A hugely engaging and enjoyable story about a supernatural agency that fights demons across time and space. A young woman come awake in an alley in New York wondering when and where she is, seeing a headline about a missing boy she realises why. She gets going on the job and it does not quite go the way she or the reader might have anticipated. She is then abruptly sent to a new location where the problem is significantly bigger, and the hints of the larger context and story are revealed.
Kevin Joseph is a wonderfully confident writer; he starts the story without any scene setting and proceeds to set up the story without any delay. The story is intriguing enough to pull in the reader, the reveals are vey well staged and the wide sweep of the story is a pleasure to engage with.
Ludovic Salle’s art is just astonishing, it is both beautiful to look at and a pleasure to read it also creates a superb tension with the story, overturning readers expectations in the best way.
The lead character, Tart Acid, the demon hunter is a young woman with costumes are vividly appropriate to a fashion-conscious young woman. Tart Acid looks like a young woman who has little on her mind. A classic stereotype, that Kevin Joseph neatly undermines.
Kevin Joseph avoids the superhero hack of a secret identity, Tart Acid is who she is, and she dresses the way she likes, she is forceful and capable in a party dress or a snow suit. This confident subverting continues across the four episode of the volume 1 as Tart proves to be vulnerable, resourceful, capable, and empathic. This appealing mix draws in the reader to the story and the unfolding context is a subtle and understated way, the art just captures and exploits this mix with wonderful detail.
The superpowers are constantly delivered in a most un-superheroic way, the action is delivered with stylish panache that amplified the elements of the story. The colours are powerfully expressive, they are soft and expressive, they deliver the emotional tones of the story without ever shouting.
The short story at the end of the volume is destined to be a Christmas classic, it is just a little slice of seasonal perfection.
The volume ends with an indication that there is a significant context to be revealed in future issues, not a typical cliff-hanger just an open invitation to follow and get further into this most appealing universe. Tart is a superb comic.
