THE DARK GOODBYE (VOLUME 1)
December 30th 2008 22:47
Category: Graphic Novels/Comics
“That is not dead which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons even death may die”
Kitab al-Azif, Abdul Alhazred.
Publisher: Tokyopop Inc
Story by: Frank Marrafino
Artwork by: Drew Rausch
Lettering: Lucas Rivera
Cover Design: Christian Lownds
Cost: AU $15.95/US $9.99/UK £6.99
Dark Metro, The Dark Goodbye perhaps there is something of a theme running here? I suppose its all an offshoot of working with the horror genre after all, you’re hardly going to call a tale of dark brooding elder terror the Cheerful Fluffy Pink Bunny Goodbye are you? Although it wouldn’t surprise me if somewhere there is a horror tale with just that very title, it is in of itself a horror that man should not know of. So imagine if you will if a major crime fiction luminary such as Raymond Chandler got together with that doyen of Eldritch nightmares H.P Lovecraft or even one of his contemporaries Robert Bloch, what do you think would be the result? Well The Dark Goodbye is in my opinion what would occur, fusing the elements of the noir detective world with the blasphemous monstrosities and Great Old Ones of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.
The place is Los Allende, a fictional city somewhere out on the west coast of the continental US, the protagonist is Max ‘Mutt’ Mason, a former police officer now turned private eye. Mason, or Mutt as some know him, is you stereotypical hard boiled private eye, he drinks, he smokes and he has a constant interior monologue running at all times; all good elements of a noir style detective. He also has a five o clock shadow that just enhances the idea that here is a man who has either spent too many nights out on a stakeout or else indulging in a few too many glasses of hooch at some two bit dive trying to dredge up info on a case. He is just the kind of character you want as your protagonist in a story of this ilk.
Now no doubt some of you are wondering why initially I mentioned Raymond Chandler in particular when talking about a fusion of noir detective and eldritch horror fiction. Sure I could have easily have said Dashiel Hammet or Rex Stout but Chandler was mentioned for a particular reason, you see this first volume of The Dark Goodbye is similar in certain ways to Chandler’s The Big Sleep. Now I emphasise the fact that the story is similar in ‘certain’ ways, it is not a carbon copy of The Big Sleep. Anyone who has either read the original story or seen the various movie versions, the first with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe and the second with Robert Mitchum in the same role would see where I am coming from. For those who have seen neither film or ever bothered with the works of Mr Chandler then I shall helpfully point out what I am getting at here.
In the original work there is an elderly old man wanting to have someone found, there is a mad young daughter, a femme fatale character, a missing person and the implication that there is a little bit more going on than what the protagonist has been told, a hint of something scandalous. All of these elements are pretty much there in The Dark Goodbye, except they have been reshaped and re moulded to fit in with the fusion between the world of noir and the Cthulhu mythos. If they were not then they’d make little or no sense within the framework of the story being told, so we have Mason waking up after what seems to be a hard night out and being approached by the obligatory femme fatale character. This occurs after Mason has gotten over throwing up and getting something of a pick me up from his personal Florence Nightingale, Melissa Katonic.
The femme fatale is one Livinia Tillinghast, a name that sounds as if it walked straight from the pages of Call of Cthulhu; she wants to hire Mason although after seeing him she wonders if he has got what it takes. Smelling the sweet aroma of money Mason assures Ms Tillinghast that he is more than capable and is happy to take on whatever it is she wants to hire him for. Here we are in the world of the traditional noir detective story, beautiful femme fatale hires detective to do a job for her, detective agrees, the job seems simple and the dame in question is willing to cough up plenty of cold hard cash something that the detective is currently in need of, big time what with the rent due and a large bar tab he needs to take care of. From this point onwards though things take a drastic turn down the mean streets of noir and end up winding its way into the hoary shadow haunted landscapes of the Cthulhu mythos.
Ms Tillinghast is interested in finding her sister Mary who has become involved with the mysterious Dr Akeley, a Holistic Doctor who has been helping Mary getting over some undisclosed ailment. Now Ms Tillinghast isn’t the only individual interested in finding Mary, there is the local mob boss Joe Canino who is keen to find Mary as well as Curwen Spindledrift, Mary’s grandfather and the main shareholder of Exham Industries. Both of these individuals have different reasons for wanting to find Mary and strangely it’s the Mafia don who seems to have a far less malevolent reason for wanting Mary found.
You get the feeling as you read this tale that Mason feels a little bit out of his depth, certainly his former partner Shinjo who has ended up in Gatehouse, the local lunatic asylum. Shinjo was initially hired by Spindledrift on a variety of matters and the results seem to have been the loss of what sanity he had. He delved to deep in matters man was not meant to know of perhaps? It’s certainly a common fate that befalls many in the Cthulhu mythos so it’s only natural for it to occur here, Mason consults his shattered partner who mutters something cryptic in much the same way as the Oracle of Delphi and this helps him to look for the next piece of the puzzle.
As an effort of fusing the elements of noir detective fiction and the Cthulhu Mythos The Dark Goodbye certainly works well, although I did find Mr Rausch’s artwork a little disturbing although according to the editor of this volume it’s just the right kind of style necessary for a tale this sombre and malevolent. Certainly its not all doom and gloom, there are the odd moments of laconic humour as well as just pure oddball stuff, to whit the “Hey Kids Manga” sign in Akeley’s Emporium. The Dark Goodbye is exactly the same in format as Sorcerers & Secretaries, sure it’s a manga but rather than being presented in the traditional Japanese style it is in a western format – it reads from left to right rather than the opposite. In the final pages there is a brief rundown of the history of the city of Los Allende from the days of the Conquistadores to the present era. If you’re a fan of noir and the Cthulhu mythos then this is well worth making the effort of getting a hold of.
And with strange aeons even death may die”
Kitab al-Azif, Abdul Alhazred.
Publisher: Tokyopop Inc
Story by: Frank Marrafino
Artwork by: Drew Rausch
Lettering: Lucas Rivera
Cover Design: Christian Lownds
Cost: AU $15.95/US $9.99/UK £6.99
Dark Metro, The Dark Goodbye perhaps there is something of a theme running here? I suppose its all an offshoot of working with the horror genre after all, you’re hardly going to call a tale of dark brooding elder terror the Cheerful Fluffy Pink Bunny Goodbye are you? Although it wouldn’t surprise me if somewhere there is a horror tale with just that very title, it is in of itself a horror that man should not know of. So imagine if you will if a major crime fiction luminary such as Raymond Chandler got together with that doyen of Eldritch nightmares H.P Lovecraft or even one of his contemporaries Robert Bloch, what do you think would be the result? Well The Dark Goodbye is in my opinion what would occur, fusing the elements of the noir detective world with the blasphemous monstrosities and Great Old Ones of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.
In the original work there is an elderly old man wanting to have someone found, there is a mad young daughter, a femme fatale character, a missing person and the implication that there is a little bit more going on than what the protagonist has been told, a hint of something scandalous. All of these elements are pretty much there in The Dark Goodbye, except they have been reshaped and re moulded to fit in with the fusion between the world of noir and the Cthulhu mythos. If they were not then they’d make little or no sense within the framework of the story being told, so we have Mason waking up after what seems to be a hard night out and being approached by the obligatory femme fatale character. This occurs after Mason has gotten over throwing up and getting something of a pick me up from his personal Florence Nightingale, Melissa Katonic.
The femme fatale is one Livinia Tillinghast, a name that sounds as if it walked straight from the pages of Call of Cthulhu; she wants to hire Mason although after seeing him she wonders if he has got what it takes. Smelling the sweet aroma of money Mason assures Ms Tillinghast that he is more than capable and is happy to take on whatever it is she wants to hire him for. Here we are in the world of the traditional noir detective story, beautiful femme fatale hires detective to do a job for her, detective agrees, the job seems simple and the dame in question is willing to cough up plenty of cold hard cash something that the detective is currently in need of, big time what with the rent due and a large bar tab he needs to take care of. From this point onwards though things take a drastic turn down the mean streets of noir and end up winding its way into the hoary shadow haunted landscapes of the Cthulhu mythos.
Ms Tillinghast is interested in finding her sister Mary who has become involved with the mysterious Dr Akeley, a Holistic Doctor who has been helping Mary getting over some undisclosed ailment. Now Ms Tillinghast isn’t the only individual interested in finding Mary, there is the local mob boss Joe Canino who is keen to find Mary as well as Curwen Spindledrift, Mary’s grandfather and the main shareholder of Exham Industries. Both of these individuals have different reasons for wanting to find Mary and strangely it’s the Mafia don who seems to have a far less malevolent reason for wanting Mary found.
You get the feeling as you read this tale that Mason feels a little bit out of his depth, certainly his former partner Shinjo who has ended up in Gatehouse, the local lunatic asylum. Shinjo was initially hired by Spindledrift on a variety of matters and the results seem to have been the loss of what sanity he had. He delved to deep in matters man was not meant to know of perhaps? It’s certainly a common fate that befalls many in the Cthulhu mythos so it’s only natural for it to occur here, Mason consults his shattered partner who mutters something cryptic in much the same way as the Oracle of Delphi and this helps him to look for the next piece of the puzzle.
As an effort of fusing the elements of noir detective fiction and the Cthulhu Mythos The Dark Goodbye certainly works well, although I did find Mr Rausch’s artwork a little disturbing although according to the editor of this volume it’s just the right kind of style necessary for a tale this sombre and malevolent. Certainly its not all doom and gloom, there are the odd moments of laconic humour as well as just pure oddball stuff, to whit the “Hey Kids Manga” sign in Akeley’s Emporium. The Dark Goodbye is exactly the same in format as Sorcerers & Secretaries, sure it’s a manga but rather than being presented in the traditional Japanese style it is in a western format – it reads from left to right rather than the opposite. In the final pages there is a brief rundown of the history of the city of Los Allende from the days of the Conquistadores to the present era. If you’re a fan of noir and the Cthulhu mythos then this is well worth making the effort of getting a hold of.
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