Link: http://www.thedarkcomicbook.com

CLICK IMAGE TO EMBIGGEN

The Dark is coming. At least that's what Chris Lynch told us on the Sidekickcast some months ago but slap my thigh and call me Sally if he wasn't telling the truth, I know this because he was kind enough to send me a complete preview of the first issue. The rest of you bums can pick it up August of this year as a digital comic book, via iTunes, with three more issues in the pipeline. A graphic novel is planned for later in the year but if you can't wait for either of those there's a 9 page preview available at http://www.thedarkcomicbook.com.

By this point I'm sure you're all aware of what the Dark is but if not here's a quick rundown from the Markosia Press Release:

The Dark is the story of Daniel Abbot, a brilliant young scientist on the fringes of the establishment and the creator of Memetech - a technology that encodes information and memories into a liquid form, allowing anyone to “drink” the information. Terrified that his invention will be used for military purposes he decides to destroy his research, but not before he takes one last trip ... with
disastrous results.

Follow up:

Two years on, and the Memetech genie is out of the bottle. Abbot, having perfected his own version of the technology, fights a one-man war against the spread of his own invention and the collapse of our information culture in the guise of “The Dark”. Aided by an artificial intelligence nicknamed Howard Hughes, Abbott creates “The Baffler” – a coat made of Memetech that gives his the edge over his
enemies. Capable of injecting information directly into this brain and firing Memetech flechettes to hit others with bursts of pure information, The Baffler is both weapon and disguise in Daniel Abbot's war against his own creation. When The Dark uncovers a plot to set off Memetech bombs across the whole of the city Dante, filling the air with liquid information and creating a new society of his enemy's devising, The Dark is plunged into a desperate race against time.
But, not everything is what is seems. Who is the new and mysterious enemy who seems to know The Dark's every move? How did the Memetech, thought destroyed, reappear? Why can't Daniel wake his wife and son? And why is everyone in Dante named after an English poet?

When I started the first issue I thought 'Ok this seems like your standard dark avenger vigilate superhero story with a nice little sci-fi premise for the powers'. I was wrong. The main protagonist reads like the bastard love child of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne with a hint of the tortured soul of Frank Castle. The idea of information as a weapon is taken to it's literal conclusion in this story and although it may seem like the stuff of science fiction I suspect Lynch has been flicking through the pages of The New Scientist as liquid information is one of the next big steps in digital information transfer. This is very much on the fringe of science-fact.
By the end of the book everything I thought I knew had been turned on it's head and I was totally sucked in. Of course I should've realised that with Monkeys with Machineguns writer Chris Lynch at the helm it was never going to be that simple. Within one issue he manages to set up the hero and his struggle whilst at the same time subverting everything you thought you knew leaving you aching for more. To say anymore would spoil the book and that's not something I want to do as I think everyone deserves to experience this first hand.

The art is ably handled by Rick Lundeen (100 Covers, Epoch) who seems to come into his own when handling the action scenes, of which there are many, making Abbot pull of impossible moves with ease all flowing smoothly from one panel to the next. The design of the main character is also a triumph, simple but effective especially as this forms one of the central themes of the book. If I had one criticism of the book and it is a small one, the colours are not to my taste, a darker grittier pallette would've suited the tone of the story more.

This is both artist and writer's first full graphic novel work for Markosia and publisher Harry Markos had this to say on securing the property:
“I’ve been a big fan of Chris Lynch for a while now and asked him to pitch a couple
of new projects that we could look at for the digital market, with a view to releasing
it as a graphic novel later. He has come up trumps with The Dark. Coupled with
Rick’s fantastically atmospheric art, Chris’s story takes you to a very believable but
disturbing world, not unlike the one we are living in at the moment! I am confident
that we have a hit in the making.”

Well Harry I'm confident too if the next issue is as good as the first then this book will surely do well. I'll also be intersted to see how the the digital download release of this works out for Markosia. Hopefully this will allow the book to be more accessible especially to those overseas that may not usually get a chance to get their hands on UK based comics which may lead to more interest in the full graphic novel, I'll certainly be ordering a copy. 4*