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Tell Me, Dark
In the horror mystery TELL ME, DARK, a haunted man enters a world of demonic sacrifices, fallen angels and dark magic when he goes in search of his lost lover. Michael Sands's world was destroyed on the night that his girlfriend inexplicably vanished. Consumed by her memory, the lovesick man returns to England on a quest to discover the true secret behind her disappearance. But after learning that an ancient evil is responsible for his girlfriend's mysterious fate, Michael becomes trapped in a deadly game of personal betrayals and eternal damnation.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Karl Edward Wagner
245 books400 followersKarl Edward Wagner (12 December 1945 – 13 October 1994) was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his world view as nihilistic, anarchistic and absurdist, and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named Richard". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah, stating "I worship the film The Wild Bunch".
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 25, 2018
Tell Me, Dark is an incredibly bone chilling walk down Nightmare lane. I couldn't have shuddered more as my retinas pushed their elasticity to the limit to drink in the magnificence of dingy watercolors melded so wonderfully to such beautifully, striking pencils that range from the minimalist to the realistic. This meeting of styles is as powerful as the strong use of contrasts that range from watery blues, blacks, and browns toward harsh reds that surge forth with fiercely uncompromised recollections of human blood.
The very red that sparingly colors characters of inversely proportional importance melds perfectly into a hallucinatory style that knocks on the doors of our deepest nightmares and then bashes them down. Wispy chromatics fully demand your attention, calling forth heart-wrenching nostalgia and mixing it with our deepest fears. Monet would be surely be frightened to see such a highly reminiscent style (and indubitably inflected by him) push forth such an intimidating story.
What begins as a sorrowful soliloquy of a breakup briskly binds itself into a narrative brimming with wickedness, drugs, sacrifice, and murder all driven by an equally evil secret society. With malevolence bordering on the Satanic, Freddy Krueger would delightfully walk among the very demonic streets of London depicted wherein. The emotional resonance of this work is just astounding as is the art the depicts it. What Charles Burns did all so profoundly in Black Hole, Kent Williams has managed to in Tell Me, Dark to do with truly evocative watercolors that call forth the most primordial of emotions.
Tell Me, Dark, lodges its story in your psyche like a splinter in the mind's eye. What begins as a mere sliver of psychic wood quickly builds up into sharp river of emotion with the size and strength of a Redwood. Featuring a gripping story, gorgeous watercolours, and incredibly tasteful depictions of the human body, Tell Me, Dark is a stupendous read for any fan of reading, comic or otherwise.
Two gleaming thumbs up.
The very red that sparingly colors characters of inversely proportional importance melds perfectly into a hallucinatory style that knocks on the doors of our deepest nightmares and then bashes them down. Wispy chromatics fully demand your attention, calling forth heart-wrenching nostalgia and mixing it with our deepest fears. Monet would be surely be frightened to see such a highly reminiscent style (and indubitably inflected by him) push forth such an intimidating story.
What begins as a sorrowful soliloquy of a breakup briskly binds itself into a narrative brimming with wickedness, drugs, sacrifice, and murder all driven by an equally evil secret society. With malevolence bordering on the Satanic, Freddy Krueger would delightfully walk among the very demonic streets of London depicted wherein. The emotional resonance of this work is just astounding as is the art the depicts it. What Charles Burns did all so profoundly in Black Hole, Kent Williams has managed to in Tell Me, Dark to do with truly evocative watercolors that call forth the most primordial of emotions.
Tell Me, Dark, lodges its story in your psyche like a splinter in the mind's eye. What begins as a mere sliver of psychic wood quickly builds up into sharp river of emotion with the size and strength of a Redwood. Featuring a gripping story, gorgeous watercolours, and incredibly tasteful depictions of the human body, Tell Me, Dark is a stupendous read for any fan of reading, comic or otherwise.
Two gleaming thumbs up.
February 12, 2015
This is a graphic novel I bought specifically for the Kent Williams art.
April 8, 2008
I like to re-read this graphic novel from time-to-time. Had a fling with the writer John. That's another story.
May 25, 2020
I liked the art a lot but the story kind of faltered.
June 3, 2020
This reminds me of Sandman or early Hellblazer, but with the plot dialed down and the pretentiousness dialed way up.
January 14, 2026
Beautifully illustrated portrayal of loving an addict.
August 10, 2017
(DNF)
I read about 20-25 pages and I couldn't get into it. This comic read like one big poem (not that there's anything wrong with poems. I actually enjoy poems but this was too drawn out). The artwork was amazing and for that reason, I skimmed the rest of the book (a reviewer on here mentioned that if you don't like the story, just take a look at it for the art). Just from the pages I skimmed, it doesn't seem like I missed much. I really wanted this story to pull me in. I love dark artwork like this comic had; I just wish I would've liked the story better.
I read about 20-25 pages and I couldn't get into it. This comic read like one big poem (not that there's anything wrong with poems. I actually enjoy poems but this was too drawn out). The artwork was amazing and for that reason, I skimmed the rest of the book (a reviewer on here mentioned that if you don't like the story, just take a look at it for the art). Just from the pages I skimmed, it doesn't seem like I missed much. I really wanted this story to pull me in. I love dark artwork like this comic had; I just wish I would've liked the story better.
July 30, 2011
The expressive, vaporous art seemed so promising. Unfortunately, the opening premise is trite (mopey guy falls inexplicably and irrevocably for bad girl du jour, sans any discernible reason), the characterization stereotypical, the supernatural element undeveloped. The plot itself is one hot, languid mess, aggravated by overwrought prose.
May 1, 2010
Great art, vague story.
January 1, 2020
Pretty misogynist really, and very, very unconvincing.
July 16, 2023
Its fine but nothing i really like.
November 19, 2024
Graphic novel of a brief strange love story.
January 24, 2026
Not my favorite story I’ve read.
September 11, 2023
”… para descubrir que en los juegos que juegan los ángeles caídos un hombre arriesga mucho más que la vida..."
En 1992, Karl Edward Wagner, siquiatra, editor y autor de historias de terror, ganador del British World Fantasy por dos de sus historias, autor del conocido personaje de novelas de "fantasía heroica" kane, que como ha dicho, es un esfuerzo para volver a la mezcla villano-héroe de las novelas góticas; Kent Williams, que ganó en 1990 el Ywllow Kid t el premio Torre Quinigui como el mejor ilustrador extranjero de comic, autor de trabajos importantes en la parte gráfica como: “Blood : A Tale” y "Havok et Wolverine : Meltdown”; (los dos publicados en español por la desaparecida editorial Zinco) y John Ney Rieber, autor de comic y de un libro ilustrado con Williams llamado “So Cruel”; crearon para DC la novela gráfica: “Tell Me, Dark” (“Dime, Oscuro”.
Con versos de Charles Baudelaire al comienzo de cada uno de sus 5 capítulos, más los diseños sumamente reconocibles de rostros de Williams, famosos por representar emociones difícilmente etiquetables, la obra nos cuenta la clásica historia de amor perdido sumergido en ceremonias peligrosas que ponen en conocimiento angeles caídos, sus mercenarios adoradores y crueles, en el reverso de Londres, donde no podía faltar la neblina, los choferes de taxi curiosos, musicos punk y una atmosfera general de decadencia y opresión, que es eficazmente concretizada por Williams, con un manejo remarcable de los colores, especialmente gris y rojo.
El protagonista, Michael Sands, vocalista de roc célebre, conoce en una de múltiples fiestas y se enamora de Barbara FLick, una heroinomana desencantada a la que puede convencer de no suicidarse, pero no convencer que la ama. Durante la víspera de la festividad de Guy Fawkes, caminando sobre el puente de Londres se encuentran con una visión de pesadilla ("fría lujuria en ojos de demonio) que provoca que Sands caiga al Támesis y que se lleva a Barbara con él. Una vez que se ha recuperado, es enviado lejos por uno de sus amigos, que espera que de esta manera pueda olvidarla, pero Sands regresa a Londres por ella, solamente para enterarse que al día siguiente de su accidente ella se ha involucrado con un tipo sádico, miembro de un culto de desequilibrados.
Este reencuentro debe sobrepasar los cambios producidos en ella, que no se encuentra digna del amor que el protagonista le profesa y de los sentimientos ambivalentes de amor-odio de Michael, gatilados por una figura extraña llamada Dark, que le recuerda continuamente todos los problemas que este amor ha traído a su vida. Enseguida se agrega la presencia amenazadora de un angel caido, que se consagra a destruir la vida de los hombres, literal y metaforicamente y que aparecen sin rostro y en todo su esplendor al final de la narración gracias a una magnifica viñeta de Williams.
La obra, sin ser demasiado original, es bastante correcta y nos entrega el interesante trabajo gráfico de Williams, una explicación bien escruta sobre la idea general de la atracción por el lado obscuro de la vida y las consecuencias frecuentes de esto, en palabras de una de sus protagonistas, Barbara Flick: "... queremos "sentir", ser amados, pertenecer a alguien. Pero no sabemos cómo. Y nos volvemos hacia l noche y por un tiempo la noche parece encerrar todo lo que habíamos buscado. Conocemos a los ángeles. Nos prometen emoción. Un abrazo. Un misterio. Un lugar en el paraíso. Nos prometen alas, mi amor. Nos violan a oscuras..."
En 1992, Karl Edward Wagner, siquiatra, editor y autor de historias de terror, ganador del British World Fantasy por dos de sus historias, autor del conocido personaje de novelas de "fantasía heroica" kane, que como ha dicho, es un esfuerzo para volver a la mezcla villano-héroe de las novelas góticas; Kent Williams, que ganó en 1990 el Ywllow Kid t el premio Torre Quinigui como el mejor ilustrador extranjero de comic, autor de trabajos importantes en la parte gráfica como: “Blood : A Tale” y "Havok et Wolverine : Meltdown”; (los dos publicados en español por la desaparecida editorial Zinco) y John Ney Rieber, autor de comic y de un libro ilustrado con Williams llamado “So Cruel”; crearon para DC la novela gráfica: “Tell Me, Dark” (“Dime, Oscuro”.
Con versos de Charles Baudelaire al comienzo de cada uno de sus 5 capítulos, más los diseños sumamente reconocibles de rostros de Williams, famosos por representar emociones difícilmente etiquetables, la obra nos cuenta la clásica historia de amor perdido sumergido en ceremonias peligrosas que ponen en conocimiento angeles caídos, sus mercenarios adoradores y crueles, en el reverso de Londres, donde no podía faltar la neblina, los choferes de taxi curiosos, musicos punk y una atmosfera general de decadencia y opresión, que es eficazmente concretizada por Williams, con un manejo remarcable de los colores, especialmente gris y rojo.
El protagonista, Michael Sands, vocalista de roc célebre, conoce en una de múltiples fiestas y se enamora de Barbara FLick, una heroinomana desencantada a la que puede convencer de no suicidarse, pero no convencer que la ama. Durante la víspera de la festividad de Guy Fawkes, caminando sobre el puente de Londres se encuentran con una visión de pesadilla ("fría lujuria en ojos de demonio) que provoca que Sands caiga al Támesis y que se lleva a Barbara con él. Una vez que se ha recuperado, es enviado lejos por uno de sus amigos, que espera que de esta manera pueda olvidarla, pero Sands regresa a Londres por ella, solamente para enterarse que al día siguiente de su accidente ella se ha involucrado con un tipo sádico, miembro de un culto de desequilibrados.
Este reencuentro debe sobrepasar los cambios producidos en ella, que no se encuentra digna del amor que el protagonista le profesa y de los sentimientos ambivalentes de amor-odio de Michael, gatilados por una figura extraña llamada Dark, que le recuerda continuamente todos los problemas que este amor ha traído a su vida. Enseguida se agrega la presencia amenazadora de un angel caido, que se consagra a destruir la vida de los hombres, literal y metaforicamente y que aparecen sin rostro y en todo su esplendor al final de la narración gracias a una magnifica viñeta de Williams.
La obra, sin ser demasiado original, es bastante correcta y nos entrega el interesante trabajo gráfico de Williams, una explicación bien escruta sobre la idea general de la atracción por el lado obscuro de la vida y las consecuencias frecuentes de esto, en palabras de una de sus protagonistas, Barbara Flick: "... queremos "sentir", ser amados, pertenecer a alguien. Pero no sabemos cómo. Y nos volvemos hacia l noche y por un tiempo la noche parece encerrar todo lo que habíamos buscado. Conocemos a los ángeles. Nos prometen emoción. Un abrazo. Un misterio. Un lugar en el paraíso. Nos prometen alas, mi amor. Nos violan a oscuras..."
June 26, 2023
Released in 1993 directly before DC Comics launched the Vertigo imprint, Tell Me, Dark is the kind of graphic novel that forced DC to finally admit a new way of telling stories was emerging at the edges of their superhero line. Based on an original story by Karl Edward Wagner, who did not venture much more into the comics world, and featuring haunting watercolors by Kent Wiliams, Tell Me, Dark feels particularly well placed in the early 90s world of post-superhero graphic fiction. A musician tries to track down a former lover, finding her involved in a type of blood-ritual cult, drawing him underground and into a frightening world of sadism, magic, and kink. The watercolors serve to remind us, throughout, that nothing we see should be interpreted as strictly literal, the boundaries between the conscious and subconscious have evaporated, and the fear itself may only be the relic of a deteriorating mind. A short book and one that has largely been lost to time, but it stands out by just how shocking it might appear to those raised on a more recent generation of horror comics.
February 8, 2011
I picked it because of interesting art which promised an interesting story. Fail. I have no idea why there are so called adult graphic novels full of the same psycho characters, which seemed to be on crack I think even authors were on drugs. Story about man who is finding his girl in London. The story is about hallucinations and seeking of the bloody truth. Argh never more.
February 11, 2013
Very nice art with a so-so plot
This graphic novel has some wonderfully dark art, with a striking use of colour throughout. The storyline is decent until a few pages into the fifth and final chapter, at which point it seems to become a bit oversimplified and corny. Overall, worth taking a look at, even if only for the art.
This graphic novel has some wonderfully dark art, with a striking use of colour throughout. The storyline is decent until a few pages into the fifth and final chapter, at which point it seems to become a bit oversimplified and corny. Overall, worth taking a look at, even if only for the art.
July 12, 2012
La historia no está a la altura del arte, y a veces lo bonito de los dibujos incluso entorpece la narración misma.
May 14, 2015
Nope, this one was not for me. Too out there for my tastes. The art was very good at times, but very inconsistent.
August 26, 2010
Pretty. Some of it was confusing, and what wasn't was pretty trite, but it was pretty.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews