GFT Retrospective #95: Lost Souls

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Ticketmaster.

Welcome to the first post to be entirely composed on my new phone, Ticketholders!

My Zenshu review, Maniac review, and Saturday's Time Drops calendar post were technically released first, but were either written before my phone was even ordered, partially written on other devices, or edited from pre-existing posts.

So, this is it.

And because this week's reviewed issue of Grimm Fairy Tales has a title (Lost Souls), I did what I do to see if there are any obscure fairy tales or other media with that title.

The most known (I'm assuming, because I keep seeing YouTube videos about movies I watched—that exist, and are not Mandela Effects—that "nobody saw," so I'm starting to call my own knowledge of film popularity into question) is probably the 2000 "stop the AntiChrist" drama with Winona Rider, Lost Souls (because apparently the Y2K scare and the year of "the number of the Beast, but upside-down" were perfect reasons to make an industry bubble's worth of "The Omen, but [insert movie genre here], and it sucks" projects like that).

But there's also 1992's Lost Souls, Poppy Z. Brite's debut novel about yaoi vampire incest where the main human character is a rapist named Steve.

On the lighter side of literature, there's last year's Lost Souls: A Faerie Tale by T.R. Sharrow. Unfortunately, Kindle Unlimited and ComiXology Unlimited are still two different subscriptions because Bezos likes money, so I don't know much about it beyond the synopsis of a smart-mouthed girl doing the opposite of what's supposed to keep her alive so that she can help a lost shadow return home in a parallel dimension.

Finally, there is a metal band called Lost Soul, an upcoming JRPG called Lost Soul Aside, the Lost Souls enemies from Undertale, and Google insisted on showing me YouTube videos of Fairy Tail Roblox gameplay for reasons that I have no interest in investigating.

So with that said, let's talk about the issue itself, which has nothing to do with the AntiChrist, vampire sex crimes, heavy metal, or random video games, but does have two women going to another Realm to save someone, only to get way in over their heads.

GFT #67: Lost Souls

Art: Paul Abrams (Hellina), Jeremy Colwell (Myths & Legends: The Little Mermaid)

I like Abrams' style. Feathery shadows without the image looking blurry, detailed texture, paper-thin outlines that look sketch-like without being rough, and dynamic posing unlike anything I can recall seeing before in a Zenescope comic. And Colwell's coloring is just as detailed, complementing Abrams' art perfectly. It's a shame this would be the penciler's only Zenescope credit, but Colwell would be back to color some Wonderland titles in the near future.

Covers: Mike DeBalfo & Cesar Rodriguez (Myths & Legends #7), Pasquale Qualano & Sanju Nivangune, Jamie Tyndall, Elias Chatzoudis

Some better covers here compared to last week's issue, and some new names join the crew. DeBalfo moves up to the A Cover of Alicia with Rodriguez on colors, making the scantily clad Queen Of Limbo look fittingly menacing. Qualano and Nivangune show with the Trade's chosen cover that they are better at drawing men and action stills than they are with female characters. Tyndall's intricate, bold style is unmistakable and he will be featured a lot more in future issues. The same goes for Chatzoudis and his retro watercolor style, though his two exclusive "Ski Girl" covers here are not featured in the Cover Gallery, so you'll have to squint and zoom to see them properly.

Moving on to the story, we're right back where we left off, with Sela and Druanna facing down Jack the Giant Killer at the Gates Of Limbo. Despite knowing who they are up against, and ignoring Sela's Willy Wonka attempts at warning them, the three remaining fodder knights in the duos company are quickly bisected at the waist with a single swing of Middle-Aged Highborn Giant Killer's sword, he no-sell's Druanna's magic, and Sela only manages to keep her arm because, conveniently, she never figured out how to remove Death's bracer.

Inside Limbo, we get a glimpse of Alicia talking to a woman who I'm guessing is Venus because Belinda’s dead and the mystery woman expresses a lack of personal experience with Sela. So, add another Bad Girl to the ranks of Alicia, the Goblin Queen, and Baba Yaga?

That's fine and cool, but then Sela wakes up and the writing goes to shit for a moment (to say nothing of the punctuation mistakes and ignorance of character voice I noticed, but that could be on the letterer, and it doesn't stand out as much as the writing itself) with Alicia saying she couldn't remove the ring Sela is wearing (not even by cutting it off, apparently) because it's a Gateway Ring and "must be given freely." Maybe this is a rule specific to Limbo (because each afterlife sub-Realm operates according to its ruler's will, remember?), but I'm still calling bullshit on this because we saw that Belinda was able to just yank it off of one of Esmeralda's tentacles during the Dream Eater Saga. The Sea Witch even protested! Maybe the logic still works because she technically wasn't wearing the ring?

Anyway, Alicia threatens to feed Druanna to a giant, red octopus/spider monster that's one of the coolest, most terrifying things I've ever seen, and Sela hands over the ring. Note also that Alicia couldn't remove Death's bracer from Sela, either (though her sword—which was given sudden focus in the previous issue—and Druanna's staff are conspicuously absent for the rest of the issue, if not the arc, for obvious but incongruous reasons). I hope that ends up being important later....

In the meantime, Sela and Druanna are thrown into a Limbo dungeon, which means it's the perfect time (I'm not sure how sarcastic I'm being here) for Druanna to teach Sela more about her powers. Last issue, Sela blew up some pillars and made a Yamcha crater by thinking about the color red; now, we learn that blue energy makes her fly...until she loses focus and crashes on her ass. I don't think these little training sessions are integrated particularly well with the story, but I like that Druanna is actually being an effective mentor (which Sela hasn't had before, to keep being brutally honest about the dead Asian horse in the room).

Before she can teach Sela how to fall with style instead of a fractured tailbone, Alicia shows up to give Sela a surprise: the last hour with Erik she may ever get! Of course, the Bad Girls are voyeuristic, so the issue ends with them watching Sela and Erik in a magic mirror. Alicia herself, the Goblin Queen, and Baba Yaga are fully visible, but the fourth is kept in shadow even though a discerning reader (especially one with shaky Future Knowledge like me) may already know who they are.

It also might be important to note that Druanna thinks Alicia never intended for the octo-spider to eat her because she wants something from her. Again, I hope this is important later because of the plots I do remember getting dropped.

This issue, as I mentioned in the Art section, is a joy to look at because of the style and all of the dynamic poses Sela gets drawn in. The energy effects look especially good in Abrams and Colwell's style, too. But as for the story, there isn't much going on, and what is going on is very "and then suddenly this happened." I do like what the story gives us (aside from the logical inconsistencies I mentioned), but it isn't strung together very well and moves along too quickly, like the issue was being padded with things that needed to happen to make other things happen, whether it makes sense or not.

We'll see if things improve in the next issue, next week, so Stay Tuned and please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read so I don't have to pawn my magic ring to escape from Limbo, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Ticketmaster,
Out.