Black Kiss is a hardboiled erotic American comic book series written and drawn by Howard Chaykin , which was originally published in 1988 by Vortex Comics . [1] [2]
Publication history
Black Kiss has become one of the most controversial North American comics of the late 1980s , due to the comic of the explicit scenes of sex and violence. [ citation needed ] The twelve-issue series was written by Howard Chaykin , author of the American Flagg! series which often hinted at the fate of sexual life which Black Kiss showed in detail. In fact, Vortex Comics [3]
To help retailers Who HAD worries over selling what Could Be Described as pornography , Vortex released the series in a sealed plastic bag. This event is likely to have a negative impact on the internal content (however, this was not done when Vortex released a series of collected editions called Big Black Kiss in 1989).
The series attracted a large amount of controversy, mostly over its sexual content, but also because of the pairing of sex and violence that Chaykin used throughout the series, and especially in the later issues. However, the series attracted praise for bringing the hard-boiled crime genre back into comics, and Chaykin himself was appreciated for his storytelling techniques.
Chaykin has described his thinking behind tackling such controversial topics:
The book was made at a time when there was a lot of thought about it, and it was a book that would be appalling and offensive … and funny [4]
Plot synopsis
The series is set in Los Angeles in the 1980s and opens with Dagmar Wool, a transsexual prostitute and lover to form 1950s movie star Beverly Grove, looking for a film reel taken from the Vatican’s collection of pornography . The reel has been felt to Father Frank Murtaugh by his brother who is a Cardinal in the Vatican . Wool sort to grab the reel from Father Murtaugh but the reel is stolen by a nun.
Wool and grove then get Cass Pollack, a jazz musician and ex-heroin addict who is on the run of the Mafia , to steal the reel in return for providing Pollack with an alibi. Pollack is one of the police, due to the Mafia killing Pollack’s wife and daughter and Pollack being the only suspect.
Wool and grove (who look a little different) provide Pollack with a lead to the future of father Murtaugh. This is Pollack first of all to an occult bookshop called “The Oath of Incannabulata” where he steals a book about the mysterious “Order of Bonniface”. After the bookshop he ends up in a funeral home called “Tanas” where he finds a number of celebrities indulging in weird rituals.
Going through Murtaugh ‘s possessions, Pollack finds an invitation to the next meeting of the “Order of Bonniface”. He expect this and Discovers the Order FORMED Was at the Beginning of Hollywood ‘s movie era and That They worship Charles ‘Bubba’ Kenton, a 1920s movie star aussi Who Was married to Beverly Grove. He discovers that Kenton forced his daughter to grow up Sophie before Kenton became a vampire . After becoming a vampire Kenton forms The Order of Bonniface and turns many of his followers into vampires, including Beverly Grove. This gives you the chance to get your hands on the wall of Kenton’s alarm clock so that he wakes up during the day and dies in the sunlight.
The Beverly Grove and Bubba Kenton in a movie that shows you that it is much better than it claims to be to the world. They hope they can turn into vampires and provide them with eternal youth.
But one of the Order, a young woman called Magda, wants to make a vampire. This is because she’s a great granddaughter, in addition to the nun who stole the reel from Father Murtaugh earlier in the story. Pollack gets caught up in the middle of the world and tries to win.
Collected editions
Vortex republished Black Kiss in 1989. In three comic books, four of the original comics per issue, entitled Big Black Kiss .
The series has-beens file Managed into trade paperback Several times format Including Thick Black Kiss from Vortex in 1993 ( ISBN 0921451067 ), a 2002 edition released by Eros Comix ( ISBN 1560973803 ), and a softcover translated in French in 2010 by Delcourt ( ISBN 2756021067 ).
A publisher Comicothek, including a three-part softcover edition in 1992 and a limited hardcover collection in the mid-1990s. A hardcover collection was published by Norma Editorial in Spanish ( ISBN 8484316912 ) in 2003 and by Dynamite Entertainment in English in 2010. [4]
The series is released as a paperback ( ISBN 9788575324646 ) and a hardcover collection ( ISBN 9788575324653 ) by Devir in Portuguese in 2011.
The series was released as a paperback ( ISBN 9788394347321 ) by Planeta Komiksów in Polish in 2016. [5]
References
- Jump up^ Black Kiss Artbomb.net
- Jump up^ Fanboyplanet.com
- Jump up^ “Ronald’s Printing Black Kiss Drops”, The Comics Journal # 126 (January 1989), p. 32.
- ^ Jump up to:a Phegley B , Kiel (March 26, 2010). “Chaykin Recalls A” Black Kiss ” ” . Comic Book Resources . Retrieved April 1, 2010 .
- Jump up^ http://www.komiks.gildia.pl/komiksy/black-kiss/1