Comic review: Dawn: Not to Touch the Earth by Joseph Michael Linsner
Over twenty years, J.M. Linsner has developed the story of Dawn, the goddess of birth and rebirth, and her lover the Horned God (a.k.a. Death). The Horned God is currently incarnated as human Darrian Ashoka, who tends to not have a clue what the hell is going on when Dawn pops up and makes a mess of his life by doing things like setting warrior angels on his ass for obscure reasons he can never make sense of.
In Dawn: Not to Touch the Earth, Dawn sends Darrian a dream of herself as a fairy queen; from there, the story follows an old Celtic myth. As in many myths from all over the world, the hero is given a chance at bliss if he can follow one simple rule. Guess how well that goes?
It's a fun idea and an interesting myth, but Not to Touch the Earth suffers in its execution. The art surprised me. While Linsner usually produces incredible figure movement and lush paintings, NtTtE was full of lumpy faces, stiff figures, and grainy color. It's the worst visual product I've seen from him, including stuff from twenty years ago.
NtTtE also had an abrupt ending which didn't work for me, but that's a personal thing. Fairy tales often end abruptly with morals, as do dreams, so I can't fault Linsner for being true to the storytelling style he chose.
According to Linsner, he's going to put out a few more short one-shot pieces before starting on another Dawn series. I look forward to them, as this is the first thing he's ever put out that didn't do it for me.
If you're new to Linsner's work, I wouldn't recommend starting with this. If you're a fairytale fan, however, you might dig it.
*
Click here for my review of Dark Ivory another Linsner project about vampires.
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