By Lovern Kindzierski, John Bolton & Todd Klein (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-987825-04-6
Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: An adult Fairy Tale for when the kids have all passed out… 10/10
Life is full of folk-loric warnings:
- Red Sun at Morning: Sailor take Warning.
- Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow.
- Appearances can be Deceiving.
A cliché is a truth repeated so often you get bored and stop listening to the message…
It’s an unshakable adage that comics are a visual medium and that’s never been more clearly demonstrated than in this seductive and bewitching allegorical fable for full-sized folk from writer Lovern Kindzierski, painter John Bolton and letterer Todd Klein. Originally released as a 3-part prestige format miniseries between 2011 and 2013 the saga has now been collected in a lavish and sublime full-colour hardback garnished with a selection of beguiling bonus features.
Once upon a time in ‘Conception’ a benevolent but painfully unprepossessing witch named Mother Virtue spent all her days doing grand good deeds for the unfortunate, and for these kind actions she was beloved by all. Spiritually, she was probably the most perfect woman in the world…
She lived life well and grew old and content, but one day a selfish thought flashed idly through her mind. Momentarily she longed for a daughter and wished for it to be true: that she be a mother in fact as well as name…
It was just the opening malign Shadow of Ignorance Slur needed. Employing dark magics he instantly impregnates the champion of Good with a malign evil seed and in gloating triumph brags to the wise-woman that her daughter will be a diabolical demon deserving of the name Shame…
Deeply repenting that selfish whim and now dreading the horrors yet to come, Mother Virtue methodically transforms her idyllic cottage into a floral prison dubbed Cradle; repurposed to eventually isolate and contain the thing cruelly growing in her belly.
The miserable mother-to-be also assembles a contingent of Dryads to care for and guard the baby. Once Virtue finally births Shame, she quickly abandons the devil’s burden to be reared in the mystic compound, where it grows strong and cruel but so very beautiful…
Eventually, however, slavish minions of Shame’s sire breach the green ramparts and begin schooling the child in vile necromancy and her dire, sordid inheritance. Armed with malefic potency, Shame slowly refashions her garden guardians into something more pliable and appropriately monstrous…
As she physically ripens, Slur himself comes to his evil child and through him Shame learns the power of sex. With the aid of an infernal incubus which has stolen seed from many men, she quickens a child in her own belly and births a baby girl.
Into that infant Slur pours Mother Virtue’s soul; gorily ripped from the despondent dotard’s aging carcase at the moment of delivery. Even the nunnery Virtue had locked herself within was no proof against the marauding Shadow of Ignorance…
And with her despised mother now her own child, securely bound within the selfsame floral penitentiary, Shame goes out into the world to make her mark…
‘Pursuit’ takes up the story sixteen years later. The Virtue infant has grown strong and lovely, despite every effort of the malformed and mystically mutated Dryads and Shame’s diabolical sorcery which have toiled mightily and made every day of her young life a savage test of survival.
This daily failure makes Shame – now queen of a mortal kingdom – furious beyond belief. When not burning witches and wise women who might threaten her absolute domination or having her unconquerable armies ravage neighbouring realms, the haughty hell-spawn spies upon her mother/child with infernal devices, but is always disappointed….
Elsewhere a valiant knight lies dying and bids his simple, ugly son Merritt farewell. Even with his last breaths, the father dreads how his foolish, naive boy will fare in a world ruled by the Queen who has ended him…
The hopeless dreaming youth is stubborn if nothing else, and when Merritt discovers the vegetable hell-mound of Cradle, stories his mother told him run again through his head. A strange, inexplicable yearning compels him to overcome the appalling arcane odds to break in and liberate the beautiful prisoner… although she actually does most of the work…
Free of the mound, all Virtue’s mystic powers return and, far away, Shame’s world reels. Mocking Slur cares little for his daughter but much for his plans and thus reveals Merritt is Destiny’s wild card: a Sword of Fate who might reshape the future of humanity. Of course it all depends on whose side he joins…
As the young heroes near the capital they are ambushed. After a tremendous mystic clash, Merritt awakens in a palace with a dark-haired angel ministering to his every need and desire. Far below in a rank, eldritch dungeon Virtue languishes and patiently adjusts her plans…
This eldritch erotic epic concludes in classic fashion with ‘Redemption’ as Merritt falls deeper under the sultry sway of the dark queen. As he slowly devolves into her tool of human subjugation, in a fetid subterranean stinkhole, Virtue – under the very noses of her tormentors – weaves her magic with the paltry materials at hand…
Even cradled in the Queen’s arms Merritt is still a child shaped by his mother’s bedtime stories and when Virtue contacts him he readily sneaks down to her cell, dreams of nobility and valiant deeds filling his slow, addled head…
Now the scene is set for a final fraught confrontation between mother and daughter, but first Virtue sends Merritt straight to Hell on a vital quest to recover the Hope of the World…
The narrative core of all fairytales is unchanging and ever powerful, so tone and treatment make all the difference between tired rehashing and something bold, fresh and unforgettable.
Moreover, the photo-based hyper-realised expressionism of John Bolton’s lush painting transforms the familiar settings of fantasy standards and set-pierces into something truly bleak and bizarre to match the grim, earthily seedy meta-reality of Kindzierski’s script.
Bracketed with a Foreword by Colleen Doran and Preface from author Kindzierski at the front and creator commentary courtesy of ‘From the Imagination of John Bolton and Lovern Kindzierski’ at the back – featuring an in-depth interview adjudicated by publisher Alexander Finbow and supplemented with a stunning treasure trove of pre-production art, designs and sketches – this astounding tale also includes a tantalising glimpse of things to come in the shape of an 8-page preview of forthcoming sequel Tales of Hope…
Dark, nasty and packed with sumptuous seductions of every stripe, the salutary saga of Shame is every adult fantasist’s desire made real and every comic fan’s most fervent anticipation in one irresistible package…
Shame the story, characters, world and designs are © Lovern Kindzierski, John Bolton and Renegade Arts Canmore Ltd.