Based on the poem of the same name by John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci is a four-part series that drags The Beautiful Lady out of the forest and screaming into the modern world.
Writer P M Buchan has had comics serialised in Starburst Magazine and SCREAM: The Horror Magazine. He is also a columnist for Panel Nine’s INFINITY, and has written for Rue Morgue magazine online and Lionsgate’s Fright Club e-magazine. His short stories have been published in The Bleed magazine and his short horror films have screened at festivals around the UK.
Artist Karen Yumi Lusted is the creator of Final Blossom and Tommi C. and the Cat Burglar. She collaborated with P M Buchan in Non Repro’s J-Cult anthology, and Karen’s art appeared in 1000 Ideas by 100 Manga Artists. In 2008 she won the 16+ premade art prize at the Manga Shakespeare / Sweatdrop MCM Expo art competition. Karen currently lives and teaches English in Japan.
With a cover coloured by Kate Brown (Fish + Chocolate, Freakangels), pin-ups by Kate Ashwin (Widdershins) and Kate Holden (Fan Dan Go), a back-up essay about the feminism of Keats by Bad Reputation blog editor Miranda Brennan, additional lettering and design by Mike Stock (Afterlife Inc., Dead Roots) and a downloadable soundtrack composed by Brendan Ratliff (aka Syphus) this is a haunting story that you can’t afford to miss.
Speaking of the new series, P M Buchan said: “So many modern stories draw from the same well of inspiration, but I’ve always felt that the Romantics had more to say about love and loss than anybody that followed them. Nothing fascinates me so much as the femme fatale, and there is no femme fatale in the history of English literature more beloved than La Belle Dame Sans Merci.”
David Hine (The Darkness, Detective Comics, Storm Dogs) had this to say after reading an advance preview: “P M Buchan’s loose interpretation of Keats’s poem is as enigmatic and disturbing as the source material. Opening with a deceptively familiar domestic scene, Karen Yumi Lusted conspires with Buchan to subvert the reader’s expectations with a ‘cute’ manga drawing style that makes the subsequent revelations even more shocking. Like all the best horror, La Belle Dame Sans Merci compels me to keep looking no matter how much I may want to turn away. I’ll be back for the next chapter.”
2 commentsback to post
#1Weekly Reviews – 07 November 2012 (With Previews)November 5, 2012, 11:34 pm
[...] Originally Posted by Fysh Woo, Thought Bubble Anthology It's the most wonderful week of the year! And they've got Warren Ellis this time! It's like they were reading my mind. If any of you characters end up at Thought Bubble this year, save me a copy of this…. [...]
#2La Belle Dame Sans Merci, Blackout and Disconnected Press « P M BuchanNovember 9, 2012, 1:51 am
[...] Brennan AND an original soundtrack by Brendan Ratliff. You can read more details about LBDSM at the British Fantasy Society website and I’ve also been fortunate enough to have the story picked up by Forbidden Planet [...]