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DarkChylde (collected editions) #1
DarkChylde: The Descent
Collects Darkchylde (1997) #1-5. Story and art by Randy Queen. Collecting the original five issue storyline that introduced Randy Queen's Darkchylde to comic and horror fans and sparked a phenomenon! Ariel Chylde is a beautiful but tormented teen who discovers she can become any of the creatures from her many recurring nightmares! Beautiful artwork, poetic writing, engaging characters, and stunning colors combine to make this one of the most memorable introductions of a female character in recent memory. If you like Carrie, Aliens, or A Nightmare on Elm Street you'll love Darkchylde.
120 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 16, 2010
Darkchylde is what happens when good premise meets campy writing.
Ariel is a 17 year old girl who has the power to transform into the creatures of her nightmares. Some other guy (or demon, I was never really sure) wants to capture the monsters she brings into this world and keep them under his control to do his bidding.
This premise was enough to hook me. However, the execution was run-of-the-mill action fluff that kept me away from comics in my teens. None of the characters ever become more than their stereotypes, and some aren’t even good enough to be considered cliché.
Maybe it’s because I’m used to reading novels and short stories that I want more sense of character identity, but I know other graphic artist/writers (like Richard Sala) who couple their illustrations with dialogue to create truly original characters, and they use half of the words that Randy Queen uses.
The illustrations are fantastic. My only gripe would be that the 17 year old girl looks like a 25 year old porn star, and while she is definitely easy on the eyes, I think it strained the credibility of the character. Sure she’s hot, but there’s not much else shown to us through her illustrations. She looks like a generic blonde beauty, and nothing she says or does ever really makes her stick out as individual. The male characters are equally hilarious in their unbelievably ripped teenage bodies. Such is comics, I suppose.
The prose and dialogue are cringe-worthy and amount to nothing more than generalized sentiments and rudimentary stream-of-consciousness thoughts.
I hear a movie based on this story is in production. Hopefully it will be able to create well-rounded characters that this story never did.
For such an interesting idea, the story fell so flat. This gets two stars for an interesting premise and great artwork.
Ariel is a 17 year old girl who has the power to transform into the creatures of her nightmares. Some other guy (or demon, I was never really sure) wants to capture the monsters she brings into this world and keep them under his control to do his bidding.
This premise was enough to hook me. However, the execution was run-of-the-mill action fluff that kept me away from comics in my teens. None of the characters ever become more than their stereotypes, and some aren’t even good enough to be considered cliché.
Maybe it’s because I’m used to reading novels and short stories that I want more sense of character identity, but I know other graphic artist/writers (like Richard Sala) who couple their illustrations with dialogue to create truly original characters, and they use half of the words that Randy Queen uses.
The illustrations are fantastic. My only gripe would be that the 17 year old girl looks like a 25 year old porn star, and while she is definitely easy on the eyes, I think it strained the credibility of the character. Sure she’s hot, but there’s not much else shown to us through her illustrations. She looks like a generic blonde beauty, and nothing she says or does ever really makes her stick out as individual. The male characters are equally hilarious in their unbelievably ripped teenage bodies. Such is comics, I suppose.
The prose and dialogue are cringe-worthy and amount to nothing more than generalized sentiments and rudimentary stream-of-consciousness thoughts.
I hear a movie based on this story is in production. Hopefully it will be able to create well-rounded characters that this story never did.
For such an interesting idea, the story fell so flat. This gets two stars for an interesting premise and great artwork.
December 31, 2016
Great concept, strange execution. A lot of potential that was ruined by distracting artwork and busy layout.
I know part of this can be attributed to the time frame, but the girl's proportions were bizarre. She wasn't Elf/supermodel-like, she looked like a severely skinny Barbie doll with huge fake breasts. Perry's proportions were also bizarre. They are supposed to be seniors in high school but it looks more like a seedy pornographic version of itself.
The demons were fantastic, versatile, fun. Text frames were also great.
I know part of this can be attributed to the time frame, but the girl's proportions were bizarre. She wasn't Elf/supermodel-like, she looked like a severely skinny Barbie doll with huge fake breasts. Perry's proportions were also bizarre. They are supposed to be seniors in high school but it looks more like a seedy pornographic version of itself.
The demons were fantastic, versatile, fun. Text frames were also great.
June 24, 2017
Probably the worst I've read thus. The art is bad and confusing at times (there are a lot of better options for those who are into the whole overly sexual minor kind of a thing), the writing is third grade level (at best), the fonts used for the nightmares' speech makes reading it almost impossible, and you know what's about to happen before the characters have the chance to foreshadow it.
There are a lot of ways to take a very stereotypical story with very stereotypical characters and make it interesting.
Darkchylde is a perfect example of how not to do it.
There are a lot of ways to take a very stereotypical story with very stereotypical characters and make it interesting.
Darkchylde is a perfect example of how not to do it.
October 23, 2017
Not a fan. Clumsy, bad art, worse writing.
December 9, 2020
I remembered this being much better. The art is not that great and the writing is pretty pompous.
April 7, 2015
Ariel Chylde discovers she has a mean curse which allows her to shed her skin and become the many monsters from her nightmares. This is a fun, spooky collection, and while this edition was originally released in 1999, it still has a certain manic energy and creative vitality missing from most modern comics. Ariel is a resilient character who isn’t waiting around for some guy to save her – she’s too busy saving herself and her town. Okay, she almost burns it all down in the end, and I thought the closing pages were kind of sad, but sad endings can be memorable too. I enjoyed this, and understand why it was such a successful series.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews