A very enjoyable and engaging web comic that hides a dark story underneath glorious art and astonishing colours. Ava is a young woman whose life is blighted by the presence of an unseen companion who torments her. Ava stowaways on a space craft and escapes her school and planet only to be involved in a crash landing on another planet and finds herself dying. This is when she discovers her unseen companion is not imaginary, rather it is someone with an agenda a a plan to fulfill it. Ava strikes an agreement with the entity and survives to discover that her problems have definitely increased. The story unfolds slowly and deliberately, the cast are given time to establish them selves while the context is slowly being revealed. The sharp edge to the story is quietly and very effectively revealed as the reader is drawn deeply into the story and the unfolding possibilities.
The dominant colouring is stunning, it verges on the overwhelming while being extremely disciplined and ordered. It creates the atmosphere of the story, giving it a fairy tale glow and giving the cast a elevated context to move through. It is fantastic camouflage for the cast and the story to move under. The cast have sharp edges, they are forcefully making their way through their lives and willing to act to get their own way. The colours soften them and create a great tension in the story, it allows Michelle Czajkowski to cloak the story very effectively.
The uncompressed storytelling benefits from the wealth of detail on each page, the story is unfolding at a sedate pace, there is always plenty to entice the reader and cumulatively the story possibilities emerge into a very compelling form with considerable possibilities. This is a strongly individual comic from a creator who has justified confidence in her process and the talent to back it up. Ava’s Demon casts a deeply seductive spell that a reader will be very happy to fall under.
