No Spell Lasts Forever #5 is a comic written and lettered by Sarah Cooke with art and colors by Eze Di Savino. Rosette decides to come clean as nefarious plans are being put into motion. This is a supernatural crime comic that has heavy family drama, violently feuding mobs, and multiple women with powerful magical abilities at the helm. The leading lady here is the hitwoman Rosette Diamant, real name Erma Smith. After dying she made a deal with the Devil where she has two weeks to corrupt a good person, and she’s made her target the police chief Sebastian Velez. Elspeth is Rosette’s hated rival and sister who is trying to make sure that she fails. Rosette was a hitwoman for Cutler Gray and Elspeth is in cahoots with his biggest rival and ex-wife Victoria. This story begins where the last issue left off with Rosette and Chief Velez on her fire escape sharing a kiss. She decides to come clean and tell him everything while undoing a spell she cast on him weeks ago that made him more amicable. Chief Velez does not take this new information very well. This takes place in a world where magic-wielders try to keep their presence a secret. The violence here is very bloody with strong gore but this isn’t present throughout. The pacing is slower than average as there is a lot of talking and not much action here. This has the tone of a somewhat melodramatic TV drama that has just hit its last commercial break before the final segment; things are ramping up. Dramatic intensity is quite high as there is a lot going on. The dialogue is very conversational and everyone speaks like modern Americans except Rosette who speaks like she was in a black-and-white from the 1940’s. There are at least five word-heavy pages and a number of thick text bubbles/blocks. This is an intriguing and illuminating penultimate issue where all the chips are put on the table and characters are scheming and getting their hands dirty to tilt the odds in their favor.

            The art here is drawn in a detailed modern style with pulp influences, thick outlines, and decent shading. Though the color palette is realistic there isn’t much vibrancy except when magic or the ladies who use it appear on screen. For natural scenery there is a large yard with trees, bushes, and pink flowers. The primary location in this story is the police station but a few homes and the city streets are visited. Backgrounds are split between being a stylized gradient color and showing the physical surroundings. The expression level here is around average as only some of these characters really show how they feel. Anger is what we’ll see the most with sadness and happiness bringing up the rear. Faces sport a decent to good level of detail and they can be stiff on occasion but usually you’ll be able to decipher the expression. Magic is the primary weapon here and it tends to have a bubbly red or purple look. There is a singular bloody and gruesome moment but the rest of the violence is all physical. The action consists of two one-page scenes that get straight to the point.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural crime stories that star two magic-wielding sisters who hate each other while associating with different crime families and featuring some violence and feuding then this is for you.

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

R. Blood, violence, gore, gruesomeness.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“So you called to threaten me!?”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nospelllastsforever/no-spell-lasts-forever-1-5/description

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 24

Violent Pages: 2, for 8% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

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

 

Violence Level – 2

“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 – 2

“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 – 1

“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.”