The Voodoo Diaries—Part 1
Kelly Denato and Mike McMenemy

Cute, pink and well-designed: what could be creepier?

Continuing the visual theme of Denato and Christine Nimock's No Punch Backs cover, the Voodoo diaries sidesteps the Nanni-Nanni & Boo-Boo story in favor of a cross-promotional comic designed to give life to and advertise Denato's Voodoo dolls.

It's an interesting aproach. As someone who grew up in the eighties, I'm all too familiar with the practice of giant toy companies promoting their wares in licensed comics, cartoons, lunchboxes, etc. Very rarely were any good, and all had that stagnating stench of corporate manipulation.

Of course, no such stench has penetrated this slim vollume. This mini is as handmade and personal as the hand-stitched stuffed dolls available from Denato's site. More importantly, Voodoo Diaries is a fun little romp of a comic.

Even the bus has personality to match our unnamed girl's!

The story focusses on a young girl whose heart has been broken by a boy. She decides to get revenge on the boy by purchasing a voodoo doll and working its black macic upon him. Her actions, of course, have unexpected, and darkly humorous, consequences.

More important than the actual plot in a story like this is the execution. As I've remarked elsewhere, Denato has a wonderful flair for character design. From the multicultural cast of characters on board a subway train to the voodoo madame to the main characters, there's more personality and back story in these brief glimpses than you find in most long-form comics. I'm particularly enamoured with the voodoo madame in all her fleshy, sexy worldliness.

I love me some Voodoo lady, smooth cartooning, foreshadowing and a suprise dutch shot.

The story is wordless, putting a lot of responsibility on the storytelling. The panel transitions are flawless, the motion through panels is smooth and the pacing well-timed. The casting of the voodoo spell is particularly suspensefull and melodramatic. The greytones, which won't reproduce well in my scans add a nice sense of depth and add to the drama, light in light-hearted scenes, building in darkness as the story darkens.

This isn't quite the startling revelation that the first No Punch Backs books were, but this is a nice thematic addition, well-made and worth reading. Also, I can attest that the dolls are well-made, creepy, cute and a nice addition to any bookshelf. If Denato ever publishes the spells that can activate their tragic magic, I might even give mine a couple of sticks—even though I know I shouldn't...

—Justin J. Fox