A long time ago, little Lenore died of pneumonia. She knows this because she asked some people about it at her funeral. Post-funeral, she wandered the earth for a hundred years as a pint-sized member of the undead, befriending various oddments as she did so. Perhaps the most important member of her cavalcade of misshapen and generally freaky folks is Ragamuffin, a former vampire cursed by a diabolical witch to forever remain a cutesy, puffy doll. Towards the end of this period, and certainly without sufficient warning, Lenore fell sick and died again, this time ending up in the bowels of Heck. She sat there for almost two years and then left because Heck smelled funny. The Dark Overlord was not pleased.

An unstoppable bounty hunter named Pooty Applewater was dispatched to retrieve Lenore and restore her [once again walking] corpse to the underworld. A good plan on the part of the Dark Overlord that unfortunately failed once Pooty decided that he preferred the world above to Heck and that he really liked hanging out with Lenore. Ragamuffin was greatly displeased by this development, but the Dark Overlord was even more narked and so came up with an even more nefarious plan to thwart Lenore’s undead antics. Let the killing and gory bloody mess begin…

Lenore: Cooties is the third volume of Roman Dirge’s gloriously macabre creation and, while every bit as gory and outrageous as the earlier volumes, marks a departure from his previous episodic style to a more cohesive, comprehensive graphic novel format. This change in style means, happily, that there is more character development as well as more involved plots in this volume as compared to the previous two, which serves to make it a more satisfying reading experience. While the story is playful and the artwork undeniably cute [even more so in colour than it was in black and white], Dirge’s trademark humour and all the gross-out comedy and gore that fans have come to expect from the shorter Lenore vignettes is present and delightful. In addition to the main, Lenore-themed storyline, there are several short, anecdotal stories featuring Roman Dirge himself which are both fun and amusing and make a nice additional to Lenore: Cooties.

This particular edition of Lenore: Cooties collects issues 9 to 12 of the original comic series and is a real collector’s item; a sumptuous special colour edition hardback [the Lenore stories having originally been published in black and white], it includes a nice introduction from Neil Gaiman as well as several tattoo flashes, additional art and stories by Roman Dirge, and a Guest Art Gallery featuring work by Jhonen Vasquez (creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim) and others.

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