TBE1994: Human Remains

Human Remains (1994) by Darren Raye and Sean Scoffield

This comic seems to place a lot of weight on appearing serious.

“Sophisticated”.

So we open with…

… a bunch of title pages, and now that the reader is in a properly serious state of mind…

… it’s a story (in three parts) about a guy in a strange bowler hat?

The artwork (by Scoffield) is really strong, but there’s a disconnect between what the words are saying and what we’re seeing. That sort of thing can be used to great effect, but here I’m not sure whether it’s just because the illustrator didn’t actually read what the writer had written. Like that woman — “she wears the face of obvious pain”, but she seems gleeful instead.

And here we’re seeing a thirteen year old girl? Who looks fine?

It’s odd, but there’s too few of these panels to say whether it’s purposeful (as a verfremdung thingie) or not.

Anyway, despite the portentous look of the book — it’s like it’s designed to make you roll your eyes at it — it’s pretty good? It’s got a mood going, and while what the author seems to be getting at isn’t all that interesting, it flows well.

And then you read the last page:

Where the author poo-poohs all the philistines that aren’t getting his pure geniusly genius. Most bizarre of all, he says stuff like “Human Remains is one man’s vision” — but Raye didn’t do the artwork on this. Raye doesn’t mention Scoffield at all, so I started wondering whether Scoffield just did the colours on the cover or something minor, but nope: He’s credited as the sole illustrator.

So, yeah. A bit high on his own supply, this Raye guye.

But like I said, it’s a pretty good book, so why wouldn’t he be?

This seems to be the only book Raye has writing credits for, while Scoffield seems to have a few more.

Nick Wyche writes in Overstreet’s Comic Book Marketplace/Monthly #19, page #14:

Human Remains (Black Eye)
Newcomers Darren Raye and Sean Scoffield
bring the reader three interwoven tales that
stand alone and yet make a whole tapestry at
the same time. Writer Darren Raye is able to
sculpt an engaging atmosphere in each of
these three stories that pulls the reader into
the foggy wet city the story takes place in. On
art chores Sean Scoffield renders the stories in
a style somewhat reminiscent of Dave McKean
but still stamped with Scofield’s unique style.
Yet another excellent Black Eye!

That’s the only review I’m able to find, so I guess it didn’t really make much of a splash.

This blog post is part of the Total Black Eye series.

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