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The Marquis Volume 1: Inferno (2009)

by Guy Davis(Favorite Author)

4.03 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1595823689 (ISBN13: 9781595823687)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Dark Horse Books

review 1: Visually striking, especially the demons and the city-scapes, the narrative was repetitive, and a rather simple situation - the marquis is empowered by the devil to return escaped demons to Hell - is purposefully kept obfuscated for too long. The protagonist's moral turmoil is ultimately banal; we know he is going to accept Satan's help to keep the bloodshed flowing in future issues.The black and white style suits Davis' artwork, much better than the color treatments in the BPRD publications.
review 2: The Marquis is one of Guy Davis' big bits of work. And from what I've read, I gotta admit this is the one I liked the least, which pains me as I have a lot of respect for him and a lot of love for his work.Originally published by Oni Press, The Marquis is set in ... morea fictional Italian-esque city that is beset by demons. The priesthood is trying to turn the people away from sin, the military presence is trying to stop a run of violent, disturbing murders, all the while a masked and cloaked figure known only as Le Marquis is leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. It is best described as perhaps a cross between The Borgias and Mike Mignola's Hellboy, a story where powers both human and inhuman are at play, creating a twisted, perverted world that is wallowing in sin.The problem with The Marquis: Inferno is that it is prone to exposition and, sadly, repetition. It is full of pages of characters (normally the same two) talking in long-winded sentences about the same topics. At times the panel structure (and their contents) is so similar that it seems like sections have almost been copy-pasted throughout. Various parts of the plot play themselves out almost repetitiously, too, even the locations seeming to repeat themselves.This constant cycling of events with such verbose characters can quickly wear on one's patience, and I found myself struggling to manage more than a few pages at a time without putting in an exceptional amount of effort. It wasn't until I hit the final issue (which was a standalone) that my progress moved at speed. As for the art? I think it's pretty good, but almost every page is done in black and white (only one issue has any colour, and even then it's only *one* colour), and with Guy's own style, this means that many characters look perhaps a little too similar, and that details often get lost within his characteristic 'rough' style. This leaves a number of pages where it's hard to make out what has happened, though at the same time I'm struggling to imagine what the book would look like in colour.I'm saddened that I didn't like The Marquis more, I genuinely am. I was very excited to get my hands on a copy (after patiently waiting for the third printing), but I found it very hard going, and the payoff did not justify the effort I put into reading it. I will, however, be continuing with this series as and when Guy Davis continues it, but I just didn't get what I wanted out of it. less

Download links for: The Marquis Volume 1: Inferno

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