Flesh Angels

Posted: Tuesday, April 23, 2002
By: Darren Schroeder

Cover of Flesh Angels Writer(s): M.D.Koffin
Artist(s): Vonphantasi
Publishers: VonPhantasi Studios
From: Germany
Price: $3:75 (US?)

Strange things are going on in the underground, away from prying eyes and the conformity of humanity. We appear to be spying on something. Is it a conversation, an internal dialogue, or perhaps a council of devils? Who knows. And what is it that we can see down there? Bodies that are mutilated, defiled, metamorphosed. Are they victims of fowl play, strange creatures escaped from hell, or the twisted projections of a sexually frustrated outsider?

Questions, James sets us many in this glossy color comic. But answers? Well, if you had the promotional blurb that he sent us you can figure out what is going on, but to tell you that here would soil your fun. There is a faint impression of a plot, e-mailed appointments and women struggling against an attack. The majority of the book is the dialogue: measured but full to the brim of ambiguity.

Vonphantasi's artwork doesn't help us much, it is all murkily painted scenes of limbs, genitalia and the subway. The artist doesn't shy away from the grotesque. It is displayed in an earthy pallet to good effect, creating a grim atmosphere of decay.

It is hard to know what audience this is pitched at. It is certainly adult content, though the lack of and easily identifiable narrative means you will have to be satisfied psychotic babblings and gore.

In a Word: Muddied.



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