Pyre: Burial at Sea #1 is a comic created by Ashley Hurwitz & Ra’Chaun Rogers with art by Shan Bennion. Lily attempts to delay what appears to be her inevitable transformation into a monster. This is a supernatural comic with drama, violence, and some mystery elements. The leading lady for this tale is Lily, she is a demoness with shapeshifting abilities and she’s been alive for over 300 years. She is currently searching for a way to prevent herself from being transformed/taken/possessed by a powerful entity. The story begins Lily in her human form reading in a park when her book catches the eye of a nearby man. The very next page is her and this random man getting hot and heavy in his apartment. This takes place in the Lawful Evil universe. The violence here gets very bloody and gory with some gruesome and brutal attacks. The pacing here is steady with some fast moments and it is dramatic and has a very introspective tone. There are many intense moments due to violence and fear. The dialogue is very conversational with a large amount of Lily’s thoughts being narrated. On rare occasions you might get confused as to who is actually talking. There are no word-heavy pages. This is an exciting debut issue for a character you might be familiar with as she goes through both internal and external struggles to save herself.

            The art here is drawn in a lightly-cartoonish, smoothish style with very strong lighting and shading. The color palette has a lot of red and darker tones with occasional bright hues. Most of this takes place in or around buildings with the most scenery we get being a relatively quick glimpse of the open sea. There isn’t a primary location as Lily visits multiple homes, a business, and large ships. These areas have a lot of character and the backgrounds tend to exhibit this with furniture and images showing personality. The expression level here is high as Lily and other folk wear their emotions on their sleeves. The range consists of happiness, seductiveness, anger, terror, confusion, fear, and surprise. The faces are very detailed with high cheekbones and wide eyes that show the different expressions clearly. The mystical effects are usually bright with blurring. The violence is usually physical though it can involve bladed weapons. There is a large amount of blood and there are some gruesome, limb-separating attacks that result in gore. The action scenes come in bursts and have a decent, unconfusing flow.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes, if this is up your alley.

“Would I like this?”

If you like supernatural stories starring a demoness with strong drama, gruesome violence, and mystery then this is for you.

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

R. Violence, gore, nudity, sexual situations.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“As if you’re the first man to offer me the world.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lawfulevil/pyre-burial-at-sea-1/description

 

 

***** I received this review copy for free. *****

 

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

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 28

Violent Pages: 6, for 21% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 6, for 21% of the comic

 

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

 

Violence Level – 3

“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 – 5

“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 – 3

“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 – 4

“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.”