Review:

The first contact I ever had with Bizenghast and M.Alice's work was in a dumpster behind an upscale Barnes and Nobles. It was about midnight and my friends and I huddled around the "Cardboard Only" dumpster to have a looksee at what literary, coverless treasures might lay inside. Engling and Paul flipped back the black plastic lids, allowing me to vault over the green and rust colored metal. Tossing aside the plain smashed cardboard boxes revealed the treasure beneath: BOXES of BOOKS... and one very ... peculiar extra - a life-size cardboard cut-out of Dinah Wherever wearing a gown of bone and black!

Yeah, Moni got the cut-out, but I had to snag the first volume of this series so bad that I actually payed for it. It was worth it. And this sequel doesn't let down either. M.Alice's artwork is absolutely breathtaking in it's variance, detail, shading, and scope. Using a sort of crosshatch shading, she mimics victorian engravings expertly; meanwhile the gargantuan gothic arches and marble columns seem perfectly out of sync with the decrepid late European cottages depicted. All throughout this is a layer of grime and a sheen of beauty - the poltergeists of spoiled brats rise to heaven on detailed black wings in front of their parents before being plunged into the inferno before their peers. To sum it up, the art's got all of the juxtaposition and perverse connections of the gothic works of old.

In terms of story, LeGrow weaves together the traditional episodic format of manga (there are 40 lost souls that must be put to rest within the bowels of the Mausoleum - teehee "bowels") the moralistic side of European storytelling with a specific focus on character interactions and growth. Add to this perhaps the single most insane and smarmy sidekick-demony-cat-thingy and you've got a recipe for ..um... well I'm not quitre sure what, but it's amazing... so there.

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