Warlash:Dark Noir #1

Warlash: Dark Noir
Asylum Press
Issue No. 1

Comic book Review by Bryan Schuessler

Warlash is a bad-ass crime-fighter that finds himself battling evil villains in a various number of settings and time periods. The superhero is the brain-child of Frank Forte, who writes all the stories and also illustrates some stories as well. The issue I read came out in AUG. 2008. Asylum Press put it out and, along with a slew of comic books that are adult-themed and oriented with lots of violence, gore, and scantily-clad women. All in all, most of their comic books seem like content that horror-hounds would be all over.

There were four short stories contained in the glossy-paged mini-graphic novel style book, priced at $3.95, and for the most part, I enjoyed them. Each story ended on a cliff-hanger, leaving the reader thirsting for more. Some of the stories did do just that, and some fell flat.

The first story entitled Phlegm Fatale had our hero, Warlash, fighting against a monstrously large worm-like creature who was just about to tear into a damsel in distress. Warlash looks like a cross between Giger’s Alien design with its head’s shape and an attaching whip-like tale as part of its head, or helmet, not quite sure. The end of the tail has a very sharp blade that is used almost sword-like to readily slice and dice any adversaries that get in Warlash’s way. His attitude reminded me of a mixture of Lobo and Judge Dredd. All attitude and tough as rocks. The artwork was well-done in this story and, although the plot was simple-minded, I enjoyed it.
Frank Forte illustrated and wrote the story.

The second story, entitled Wormwar, sucked. This was the only story that really fell flat on all levels for me. One is thrown into a futuristic setting and kind of left in the dark as to who exactly the enemy is and what is going on. I did not like the artwork at all. It was painted and had little detail added to background and was just too surreal for my tastes. This chapter of the comic was surely my least-favorite. Szymon Kudranski illustrated the story and Frank Forte was responsible for writing it . I am biased as this style of artwork works wonderfully for a large picture, suitable for framing, but just not what I want to view while following frame-to-frame action in a comic book.

The comic was redeemed, though, with the last two entries. The Demon was illustrated beautifully by Marcin Ponomarew and written by Frank Forte. Colors were done by both Ponomarew and Forte. The colors made the difference and really added to the artwork. The drawings were done in a super hero cartoonish sort of way and I really dug it! This, in my opinion, was also the best story and the most fun for me to read. It had massive amounts of blood and guts, dealing with a demon that is summoned by wanna-be satanists that do not know what they were really getting into. Mortal humans that try to buddy up with satanic demons hell-bent on devouring and enslaving/destroying the world will never persevere! But it sure makes for good reading!
The final chapter in the Warlash quadrangular slew of stories was a nice pulpy, crime noir story that plays out with all the sin and sex one might ask for from a character that is given the nickname “Grubbs“. That name cannot be a good thing. One has Steve Mannion to thank for the highly stylish black and white art that really caught my eye, especially his lovely of the whorish, well, WHORES that our “Grubbs” pays to have the companionship with for the night, sometimes more than one at a time! That sounds like my kind of scumbag! This tale is a little sicker than the rest and has our hero Warlash being called upon to take out the trash.

Aside from the afore-mentioned story that I was not fond of, the comic book as a whole was better than average and if the artwork stays gory and detailed, I may have to keep on reading. If one likes their pulpy crime drama sprinkled with bloody gore and torn pieces of guts and flesh strewn about, than this is your comic book to read. If not, good luck finding a wimpy Agatha Christie-like comic book to safely read.