COVER OF DARKNESS: ORIGINS #1, from Source Point Press, tells three tales of horrifying love from the Cover of Darkness world. Count Orlok makes a fatal mistake to save his niece, Yamato faces down a Lovecraftian monster to save his lady love, and Victor Frankenstein finds the secret to saving Mary from a fate worse than death.
The Details
- Written by: George Michail, Chris Cam
- Art by: Andy Belanger, GMB Chomichuk, John Delaney
- Colors by: Hailey Renee
- Letters by: Nikki Powers
- Cover price: $3.99
- Release date: TBD
Is It Good?
COVER OF DARKNESS: ORIGINS #1 capitalizes on the strongest elements from the Cover of Darkness series – the origins of classic monsters with a twist – and spins the concept off into its own title. Does Michail repeat the “origin” success from the main title with this anthology? Mostly, yes.
As with (almost) all anthology books, the quality of shorts can vary wildly from weak to strong. In this case, however, the variances are fairly consistent. Only the art varies wildly, but on the whole, the art is better than average.
Of the three shorts, the best of the bunch is the first story, The Contentious Origin of Count Orlok. The art from Belanger is better than any issue in the original Cover of Darkness series, and the unique twist on Count Orlok’s origin is fodder for its own mini-series.
The weakest story in the group is Enter Yamato. The highly-referenced art with rotoscope backgrounds establishes an interesting mood, but the character progression of Yamato from returning ninja to the slayer of a giant crab monster who serves Cthulu doesn’t connect the dots for a basic plot. The ending, in particular, just sorta happens without any flow or sense.
Overall, if you’re a fan of the origin stories from Cover of Darkness, this anthology is a worthy successor with unique tales and better art than the original series.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at the covers, or Click Here to jump right to the story description with some spoilers.
What’s It About?
[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]
As with all our anthology reviews, we’ll briefly describe each short and what did or didn’t work.
The Contentious Origin of Count Orlok
Orlok is the respected uncle of Princess Illyanna, leader of the water elves. When the princess’s health fails, and elven healers can do no more, Orlok seeks out alternative help to save his beloved niece. His quest for help takes him to the throne of one Count Dracula.
Mixing Dracula lore with elven magic lore is a novel concept and makes for a unique twist on two genres – fantasy and horror. The art is gorgeous, and the setup is well done.
Enter Yamato
Yamato returns to his lady love after several years away. Unable to win her hand in marriage as a lowly farm hand, Yamato left to make his fortune in the world and wound up becoming a ninja for hire. Now, Yamato returns to claim his love’s hand, but the dishonor of becoming a ninja forbids it. Rejected but undeterred, Yamato faces a gigantic servant of Cthulu to regain his honor and his lady love.
This short is the weakest for its minimalist art and an ending that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Yamato harms the giant monster, but not enough to kill it. But for some reason, the monster leaves. You get the feeling there was more story and not enough pages to fit it all in, and the edits were too severe.
Mary Frankenstein
Victor and Mary Frankenstein travel the world to find a cure for the zombie plague Victor inadvertently created. When Mary is bitten and amputation becomes necessary, Victor finds a new way to restore Mary and make her the Bride he always wanted.
Cover of Darkness already covered the unique origin of Frankenstein’s monster, so it was a treat to see a sequel that shows how the Bride of Frankenstein came to be. Filled with a tiny bit of humor and fun art, this short is closest to the origin tales from the original series and a solid start for more adventures.
Keep scrolling for a closer look at preview images of the internal pages, or Click Here to jump right to the score.
Final Thoughts
COVER OF DARKNESS: ORIGINS #1 takes the most compelling aspect of the Cover of Darkness series (the origin stories) and creates an anthology that does more of what we love. The twists on familiar characters are interesting, and the overall art quality is very good, however, some shorts are weaker than others.
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