in the service of Ash. Dusk is the stories about Eve and her challenges living in the darkness. Dusk is a supernatural action/drama story done in a dynamic blending of the sequential art styles of American Comics and Japanese Manga. Several artists help tell these stark noir tales of Vampires and Unrequited Love.

The book is divided into four chapters, each one telling a different tale of Eve’s life as a mortal, entangled in the intoxicating, underground world of vampires. While connected by the characters and building upon one another the chapters serve as stand alone stories.

Chapter One
The first chapter in Doub’s graphic novel immediately throws the reader head first into Eve’s dream/nightmare world as Ash(the vampire lord she serves) has her hunt down a rouge vampire who has infected an unsuspecting mortal who dosn’t understand what is happening to him. I won’t tell you how the story ends but, it was a great introduction to the characters, and the parameters of the world Doub has created. Not introducing the readers to the characters at the beginning of the story was a great way hook his audience into his work, and there is no question that chapter one leaves us wanting more Dusk.

Not being a huge fan of anime the art isn’t what I traditionally associate with comics, however Maki Naro’s work in the first two chapters was exceptional and worked well for the story. The use of dark space is perfectly suited to both a vampire story and the decision to print Vol.1 on black and white. It works so well and the illustrations and inks are done so sharpley it’s a shame that Doub didn’t use Naro’s talents more to help tell the story. I’ll get into the writer/artist dynamic a little more later on.

Chapter Two
I have no proof of this, but in my mind chapter two takes place before chapter one. I might be reading too much between the lines here, but something in the art is simpler, and I think that this subtle change was done to let the reader know that the story is taking place before the first one. The first story showed us a hardened Eve who wishes she weren’t so callous, whereas this chapter shows us one of the reasons why she has become who she is. The story is essentially about Eve confronting her past when a private investigator forces back into the life she left behind to serve Ash. Through a series of flashbacks we see the world she left behind, and are introduced to her master before Ash. The story sets the stage for future volumes, while at the same time is satisfying as a stand alone story.

The art is once again fantastic. Like i said it’s a little simpler, a little less dark but still outstanding. To me it’s sort of symbolic of a return to a simpler, less dark time in Eve’s past. I also found the layout in this chapter worked better, there was less confusion and more focus on the story and the art. My only criticism is that some of the frames felt unfinished. It’s a fine line between simple and unfinished, but in this particular chapter several frames didn’t wind up on the right side of that line.

Chapter Three
Chapter Three of Doub’s story takes Eve and Felix Klein (a mortal mercenary hired by Ash) into the mountains of Italy to bring vampire Frederic Neckar to justice for his unstated atrocities against humanity. Again I don’t want to give too much away but after his sentencing Neckar alludes to the fact that he is a small part of a larger conspiracy. Chapter Three’s story again gives us just enough of a glimpse behind the curtain of this world that we want to see more. Like the other stories in Dusk this chapter opens up so many possibilities.

This chapter was more of an action story than the others and unfortunately the art isn’t good enough to deliver that experience to the readers. I don’t want to beat up on an aspiring artist but Jerry Gonzales just isn’t ready for publication. The ink work was non existent, and left me feeling like I was reading a final project in a high school art class. Ironically I think that this chapter had the best dialog (in a book where the author struggled with dialog) however the art was unable to tell the story the writer needed told. The pencil drawings gave the chapter an amateur feel that holds an otherwise interesting story back.

Chapter Four
The only chapter in the volume that didn’t directly deal with vampires has Eve trying to stop Ted, a high school outcast from putting an incantation of Russian origin on his school, killing all of his classmates. While the story certainly helps build Eve’s character within the larger tale Doub is telling, I didn’t buy into the specific story he was giving us here. Simply put I didn’t buy into Teddy and his sense of isolation. Sorry, but from where I’m sitting I’m not prepared to accept that getting hit in the head with a basketball and getting laughed at for having a boner are going to put a guy over the edge. Ted didn’t have enough personality for me to understand what and why he was doing the things he did. Plus, who the hell walks around not noticing when they have a boner? I’ll temporarily suspend my belief that vampires don’t exist to read this story, but I won’t do the same for a kid who would walk around with a boner, sorry.

I felt that the art in this chapter was the best of the book. I really like chapters one and two, really hated chapter three, but feel that chapter four hits the mark in terms of the right style for this story. The treatment of negative space was well done and where it needed to be for a black and white publication, although not quite as well done as the first two chapters. However where artist Franc Czuba really shines and takes Dusk to the next level is with the detail to facial expression in his work. Czuba’s work helps the readers understand the characters and reduces our reliance on dialog to understand them. I hope we see more of Czuba in dusk Vol.2

Overall Impression
Let me start by saying that for $10.00 Dusk is an absolute bargain. You’ll be glad you spent the money. Even though David sent me a review copy I fully intend on purchasing one as well. It was that good. Clearly the world he has created is a deep and rich place that has many stories that remain untold; and I want to read them all. Dusk is captivating and has so much potential once David hits his stride as a writer, and finds the right artists to work with.

As much as I enjoyed Dusk on a macro level, I also felt there was a problem with the dialog and character interaction that prevented this book from living up to it’s full potential. In many ways there’s simply too much talking. It might be from not working together enough with the artists, but the author’s reluctance to let the art do the talking held the entire collection back. As a reader there was so much going on with the dialog I found it difficult to follow at times. But more importantly the background the reader needs to understand was crowbar’d into conversations where it shouldn’t have been and kept me from becoming fully immersed in the story. While it’s a fairly large criticism, I’m also confident that it’s one that Doub will overcome and we will continue to see his series get better and better.

Overall I give Dusk 3.75/5 and will be sure to add the name David Doub to my pull list.
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If you would like to check out David’s work head over to Amazon and pick it up. Here is the link again in case you missed it.