Lenore: Wedgies (Color Edition) (Lenore: Cute Little Dead Girl)
With her pale face, huge eyes, skull barrettes, lack of a pulse, and propensity for senseless violence, Lenore could be the next full-fledged, merchandise-ready goth-girl icon. This compendium collects four comics, though there’s no through line anywhere. Rather, each issue is a hodgepodge of stories, poems, twisted fables, and tattoo designs. The jokes are pretty sick and swerve between genius (the taxidermied chipmunk who bemoans his missing back half until Lenore jams a pair of Barbie legs onto it) and the uncomfortably cruel (“Kittie #53” involves the relatively straightforward drowning of a cat). What keeps it afloat—for the right reader, of course—is Lenore’s obliviousness to wrongdoing. When she engages in “13 hours of gnome slaughter,” it’s only because she was overcaffeinated. It’s all a lot funnier and cuter than it sounds, which is a credit to Dirge’s ability to inject personality into his morbid mix of pale colors and black humor. Interestingly, Dirge’s occasional autobiographical intrusions (“Things Involving Me”) steal the show. --Daniel Kraus