Angel of Darkness #1 is a comic written by John Lamont with illustrations by Alex Guenther and colors by Alan Emmanuel. A meeting between the British Army and citizens of Southern Rhodesia is turned on its head when zombies attack. This is a supernatural story taking place in Africa with a sizable cast. The leading lady for this tale is Nikita Ridley, she is the wife Arthur, who is the Mayor of Bulawayo. Nikita practices magic in her spare time. The leader of the military delegation is Colonel Charles Amos, he is accompanied by the Major Damone Hounsou and the 2nd Lieutenant Erin Rice. The story begins with the British Army arriving by train and later being greeted by the mayor. Afterwards a dinner is held where we get to know a few of these characters and what exactly led them here. Later that evening a meeting is held in a church warning about the threat of Mussolini and Hitler. This story takes place in 1939 in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia(now Zimbabwe). The action here is bloody with some gruesome and relatively lightly gory moments. The pacing is steady and the tone is calm until the zombies appear at which point the situation becomes very stressful. The intensity ramps up later on as well. The dialogue reads like what you’d here in early TV and movies and is very conversational. There are no word-heavy pages here. This is an exciting debut comic that introduces us to a sizable cast and that provides us with an interesting story.

            The art here is drawn in a modern style and is smoothly detailed. The color range is decent with greens and browns dominating, but a good chunk of this story takes place at night where it is darker/grayer tones all over. For scenery we get stretches of plains with African Acacia trees along with some different greenery around town. The primary location for this story is the mayor’s residence from the dining room to the courtyard. A couple of the other places visited are a church and the train. The backgrounds here usually show the scene with a gradient color being very rare. The expression level here is slightly above-average as we a varied amount of looks once things start picking up. The emotions are diplomatically stoic and professional in the beginning but they get fearful and sad later on. The faces can vary in quality but overall they have decent-to-strong features and show the emotions well. Sometimes the bodies of these characters can look disproportionate. The violence here is bloody with some gruesome attacks involving teeth and tearing. The action scenes flow well and are of decent length. Both of the leading ladies here wear revealing clothes at some point.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural stories with zombies that has a decently-sized mixed-gender cast and includes violence while taking place in Africa then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore, nudity.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Sir, the town is beset by the dead.”

 

Physical Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/373851134449

Digital Link: https://www.drivethrucomics.com/product/376780/Angel-of-Darkness-1&affiliate_id=3035738

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jtl2/angel-of-darkness-1/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 28

Violent Pages: 8, for 29% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 2, for 7% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 4

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 2

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”